SPIRIT NEWS Winter/Spring 2008
21st April 2008, Spirit Yachts win The Queen's Award for Enterprise
Spirit Yachts designers and builders of exquisite modern classic yachts receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its outstanding export performance and the creation of local jobs
'Spirit Yachts Ltd designs, constructs and sells hand crafted high quality high tech wood/composite sailing and power yachts from 40 to 130ft. It started trading in 1993 and is winning the Award for the first time for its outstanding performance in increasing its export sales seven fold over three years, to nearly £3.7 million per annum, and selling over 70% of its production overseas. All these yachts are built in house and are marketed vigorously particularly by including placement of the yachts in high profile locations eg a Spirit 54 is James Bonds' personal yacht in "Casino Royale". This approach has resulted in the creation of 18 additional jobs, and has been complimented by the company's thoughtful approach to the environment and the sustainable development of hardwood forests.’
Spirit Yacht Designer and Director Sean McMillan said Great Britain still excelled in many industries and modern yacht building was one of them… “Spirit Yachts is extremely proud to receive this award from the Queen, a fantastic recognition for a World leading yacht design and build team – one that is at the forefront of the new generation of wooden yacht manufacturing”.
Spirit Yachts début the P100 Project at the Dubai Boat Show 2008, 100ft of exquisitely hand crafted mahogany with a speed potential of 50knots!
Spirit Yachts are proud to launch the new Spirit powerboat ‘P100 Project’, one hundred feet of exquisitely hand crafted yacht, at this years Dubai Boat Show 11-15 March. For many years Spirit Yachts has been at the vanguard of creating a whole new concept in sailing yacht design and is now amongst the world leaders in the design and build of 'modern Classics'. These are a subtle blending of timeless good-looks with the very best of modern technology and cutting edge design.
The Spirit P100 is one of the lightest displacement Superyachts available today. 4600 horsepower driving less than 50 tonnes allows relaxed and economical cruising at around 35 knots with a maximum speed potential approaching 50 knots.
>> More on the Spirit P100 POWER Superyacht
SPIRIT NEWS Summer 2007
NEW!! Spirit Yachts is proud to introduce the Spirit 100, a superyacht of supreme elegance and performance. Designed and built in-house to the highest quality, she represents state of the art technology allied with uncompromising beauty and style, bringing outstanding sailing performance.
...there has been no superyacht quite like this before.
Official Launch Southampton Boat Show UK
14-23 September 2007 | Berth 74 Outer Pontoon
>> More on the Spirit 100
SPIRIT NEWS Winter 2006/7
Spirit 100 Update
The most exciting yacht to be launched in 2007 will be the Spirit 100; this is proving to be a breathtaking build with the arrival of the Spirit 100 Tender (1st photos shown below).
The 100' is progressing well but with such a large complex project much of the progress is behind the scenes. The 316 Stainless steel primary structure is gradualy disappearing behind the carcassing and with liquid/ power management and delivery systems having to be installed at the same time the Engineering Dept has been very busy indeed. The sub deck is nearly down, the deck hatches are fitted and with the shear line now faired down to its final gracefull sweep the true lines of this exceptional yacht are becoming evident.
Work is also well underway on the P40 tender. The first structural carcassing is going into the bare hull and again the complex nature of this support boat means that the systems are even more complicated than on the 100 ! Conduits, wiring runs,battery boxes, generator beds, pipe runs and all the domestic ' white goods' bracketry are starting to make the inside of the boat look like a tidy version of Grannies knitting box!
>> More on the Spirit 100
NEW Spirit 76
In 200, Spirit Yachts exhibited the Spirit 70 'GHOST' at the Southampton Boat Show and some of you will remember that she caused a bit of a stir, despite the weather being some of the worst that Southampton has had to offer. One of the delightful things about Boat Shows is that you never know who you're going to meet or what interesting projects will come out of the exhibition.
The 2004 show produced sveral excellent projects including the first Spirit 56, now launched. A more 'slow-burn' project has been the development of the new Spirit 76. Conceived as a direct development of the Spirit 70, the brief for the 76 is for a similar layout, but with more space for living aboard - plus space for the two crew and room for all the equipment and kit that goes with long distance cruising.
Despite the long term live aboard element, the yacht will also be enthusiastically campaigned in the best of the Classic Regattas. As the owner is a highly experienced racing yachtsman currently in the top echelon of one of the best known sports boats on the international circuit, we expect great things.
>> More on the Spirit 76
Caribbean Adventures - from Reprobate 'Spirit 46' (and a good thing to do with Rum!)
Proving that a 46 foot Spirit is rather more than a glorious day boat (which we have always known), Dan Heald left behind a glowing performance in Reprobate at Antigua Classics last year to spend four months exploring the Caribbean. He sent us a delightful report and we give here some edited highlights.
