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Spirit Yachts in new ownership as founder Sean McMillan steps back

As the company marks its 30th anniversary this year, it now becomes majority-owned by a group of Spirit yacht owners, who have committed significant capital to strengthen future business growth.

The company continues to be run by its existing Managing Director Karen Underwood, who is supported by strong design, production, and sales teams.

Karen will be assisted by a newly appointed Production & Design Director and Spirit Yachts’ Marketing Director, Helen Porter, who has raised the profile of the company for the past eight years.

Sean McMillan will continue to be closely involved in the design of Spirit’s custom yachts working alongside Spirit’s award-winning designer Tom Smith, and the company’s in-house team of designers and naval architects,

Karen Underwood, Spirit Yachts’ Managing Director, commented, “Since Spirit Yachts was founded 30 years ago, Sean has instilled his creativity and vision into the DNA of the business.

“From humble beginnings in the Suffolk countryside to multiple award wins, yachts in two Bond films, and over 80 bespoke yachts located worldwide, Spirit Yachts is a unique success story that continues to push the boundaries.”

Karen continued, “Today, the challenges are greater with supply chain hurdles, staff shortages, and the need to remain agile in the face of global events, but our commitment to quality, beauty, and lowering the carbon footprint of our yachts remains at the heart of Spirit Yachts.

“With a full yard, a strong sales pipeline, and secure investment, the team and I are well-equipped to deliver a prosperous future.”

Spirit Yachts was founded by McMillan and Mick Newman in 1993. The pair set out to offer yacht owners a beautiful, unique, and sustainably sourced alternative to fibreglass production boats. Today the company is the leading Spirit of Tradition builder and has also led the marine industry on sustainable boat-building, winning numerous awards.

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Spirit Yachts announces new ownership structure and management change

Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

Written by: Marine Industry News

Yacht design and build company Spirit Yachts has announced a new management and ownership structure. Following its original founder Sean McMillan taking a step back from his CEO role to become a consultant designer and brand ambassador, Spirit Yachts is now majority-owned by a group of Spirit yacht owners, who have committed significant capital to strengthen future business growth.

The company continues to be run by its existing managing director Karen Underwood , who is supported by strong design, production, and sales teams. Underwood will be assisted by a newly appointed production & design director and Spirit Yachts ’ marketing director, Helen Porter, who has raised the profile of the company for the past eight years.

Sean McMillan [pictured far left, with Karen Underwood and Mike Taylor] will continue to be closely involved in the design of Spirit’s custom yachts working alongside Spirit’s award-winning designer Tom Smith, and the company’s in-house team of designers and naval architects.

Underwood says: “Since Spirit Yachts was founded 30 years ago, Sean has instilled his creativity and vision into the DNA of the business. From humble beginnings in the Suffolk countryside to multiple award wins, yachts in two Bond films, and over 80 bespoke yachts located worldwide, Spirit Yachts is a unique success story that continues to push the boundaries.

“Today, the challenges are greater with supply chain hurdles, staff shortages, and the need to remain agile in the face of global events, but our commitment to quality, beauty, and lowering the carbon footprint of our yachts remains at the heart of Spirit Yachts. With a full yard, a strong sales pipeline, and secure investment, the team and I are well-equipped to deliver a prosperous future.”

In 1993, Suffolk-based Spirit Yachts was founded by Sean McMillan and Mick Newman, who set out to offer yacht owners a beautiful, unique, and sustainably sourced alternative to fibreglass production boats. This goal remains at the core of the company’s ethos today.

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Spirit Yachts : Owners commit to the future of the shipyard

The British shipyard Spirit Yachts is taken over by a pool of owners of these exceptional yachts. An investment that allows the shipyard to project itself into the future, with the gradual withdrawal of the founder.

Owners at the helm of Spirit Yachts

Spirit Yachts, the British shipyard specializing in high-end sailing yachts, announced on February 27 a change in its management and capital structure. 30 years after Sean McMillan created the shipyard in 1993, the founder has decided to gradually step back, leaving his role as CEO and becoming a designer consultant and brand ambassador. He also sold a part of his shares. The majority in the capital is now held by a group of Spirit Yachts owners, passionate about the brand.

The transition was recently anticipated with the arrival of Karen Underwood as Chief Operating Officer, assisted by a new Production Manager and Helen Porter as Head of Marketing.

