Grand Soleil Debuts the Plus 80 at Cannes, Built Around a Telescoping Keel and a Torqeedo Hybrid Platform

Grand Soleil has unveiled the Plus 80, the new flagship of its Plus line for yachts above 60 feet, at the Cannes Yachting Festival, running September 8 to 13. The first hull, Bianca II, measures 26.20 meters with a 6.60 meter beam, built entirely in house by Cantiere del Pardo with naval architecture from Matteo Polli and exterior, interior and general arrangement from Nauta. It is one of three world premieres the group is bringing to Cannes this week, alongside the Pardo GT65 and the Grand Soleil 60.

The detail that separates the Plus 80 from a straightforward size increase is the keel. Bianca II pairs twin rudders with a telescopic keel that varies draft from 2.90 to 4.40 meters, letting the yacht run deep for stability offshore and shallow enough to reach anchorages a fixed keel 80 footer could never enter. A single rudder version is also available, with fixed keels ranging from 2.40 meters to deeper options. For a line built explicitly for long range ocean sailing, that range of draft is as much a cruising ground decision as it is an engineering one.

The same instinct toward integration runs through the yacht's systems. Winches, mast controls, the telescopic keel and sail plan adjustments all run off a single centralized hydraulic circuit, removing a web of dedicated electric motors and simplifying the deck. Power comes from a hybrid platform developed with Torqeedo: two 40 kWh battery packs, 80 kWh combined, cover propulsion and hotel loads through converters and inverters, backed by two 45 kW generators for long range charging and a buffer pack that keeps essential systems running regardless of what the main batteries are doing. It reads like a sailing yacht engineered with the electrical architecture of a much larger motor yacht.

Bianca II, built for the owner in front of her

Below deck, Bianca II runs four guest cabins and two crew cabins, with an alternative three guest cabin layout also available. The forward master cabin gets a forward facing walk-around bed and an en-suite bathroom set forward of the cabin, while guest cabins convert between doubles and twin singles, with Pullman berths available to add sleeping capacity. Crew access runs separately from the saloon and owner spaces, through a dedicated route to the aft galley, chart table and crew cabins.

Bianca II skips the tender garage entirely, freeing that volume for owner specified technical space, a freezer or a washing machine in this case, and finishes the saloon in warm oak with textile covered bulkheads instead of paneling. Materials, colors and finishes are otherwise left to the owner, which is less a marketing line than a description of how the Plus line is actually built: every structural element is engineered around the final layout rather than the other way around, down to bulkheads with carbon piping built in for cable routing.

Cannes, and the rest of Cantiere del Pardo's week

The Plus 80 is the largest of three world premieres Cantiere del Pardo is bringing to Cannes this year, alongside the Pardo GT65 and the Grand Soleil 60, part of a broader push the group is framing around industrial investment and a renewed partnership with Luna Rossa ahead of the 2027 America's Cup. Against that backdrop, the Plus 80 is doing specific work: it is the proof case for a Plus line the yard says has delivered 15 yachts to owners in eight countries since the first 72 footer launched in 2023, and the point at which that line crosses into genuine superyacht territory.

Whether the telescoping keel and the Torqeedo platform become standard thinking across the rest of the range, or stay specific to yachts built at this size, is likely to become clearer as the second Plus 80 hull, a flush deck configuration already under construction, gets finished in the coming months.