>> Read the full story
Cowes 2007 The British Classic Yacht Club
A welcome to all Spirit Yachts Regatta participants
from Tim Blackman, Commodore, BCYC.
The British Classic Yacht Club Regatta, held annually in Cowes, has rapidly become one of the highlights of the Cowes Racing Calendar, which is packed with international yachting events right through the season. The event is usually held the week preceding Cowes week and has been enthusiastically embraced by the yachting fraternity and the historic Cowes Yacht Clubs alike.
>> Read the full story
Spirit
News Autumn 2006
007 Deploys the Spirit 54, his yacht of choice in the next Bond Movie Casino Royale
Casino Royale © 2006 Danjaq, LLC, United Artists Corporation, Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. All Rights Reserved.
One of the things I really enjoy about this job is its unpredictability. Whenever the phone rings you never know who is on the other end and a Monday morning in January produced one of the more unusual calls...
‘Hello, my name is Richard Carless and I’d like to borrow one of your yachts.’
‘Really? We prefer to sell them rather than lend them out but do go on.....’
‘I am sorry. Let me explain. I work for the production company that is shooting the new James Bond film ‘Casino Royale’ and we would like to borrow one of your beautiful yachts to feature in the movie.’
‘That sounds fine but, and some of our owners are a bit funny about this, if you want to blow it up then I am afraid you’ll have to buy it!’
‘No, nothing like that. We just need it for a few days in Nassau in the Bahamas at the beginning of March and then for a few days in Venice at the beginning of June.’
Ah, nothing too complicated then.
Mick Newman
>> Read
the full story
Spirit
News Summer 2005 / ANTIGUA
Antigua
2005
Two
Spirit 46's were built over the winter of 2004-05 and were both entered
by their owners in the Antigua Classics regatta. This regatta starts
in mid April and so on a snowy, cold March morning they were loaded
onto two lorries- destination Portsmouth, there to be loaded onto a
Geest banana boat and then across the Atlantic to Deep Water Harbour,
Antigua for launching into the warm Carribean Sea.
For
46/05-'Ski4'- these were to be her home waters as her owner has a villa
in Jolly Harbour complete with its own dock! For 46/04 'Reprobate'
it was to be a case of taking a slight (slight??) detour from her eventual
destination of Vancouver Island, Canada.
>> Read
the full story
Spirit
News Spring 2005
NEW SPIRIT
D130
Article
reproduced from Boat International
Issue February 2005 / by Phil Draper
British
yacht builder Spirit Yachts has been commisioned to design a 40m classically
styled superyacht, with a single mast and lines similar to the Spirit
72 - the first of which was completed speculatively in 2003. No order
for the Spirit 130 has yet been placed, but directors Michael Newman
and Sean McMillan remain optimistic that the project will get the go-ahead.
As the provisional design stands, this 105-tonne beauty will sleep
up to six guests in three cabins, and a crew of eight.
>> Read
the full story
Spirit
News Summer 2004
46’ no.3 went to Greece in early
May and is now sailing the Aegean, quite a contrast in water colour
to no.2 which is based in Levington on the East coast of the UK! No.4
is going to Vancouver in Canada and no.5 is destined for Antigua. ….
so though we are not quite at the match racing stage yet this beautiful
yacht continues to be very popular and during the recent Classic regatta
at Suffolk Yacht Harbour No.2, ‘Dido’ was joined by her
sister ship No.1,‘Moya’.
>> Read the full story
Spirit
News Summer 2003
The
summer of 2003 was very busy indeed. ‘Moya’, the first
of the Mk2 Spirit 46’s was launched in early June and we spent
some very pleasant days commissioning her on the River Orwell. She
proved to be every bit as fast and responsive as we had hoped and,
as with all her sister ships of whatever size, turned heads where ever
she went.
>> Read
the full story
Spirit
News Spring 2003
After
a very busy winter the first Spirit 46' mk2, 'Moya', was launched at
Levington Marina at the end of April and very beautiful she looked
! (see 46' Gallery)
>> Read
the full story
Spirit
News Summer 2002
2002
started spectacularly for us with the roll over of the 70' hull. A
good, if slightly nerve wracking, start to the year!
>> Read
the full story
Spirit
News Winter 2001
It
has been a busy, interesting and enjoyable year for Spirit Yachts.
In
the early spring we launched our first UK based 37’, ‘Strega’ (Yard
No.23), built for an experienced ‘big’ yacht owner to race and day
sail out of Lymington. Matt Sheahan reviewed this yacht in the July
2001 edition of Yachting World and its classic beauty combined
with state of the art carbon mast by Formula Spars and Kevlar
fusion sails by Quantum coupled with a new fin and bulb keel
and a few more ’tweaky bits’ impressed him as much as it seems to impress
every one else who sees her.
>> Read
the full story
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