Ensure the future development of the brand

With the arrival of these new investors, Spirit Yachts hopes to continue its growth trajectory, while maintaining its DNA of exceptional boats, as explained by its director Kern Underwood. "Today, the challenges are greater, with a complex supply chain, lack of manpower, and the need to remain nimble in the face of global events, but our commitment to beauty, quality, and lowering the carbon impact of our boats remains at the heart of Spirit Yachts. With a full yard, a strong order book, and secure investments, the team and I are well equipped for a prosperous future."

Spirit Yachts reveals new owners and management team

GAIA, Sail n: , Nationality: SWE, Length: ”30,62”, Class: B, Designer: Spirit Yachts, Builder: Spirit Yachts Day 1

Sailing superyacht builder, Spirit Yachts has revealed a new ownership structure and management team.  Company co-founder, Sean McMillan, has stepped down as CEO with a group of Spirit Yacht owners taking majority ownership of the UK-based shipyard.

McMillan will continue at the firm with the role of consultant designer and brand ambassador. The company will continue to be run by its MD, Karen Underwood. She will be assisted by a newly-appointed production and design director and Spirit Yachts’ marketing director, Helen Porter.

“Sean has instilled his creativity and vision into the DNA of the business,” said Underwood. “ From humble beginnings in the Suffolk countryside to multiple award wins, yachts in two Bond films and over 80 bespoke yachts located worldwide, Spirit Yachts is a unique success story that continues to push the boundaries .”

The Suffolk-based shipyard was founded in 1993 by McMillan and Mick Newman, who originally set out to offer yacht owners a “ sustainably-sourced alternative” to fibreglass production boats.  The firm said that this remains at the core of the company’s ethos today.

McMillan will now continue to be closely involved in the design of Spirit Yacht’s custom yachts alongside designer Tom Smith. According to the firm, the new owners have committed significant capital to strengthen future business growth.

Spirit Yachts is known for building sailing superyachts up to 30.5m (100ft). A 2007 Spirit 100 yacht (pictured) is currently on sale with McMaster yachts for a cool €2.95m.

Underwood noted that the challenges of supply chain hurdles, staff shortages and the need to remain agile in the face of global events are greater than they have ever been. “But our commitment to quality, beauty and lowering the carbon footprint of our yachts remains at the heart of Spirit Yachts,” she said.

“With a full yard, a strong sales pipeline, and secure investment, the team and I are well-equipped to deliver a prosperous future.”

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Professional BoatBuilder Magazine

The esprit of spirit yachts.

By Nic Compton , Sep 29, 2023

The sleek 52′ (15.85m) Flight of Ufford, launched in 2007, was campaigned hard and successfully by Spirit Yachts cofounder Sean McMillan. The traditionally styled wood/epoxy sloop has become the yard’s most popular model to date.

T he James Bond movie franchise has never shied from any chance to include a yacht in the narrative and as part of the set. And given the urgent nature of the glamorous secret agent’s business, these have tended to be fast powerboats, starting with the Fairey Huntresses and Huntsmen in  From  Russia With Love  (1963) through to the Glastron GT150 speedboat, which performed a spectacular 120 ‘  (36.6m) leap in  Live and Let Die  (1973), and a clutch of Sunseekers in subsequent films. In 2006, while filming  Casino  Royale , the filmmakers decided to do something a bit different. Alongside their usual high-velocity petrol-fueled fare, they featured a sailing yacht: a 54 ‘  (54 ‘  9 “ /16.7m) sloop with a long counter stern and seemingly acres of flawless varnish, which James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) sailed into Venice during a romantic interlude in the film.

Cast in the enviable role was the Spirit 54 designed and built by British boatbuilders Spirit Yachts, located in Ipswich, Suffolk, on the east coast of England. And if that wasn’t enough notoriety for the somewhat obscure custom builder, the producers repeated the trick in the 2021  No Time to Die , this time using a Spirit 46 (46 ‘  6 “ / 14.15m) sailing yacht for James Bond to sail around Jamaica during his “retirement” scenes.

The 54′ (16.7m) Soufrière was built for the 2006 James Bond franchise movie Casino Royale. Her brief appearance in the film making her way up the Grand Canal in Venice added the cachet of an international luxury brand to Spirit’s already sterling reputation as a yacht builder.

