The Grand Prix, from the water.

The Monaco Grand Prix is the one weekend of the year when the Principality is easier to reach by sea than by road. The Boulevard Albert I is the pit straight, the harbour front is the track, and the coast road from Nice is closed or crawling from Thursday to Sunday. From the water none of that matters. You board in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, twenty-five minutes west, and arrive off the harbour wall with the engines already running.

Where a boat can go on race weekend

Port Hercule itself is closed to visiting boats for the Grand Prix; the berths inside are taken months ahead by the yachts that anchor the paddock-side parties. The water outside the harbour wall is open, and it is from there, anchored or holding station off the breakwater, that a day boat watches. You are looking straight up the harbour at the swimming-pool section and the chicane, with the Rock above and the sound of the cars coming off the buildings.

The same is true of the Historic Grand Prix a fortnight earlier and of the Monaco Yacht Show in late September: the harbour closes, the sea does not.

How a Grand Prix day is shaped

Board at Beaulieu mid-morning, a swim off Cap Ferrat while the support races run, then east along the cliffs to be off Monaco for the afternoon session. Lunch is laid on the aft deck at anchor, because nobody wants to leave. When the chequered flag falls the coast road is at its worst and the run back to Beaulieu is twenty-five minutes of gold light with the whole coast to yourselves.

Saturday, qualifying, is the quieter day on the water and the one regulars choose; Sunday is the race.

What a Monaco Grand Prix yacht charter costs

The boat is from €1,400 a day, plus the captain at €350 and fuel at cost for the route. Grand Prix weekend is priced from the same table as any other day, which is rare on this coast; what changes is availability. The fleet is three boats and the weekend goes months ahead, so a Grand Prix day is booked in the winter, not the spring.

Watching from a day boat versus a superyacht

The superyachts inside the harbour are on the track, and a place aboard one on race day is the most expensive seat in motor racing. A day boat outside the wall is not that, and does not pretend to be. What it is: your own boat, your own party, a swim between sessions, and the race heard and seen from the water for the price of a good restaurant table each. For most people it is the better day.