World's First Virtual Yacht Launch

Saxdor 460 GTC: World’s first virtual yacht launch in Cannes Yachting Festival

April 1, 2026

4 min read

The yachting industry technology leader invests in Younite Virtual Showroom to shorten sales cycle and enable boat showcases anywhere.

In September 2025, Saxdor Yachts, Europe’s fastest growing boat brand, launched their 460 GTC boat digitally at the Cannes Yachting Festival. What the French Riviera audience witnessed as the Saxdor CEO Erna Rusi digitally unveiled their new masterpiece, marks a shift in boating. From now on, yachts can be explored and bought even when the physical boat is still being constructed.

What made the digital launch possible is a Younite Virtual Showroom, an immersive platform for empowering sales teams and dealerships.

Clients wants to experience the boat prior to purchasing, Virtual Showroom enables them to do so.

– Erna Rusi, CEO, Saxdor Yachts

“We have 150 locations on five continents through our dealer network. It is unrealistic to expect that you could have a demo boat of each model in each location. So when the client wants to experience the boat prior to purchasing, Virtual Showroom enables them to do so”, Erna Rusi explains.

What has taken the Saxdor management by surprise is the enthusiasm of the dealers to use Virtual Showroom. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the dealers are already asking for new features. This proves that we have succeeded. This marks a big shift in the industry”, says Ludvig Liljequist, Digital Lead at Saxdor.

Erna Rusi continues, “Many dealers are keen to find ways to meet customers where they are, in shopping malls or events. Now it's made possible with our Digital Showroom tool. For a company like Saxdor that constantly brings out new models, this tool is really opening up new opportunities.”

From inspiration to exploration and all the way to ownership

Digital-twin configurators are nothing new in sectors like automotive, boating, or premium products. What makes Younite Virtual Showroom stand out is the level of accuracy, depth, and experience behind it. Chief Product Officer Lauri Soini highlights five aspects that set it apart:

1. Photorealistic 3D

Our “secret sauce” combines long-standing expertise in photorealistic 3D with the newest AI tools. This allows life-like exploration down to the smallest detail. For example, testing how a boat looks under different lighting conditions, a crucial factor for premium brands like Saxdor.

2. From cloud to a pad in high resolution

High-end visuals don’t require high-end hardware. An iPad is enough. Thanks to NVIDIA-powered cloud computing, the showroom runs seamlessly, making the experience accessible anywhere, anytime.

3. Living data throughout the sales cycle

Built on a cloud backbone, the configuration is not just a one-off tool. It follows the customer journey from first exploration with the dealer to the moment of purchase and beyond. Thanks to integration with Saxdor AI, an AI-assisted “co-skipper”, owners can continue to interact with the digital twin of their boat, supporting upgrades, add-ons, and after-sales services.

4. Data security by design

Unlike traditional web-based configurators that risk exposing valuable IP, our cloud-based approach keeps models safe and protected. Brand assets remain secure while still enabling a rich, interactive customer experience.

5. Stronger Brand Management

The platform balances two worlds: it empowers dealerships in their sales process while giving the brand itself better control over presentation and consistency. This ensures that every digital interaction strengthens brand value.

Charting course to digital leadership

Marketing and sales are natural starting points for digital twin usage. But at Saxdor, the photorealistic virtual boats are making their way to R&D and design too.

Digital Twin is also a phenomenal tool in product development, because it allows us to test how things look in their right element, on the water, in daylight.

– Ludvig Liljequist. Digital Lead at Saxdor.

“What has been great to see is that the whole product organization, all the way from planning and design, has grown into loving this. Even some of the people who first were suspicious about replacing physical assets with digital ones,” adds Lauri Soini.

For Saxdor this is only the beginning. In partnership with Younite, they want to go deeper.
“We are building a commissioning, handover, and lifetime ownership model tailored to each customer’s digital twin”, Lauri Soini tells.

Saxdor is also planning flagship virtual showrooms and extending the experience to other touchpoints such as VR headsets. From the virtual launch at Cannes to the creation of a full digital ecosystem, Saxdor is charting its course toward becoming the yachting industry’s true technology leader.