The pairing was in many ways a marriage made in heaven. Just as James Bond has come to symbolize the aspirational best of British wit, style, and appetite for adventure, Spirit Yachts offers the best in bespoke sailboats, combining high-performance modern hulls with a classic aesthetic and a price on par with Bond’s generous expense account. The formula has inspired a devoted following and led to a unique line of yachts, steadily increasing in size over the years, from the original 37-footer (11.5m) built in 1993 to its biggest creation so far, the 111 ‘  (33.8m)  Geist , launched in 2020.

Spirit Yachts is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023, so it seemed the perfect time to visit its expanded boatyard facility in Ipswich, where Spirit has become an increasingly important part of the regeneration of the disused docks and looks set to play an even bigger role as plans for a company-centered boatbuilding university take shape. The year started with the announcement of a major management reshuffle. Founder and chief designer Sean McMillan (now 72) is in effect taking semiretirement, handing ownership to a consortium of Spirit yacht owners and the day-to-day running of the company to Management Director Karen Underwood and the office’s newest recruit, Production & Design Director Julian Weatherill.

McMillan at the drafting table.

Yet the first person I see when I walk through the office door is McMillan, looking as suave and relaxed as James Bond himself, and bearing a roll of drawings for his latest design. No surprises there. Spirit Yachts has always been inextricably linked with this former-art-student-turned-boat-bum-turned-boatbuilder-turned-company-director. It turns out that he’s staying on as a consultant for the next three years, before fully retiring from the scene. Though it seems to me unlikely that will ever really happen.

“Sean is hanging on to the bits he likes [the designing] and letting go of the bits he doesn’t like [running a busy boatyard],” says Underwood, with a cheerful chuckle. She has worked in the marine industry for the past 25 years (including 15 years at Oyster Marine), and you get the feeling the company is in very safe hands.

She and McMillan are meeting a client at 11 a.m., so after a lengthy chat, newly promoted Marketing Director Helen Porter shows me around the yard. “We’ve had both sheds full of new builds for the past three years, catching up with pent-up demand after COVID,” she says. “We’ve had three 72s, one 68, one 52, and two 30s. We’ve now finally got space to take on some refurbishment projects, one for a couple who has been waiting a couple of years. The 52 in-build over there is Spirit hull number 80—or Sean’s 100th boat, if you include the ones he built before Spirit Yachts.”

A Spirit 72 in the busy yard in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, last June. At the time, the 30-year-old company was building its 80th hull.

It’s all a long way from the cottage in Saxmundham, about 18 miles (29 km) north of Ipswich, where I visited McMillan and his then-business-partner, Mick Newman, in 1994. They had just built their first boat, the Spirit 37, in a disused cowshed at the back of Newman’s house, and I had come to interview them and take photos of the boat for what would turn out to be the first-ever test sail of a Spirit yacht. Not that any of us had the slightest inkling of what was to come.

It all seemed to be a bit of a laugh. Sean had already had his fingers badly burned when his company, McMillan Yachts, had gone bust in the global financial crisis a few years earlier. Those boats were strip-planked gaffers, usually with modern underwater hull shapes and fancy joinery that fairly shouted out, “I am a wooden boat!”

“I was already playing with the visual joke about having a traditional-looking boat which is very modern below the waterline,” McMillan says. Not everyone got the joke, however, and after building a dozen boats, the company ground to a halt.

Back in ’94, he had joined forces with Newman—a former barge sailor—to create something completely different. The original Spirit 37 was inspired by the skerry cruisers of the Baltic, with their improbably tall rigs designed to catch the wind blowing over the tops of the flat islands, and their long, narrow hulls for optimum speed rather than comfort. But the new partners wanted to push the type to its limit by building the boat in super-lightweight materials and with a modern underwater shape—that McMillan joke again.

The first Spirit 37 (11.5m) was built in 1994, inspired by the tall-rigged skerry cruisers but with a modern hullform. She sailed beautifully and spurred multiple orders for boats of the same type and form.

