First look: the new Nimbus Sport Tender 35

A few details first, because as official Nimbus dealers we get asked early: yes, this is real, yes, it’s heading to Cannes in September 2026, and yes, the images you’re looking at are 3D renders rather than photography. Full specifications and on-water footage follow later in the year. For now, here’s what we know about the boat that sets the direction for an entirely new Nimbus range.

A new line, built on an old idea

The Nimbus Sport Tender 35 is the first model in Nimbus’s new Sport Cruiser 35 series, sitting alongside the Sport Weekender and Sport Coupé on the same hull. Where the 495 Flybridge set the tone for the Coupe Cruiser range, the Sport Tender 35 does the same job here – an early statement of where the next generation of Nimbus boats is headed.

It’s also the clearest demonstration yet of something Nimbus has done since 1968: design that starts with the people on board, not the boat itself.

Designing around the day, not the deck plan

Nimbus’s design team works backwards from a single question – what does a normal day on this boat actually look like, from loading the cooler in the morning to turning for home in the evening. Chief Designer Joacim Gustavsson puts it simply: the team starts with the day, works out where people sit and how they move, then draws the boat around it. The part nobody notices, he says, is usually the part that took the most work.

That thinking plays out across the 35. Side canopies fold away in seconds once you’re anchored. Sun beds open up fore and aft. The hull sides drop into balconies at the water’s edge. The galley sits within easy reach so nobody has to head below for a coffee. None of it is dramatic on its own – it just removes the small frictions that usually crop up over a day afloat.

Two decks that do double duty

Nimbus calls the layout “multifunctional,” which is really just a tidy way of saying the boat you cruise in on a grey morning is the same boat you swim from at lunchtime, rearranged rather than replaced.

The fore deck works as secure footing for boarding and ropework when you need it, and as two broad sun lounges – each roughly two metres – when you don’t. There’s seating for eight up here, including the gunwale seats Nimbus has been quietly perfecting for years. Drainage channels keep every cushion dry, click-fit latches keep the lockers silent underway, and the lockers themselves run forward to the bow, long enough for canopy poles or a rod. A fixed bow ladder, borrowed from the 305 Coupé, makes getting ashore straightforward.

The aft deck is where most of the day happens. A six-seat U-sofa, built into the structure rather than bolted on, has a three-part backrest that folds into a sun bed, opens into a sofa, or turns a section outward to face the water over the fold-out balconies. Storage is generous – under the sofa, forward of the engines, and in side lockers deep enough for several fenders. The galley splits in two deliberately, so people can still move through the middle of the boat with the canopy sides out, and it comes with a 65-litre fridge as standard, with an optional 70-litre fridge under the sofa for longer days out. Anglers get a live bait tank option in the port aft locker.

Room for everyone, not just the person at the wheel

It’s easy to design a boat around the helm and call it a day. Commercial and Brand Director Jonas Göthberg reckons the 35 does something harder – it’s built so anyone aboard can move from bow to stern without climbing over gear or asking someone to shift, and so the helm itself isn’t reserved for one person in the group.

Below deck, there’s space for two cabins sleeping five: a full-length double forward, two full-length berths in the mid-cabin, and a sofa that takes a child. The head has a separate shower, toilet and washbasin – enough to take a crew of five away for a few nights, not just an afternoon.

CEO Johan Inden has called the 35 something genuinely new for the market – a Sport Cruiser with a Coupé’s comfort – built on the DNA that’s run through Nimbus since 1968.

Less, but felt everywhere

The 35 leans on restraint rather than excess, which is harder to design than it sounds. A single laminate structure runs from behind the helm seat to the roof, with the windscreen built directly into it for added stiffness. The T-top is standard, its pillars shaped so a handle sits exactly where a hand reaches for one, and its acrylic sunroof keeps the cockpit bright without the glare of an open top. Lighting is considered throughout – ambient and courtesy lighting as standard, step lights, downlights over the galley, and lights below the waterline including under the balconies. Ventilation is built in and out of sight, much as it is on the 42 series. Even the helm controls are kept minimal, with wiper paddles on the wheel and a choice of twin 12-inch displays or a single 16-inch screen.

The hull doing the quiet work

Longtime Nimbus owners will recognise the sheer line straight away – the long curve along the top of the hull that gives the 35 more volume and height than the low-boat trend of recent years allowed. Underneath, it rides on a twin-stepped, air-lubricated hull, vacuum-infused around a Divinycell core for a structure that’s light and stiff at once. Nimbus introduced the step hull on the Nova R back in 2000, among the first production builders to do so, and has refined it across the Nova, R and T ranges for twenty-six years since. The 35 takes it a step further, with a sharper bow and a deeper V aft, for a ride that stays composed when conditions turn and settled the rest of the time.

Göthberg, who’s been with Nimbus a long time, says the new exterior genuinely struck him – the volume and height in the hull sides nod to the brand’s history, and the mid-cabin alone opens the boat up to a much wider range of buyers.

Power on the water

The 35 is offered with Mercury outboards – a single V10 or twin V8 – propped for strong acceleration across the speed range. Expect a comfortable cruise between 30 and 36 knots, with a top speed over 40 – around 45 with the twin V8 setup. Verified figures will follow once Mercury has signed off on sea trials.

Key specifications

All figures are preliminary, based on Nimbus’s own ISO 8666 data, and subject to change ahead of launch.

Seeing it in person

The Sport Tender 35 has its world premiere at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2026, with full photography, confirmed pricing and an on-water film to follow. As an official Nimbus dealer, Morgan Marine will have the detail as soon as it’s released – if you’d like to be among the first to know, or want to talk through where the Sport Tender 35 might fit against the rest of the Nimbus range, get in contact with our team.