Mercy Ships Gala Dinner at the Cannes Yachting Festival 2026
On the fringes of the Cannes Yachting Festival 2026, the international superyacht community traded shipyards and sea trials for black tie and candlelight, gathering in the Grand Salon of the Carlton Cannes Hotel for the annual Mercy Ships Yachting Day Gala. In just two years’ time, it has become a fixture of the Cannes Yachting Festival calendar. One of those rare evenings where the industry's competitive energy is redirected entirely toward a single cause: transforming lives.
Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships is a faith-based international development organization that operates hospital ships in some of the world's poorest coastal nations, delivering free, life-changing surgical care to people who would otherwise have none. Over more than four decades, the organization has built a singular model of humanitarian medicine, bringing fully equipped operating vessels to communities where access to safe surgery is often nonexistent.
The Cannes Yachting Day Gala is the yachting world's own contribution to that mission, and its origins are rooted firmly in the industry itself. The event was conceived by Bob Allen, founder of Robert Allen Law and a veteran figure in yachting legal circles, who serves as the evening's organizer. The concept traces back to Mercy Ships' successful Cargo Day Initiative, which first demonstrated how effectively the yachting community could be mobilized around a shared humanitarian goal.
Allen recognized that the tight knit, highly networked nature of the international yachting world was itself an asset capable of converting relationships and goodwill into direct, measurable impact.
This year's programme unfolded with the polish and emotional pacing of a truly world-class charity evening. Guests sat down to dinner in the Grand Salon of the emblematic Carlton hotel before a welcome address from Bob Allen and Tim Morley set the tone for the night, with the programme guided by Vivika Pascoli and Romina Bompani.
A presentation and film on the work of Mercy Ships, introduced by Bryce Wagner, grounded the evening in the reality of the organization’s mission.
The philanthropic centerpiece came with the Live Auction, led by Marcello di Marco, Senior Watch Specialist at Phillips. The energy in the room, by his own account, was extraordinary: "I was highly impressed by the involvement and generosity of the participants. The atmosphere in the room was simply electric for the entirety of the sale, with patrons shouting out bids, friendly bidding wars erupting at the same table, paddles shooting up from every corner of the room… I have hardly ever before seen such remarkable commitment at a charity sale, which is a testament to the utmost importance of the Mercy Ships’ mission."
And the closing remarks of gratitude from Carl-Gustav Svanström brought the night full circle from celebration to purpose. A reminder that every paddle raised in that ballroom translates directly into surgical care for patients who have often waited years, sometimes a lifetime, for treatment. The Mercy Ships Gala exists to prove how effectively the yachting community can rally when hope, and healing, are on the line.
Rebecca Gabbi
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