The Beginning of Spirit Yachts

The first Spirit 37 was by any standards an extraordinary boat. With her long overhangs and narrow 7 ‘  (2.1m) beam, she looked superficially like a classic yacht from the 1920s, but underwater her bulb keel and skeg rudder told a more contemporary story. A judicious use of modern materials—including a strip-planked hull sheathed with fiberglass set in WEST System epoxy—meant the boat turned out exceptionally light: just 2 tons (4,000 lbs/1,814 kg), with an impressive 60% ballast/displacement ratio. It had a retro-looking fractional rig with knocked-back mast (curved aft at the top) combined with a modern-looking T-section boom and full-battened mainsail. The double cockpit and modern deck fittings suggested she was a serious racing boat, while the black walnut trim set it all off to dramatic aesthetic effect. Below decks, the boat had only sitting headroom, despite her 37 ‘  length, and the fit-out was stylish but spartan.

The Spirit company logo, a distiller’s retort flask, is set in the deck of the Spirit 52 Oui Fling

The pair named the boat the Spirit 37, not from any spiritual conviction but due to the volume of spirits consumed during her construction—hence the distiller’s retort flask in the logo. They had considered calling her the Hashish 37, but wisely decided against that in the end.

On the water, the boat proved nothing short of spectacular, clocking 11.7 knots on that first trial (a record she would take many years to break) and as light and responsive on the helm as an overgrown dinghy. She was every bit the fun boat McMillan and Newman had intended, but at that time she was a complete anomaly. The Spirit of Tradition class had yet to be created, and there were only a handful of identifiable “modern classics” in existence—mostly big cruising boats from the boards of Bruce King and André Hoek.

“[Back then] we were whistling in the dark,” McMillan later told me. “We had no idea whether there was a ‘retro’ movement or not. We just built the boat we wanted, which was fun and of a size we could relate to. Luckily, it struck a chord.”

The Spirit 46 Reprobate reveals the modern bulb keel and spade rudder that contribute to her remarkable turn of speed as she sails hard on the wind.

The Spirit 37 was one of the standout boats at the Düsseldorf boat show in January 1995 and was quickly snapped up by a German buyer, who sailed her for the next 25 years. The company also received two orders for 33 ‘  (10.1m) versions of the boat that would satisfy size restrictions on European lakes. Since then, Spirit Yachts hasn’t looked back.

The 37 was followed in 1996 by the 46 (14m), complete with carbon fiber mast, teak decks, and a serious turn of speed, reaching 18 knots on plane (though, according to my notes, McMillan claims he once got 26 knots out of a 46). Ten 37s were eventually built, as well as a dozen 46s. McMillan is keen to emphasize that no two Spirit yachts are identical, as they are all custom built, and even the 37 has three slightly different hull shapes, never mind the various interiors and deck layouts.

The year 1996 was a significant milestone in another way: it was the first time the Antigua Classics featured a dedicated class for modern classic yachts, and by a happy coincidence it named that class Spirit of Tradition. The Mediterranean classic-yacht circuit eventually followed suit in 2003. Suddenly it seemed that Spirit Yachts’ eccentric foray into imaginative boat design was not so contrary after all and was in fact on the leading edge of a new and growing movement. The bad boys of British boatbuilding were trendsetters in a glittering new vein of yachting.

Crucial to all this was McMillan’s background in fine art, for while he is just as concerned with performance and seaworthiness as other designers are, it is his willingness to take aesthetic risks that has set him apart in what is an intrinsically conservative industry.

After her role in the Bond film, Soufrière collected real-world silver racing in Ireland and at the Classics Week in Cowes.

“I take the view that yacht design is an art with science applied,” he says. “You have to have an instinctive understanding of how the hull moves through water. I gained that by sailing tens of thousands of miles as a delivery skipper, by leaning over the side of the boat and watching the hull, by getting more curious and studying hydrodynamics, and by going out and doing it. Some of the boats were great, and some not so great, but I learned a lot along the way.”

Despite its growing success, the business remained in the old cowshed behind Newman’s house until 2003, when they had to erect a temporary extension to build a 70-footer (21.3m), which was a full 10 ‘  (3.1m) longer than the shed itself. That was the final straw, and the following year the company moved to bigger premises at the old docks in Ipswich.

The slightly shorter Spirit 52 was spun out of that success, including the flush-decked Spirit of Tradition racing machine Oui Fling.

Bond Effect

If you had to imagine what a James Bond sailing yacht would look like, it would probably be a modern classic with exaggerated hull lines and a generous helping of shiny deck gear. So, it was almost an inevitability that sooner or later Spirit Yachts’ classy finish and understated power would attract the creators of the world’s most famous secret agent—and the 54 ‘   Soufrière  was duly built for the 2006 Bond movie  Casino Royale , complete with a luxurious interior comprising two cabins, en suite heads, and (that rarest thing on a Spirit yacht of that era) full standing headroom. The yacht was shipped to the Bahamas and sailed to Puerto Rico, then shipped to Croatia and sailed to Venice, where she is said to have been the first sailing yacht to go up the Grand Canal in 300 years (albeit under power).

All these efforts yielded just a few minutes of footage in the final film, but it was enough to turn Spirit Yachts, until then mainly a British success story, into an international brand. Following the release of Casino Royale , inquiries at the yard increased fourfold—though more often than not the phone went quiet when a price was mentioned. Not everyone, it seems, has a Bond-caliber budget.

Soufrière  turned out to be exceptionally fast and, under her new real-life owner, won a string of trophies at home in Ireland and at the annual British Classics Week in Cowes. Her success prompted McMillan to build a slightly smaller version for himself. Launched in 2007, his 52 ‘   Flight of Ufford  has proven equally competitive, regularly clocking speeds of up to 16 knots and winning British Classics Week three years running in 2014–16—though since 2017 he has had to take turns at first place with the stripped-down, flush-decked 52-footer  Oui Fling , built for Baron Irvine Laidlaw of Rothiemay. McMillan’s proudest moment on his boat, however, was being invited to join the Queen’s Jubilee Pageant on the Thames in 2012—the only modern yacht to be summoned.

The year 2007 was also a landmark for a more somber reason, as McMillan’s longtime business partner, Mick Newman, died in a plane crash. Sadly, he would never see the full flowering of the company he helped to create.

The 111′ (33.8m) Geist, designed for the owner of a 52 who wanted a larger version, was built mostly of sustainable timber, except for the teak decks.

The 52 went on to become the yard’s most popular boat to date, no doubt helped by McMillan’s enthusiastic campaigning of  Flight of Ufford  on both sides of the Atlantic. It also led to the yard’s biggest and most challenging commission. After the Spirit 52  Happy Forever  hit a rock in the Baltic, she went back to the Spirit yard for repair, and while her owner (a young German shipowner) stopped by to check progress he spotted a design McMillan was working on. He asked him to design a 90 ‘  (27.4m) version, and when that wasn’t quite right, asked that it be drawn out to 100 ‘  (30.5m), then 105 ‘  (32m) and, finally, 111 ‘  (33.8m). While the yacht’s hull grew longer with each design iteration, her freeboard remained unchanged—she just got sleeker and more stunning each time.

The result was  Geist , the Spirit 111, said to be the biggest single-masted wooden boat built in Britain since the J-Class  Shamrock  in the 1930s. Not only that, but the yard claimed it was “one of the most environmentally friendly sailing superyachts ever created.” Built mostly of sustainable timber (except for those endless teak decks), it boasted a 100-kW Torqeedo electric engine served by four banks of lithium-ion batteries that could be recharged by the propeller while under sail.

Belowdecks, the owner specified that he wanted only organic shapes—there should be no straight lines and no sharp corners. It was a challenge that the Spirit workforce (with some help from the design agency Rhoades Young) rose to, creating a cocoon-like interior with rounded bulkheads, curved seating and sideboards, and shell-like beds that seem to hover in space. Storage space is mostly hidden behind panels with sensor-activated doors that open to the touch. It was quite simply, as Underwood puts it, “a floating work of art.”

“Building the hull wasn’t a problem; that’s our bread and butter,” says Yard Supervisor Adrian Gooderham, who has worked at Spirit for more than 20 years. “But building the interior was a challenge, especially as they wanted the veneers to match, even in the sink areas, where it comes down the bulkhead onto the countertop, down the side, then onto the shelf, and down again—all matching. If there was a defect in any part of it, you’d have to find another veneer and start again.”

Most of the internal joinery was farmed out, but Gooderham built the distinctive saloon table—56 curved legs arranged in a circle, with a round glass top that bolted to the top of each leg. “Quite complex,” he admits.

Geist’s curvaceous bulkheads, settees, and house structure were built with flawless veneers, glass surfaces, and the absence of trim that could conceal any gaps.

Building Clean

The company’s commitment to the environment stems from its early days when, McMillan points out, just choosing to build in wood would label you as a crank. He still feels just as strongly about it now.

“You can’t build boats and not be concerned about the environment,” he says. “The implications for the yachting industry are dire, yet 99.9% of companies are banging out petrochemical products with no attempt to deal with end of life. There has to be a point when you stand up and say, ‘This cannot be right.’ We are gradually getting rid of diesel engines and trying to build boats that have minimum impact on the planet.”

Laminating diagonal sipo wood veneers over the Douglas-fir strip planking yields a stiff monocoque hull built mostly of renewable wood.

Over the years, the company has refined its focus. Early on, they stopped using Brazilian mahogany when their supplier couldn’t guarantee it came from a sustainable source. They switched to sipo, a similar timber grown as a commercial crop. More recently, they stopped using teak for decks and tried using the teak-substitute Lignia. When that company went bust amid concerns about the durability of the product, Spirit switched to using Douglas-fir, which has proven a good substitute. Various test panels with the alternative decking material are being continuously monitored, in part thanks to an accelerated-aging test tank on loan from electronics supplier Raymarine.

In 2020, they launched the first all-electric Spirit 44E (13.4m), fitted with an Oceanvolt sail drive powered by lithium-ion batteries that can be recharged by two large solar panels on the afterdeck or, while under sail, by the spinning propeller. Her decks were made of Lignia, and her sails were fabricated with 4T Forte recyclable cloth, courtesy of OneSails, which makes most of Spirit’s sails.  Avvento  was shipped to her owner’s home in British Columbia, Canada, where she cruises in remote areas for weeks at a time with no need for external energy supply. Her owner jokes that he’s more likely to run out of food than run out of electricity. Nearly half of Spirit’s new builds are now fitted with electric engines, though McMillan is quick to acknowledge that, environmentally speaking, they are not the “perfect panacea” due to the use of rare metals in the batteries.

Recently the yard has experimented with replacing teak decking with quarter-sawn Douglas-fir.

Bcomp’s flax fiber is a promising alternative to glass fiber laminate for exterior hull sheathing on Spirit’s 30-footers

More recently, Spirit Yachts has been applying flax cloth in place of fiberglass to sheathe their 30-footers—Bcomp’s ampliTex flax 350-g/m 2 biaxial (+/–45°) 1270mm and ampliTex flax twill 2/2, no twist, 1000mm, 300-g/m 2 —and will apply it to the bigger boats once they are happy with its performance. (See “ Flax  Boats,”  Professional BoatBuilder  No. 197, page 44.)

“We had to be much quicker with the glue when laying up the flax, as it is very absorbent,” says Gooderham. “We had to be precise with the quantities of resin, and we had to post-cure in a tent at 25°C [77°F] during the fairing process.”

The Spirit 44E Avvento was the first Spirit yacht with an electric sail drive powered by lithium-ion batteries. She also sported sails made of recyclable sailcloth.

They are also experimenting with bio-based resin in nonstructural areas and hope to use it more extensively in due course.

And there are many other, smaller ways the company earns its eco-credentials, as Helen Porter explains: “We recently replaced our plastic paint trays with sugar cane trays, and we’ve replaced our paint brushes and rollers with low-carbon-footprint products. We’re using vacuum bags made out of recycled materials. We’ve discovered we can reduce waste timber by 20% by using CNC to cut wood. So, we are constantly chipping away in the background. The goal is always to lower the carbon footprint of a yacht as much as possible.”

She makes the point that in most instances, the more sustainable solution will offer other benefits such as reduced noise, cheaper running costs, or greater self-sufficiency, meaning there is less need to call on expensive marinas. When the benefits are fully explained, she says, nine times out of 10 the client will opt for the more sustainable option.

Once again, the company’s once-unorthodox stance has served them well, and while most of the marine industry is playing catchup on burnishing their environmental credentials, Spirit finds itself in the vanguard of the movement. Underwood estimates that as many as 60% of their customers “have sustainability in their minds. They are living and breathing it already. They have an electric car. They have a ground-source heat-pump system at home. That’s why they come to us.”

Custom cabinetry and accommodations are strategically built-in before the cabin structure is sheathed.

Another sign of the times for Spirit Yachts is a greater emphasis on boat interiors, something designer Tom Smith, who trained partly in Italy, is happy to go along with. “The interior never used to get as much attention as the exterior. Now it’s just as much,” says Smith, who heads a team of four designers at the yard. “Lots of people want their yachts to be as comfortable as their homes. That should be possible, as long as you’re clever. I hate it when people say that yacht design is a compromise. There’s no reason to compromise; you just have to be clever with the design.”

In practical terms, that has meant a shift away from traditional wood paneling toward lighter colors, including white satin painted panels. The company is also collaborating with textiles companies to try out new color palettes including cloths made from recycled bottles.

Spirit Yachts Under Power

In recent years, Spirit has added a few powerboats to their stable of designs—from a couple of retro-styled launches, the P40 (12.2m) and P35 (10.7m), to a more substantial 70 ‘  motoryacht, the P70, designed to cross the North Sea from the U.K. to the Baltic and back at 18 knots. Even here, the company is keen to emphasize the designs’ eco credentials, noting that it can build the boats lighter than their GRP equivalents, which means they require smaller engines and therefore have greater fuel efficiency. It’s a virtuous circle that again benefits the client by saving them money in running costs.

Spirit’s most spectacular powerboat to date had finally completed its trials stage when I visited the company in June 2023. The F35 looks every bit like one of those classic North American speedboats from 100 years ago. Long and narrow, with sensuously shaped varnished topsides and foredeck, it appears the epitome of 1920s elegance. But, like her sailing sisters, the F35 has a secret hiding underwater: foils. Power her up to 14 knots or so and she will free herself from the tedious limitations of wetted surface area and fly largely above the water at up to 30 knots (though 22 knots is her cruising speed).

Spirit Yachts joined forces with BAR Technologies (better known for its  America ’s Cup simulation and design) to create this electric foiler with a range of 100 miles at 22 knots. This is a major step forward in electric boating, and all with a classic aesthetic that you don’t expect to perform so efficiently—that old McMillan joke again.

McMillan is rightfully proud of his new design and, back in the office, shows me a video of the boat in action on Lake Maggiore in Italy. Halfway through, the F35 is joined by a copy of the Crouch-designed  Baby Bootlegger , a curvaceous 1924 American mahogany speedboat that inspired his design. (See Paul Lazarus’s “How Fast Will It Go?” in PBB No. 169, page 62.) The family resemblance is clear—though, as McMillan points out, their performance is quite different. The old boat with its 220-hp (165-kW) combustion engine leaves a vast wake, while the big foiler at speed barely dimples the lake surface.

She’s clearly the future of motorboating—fast, elegant, and clean—especially once safety and ethical concerns around some lithium-ion batteries are resolved or competing alternative fuels become viable.

I’m keen to see the roll of plans McMillan has brought in for scanning—he still works in the early stages with pen and paper before submitting his drawings to CAD for the development and production stages—but it turns out they’re top secret. All he will say is that they are for an “extremely radical” electric foiler, considerably bigger than the F35. Even at 72, he is still clearly excited by this latest project.

An F35, the latest model in Spirit Yacht’s sparse line of powerboats, is an electric-powered fully foiling tribute to the mahogany runabouts of the 1920s.

Spirit Yachts’ Academy and Beyond

McMillan is willing to talk about another project close to his heart: the new Spirit Academy. In the past the company was able to recruit staff from all over the world to work in the yard, but that has become more difficult since Brexit, and like most companies in the boating sector, Spirit has suffered a skills shortage. The solution McMillan decided on is to set up a training center in a disused building right next to the yard. The Spirit Academy will be the first university-standard boatbuilding college in the world, training students to a high skill level so they come out ready to start work using modern tools and materials. The course of study will comprise most aspects of boatbuilding, including design, rigging, and sailmaking. The only thing that won’t be in the curriculum is fiberglass construction, which McMillan is convinced will soon “come to a crashing halt.”

He said he hopes to start restoring the building this autumn, with the first intake of students possible as early as fall of 2025. The plan is to enroll two classes a year of 12 students each for a two-year course, with a total of 48 students when it’s fully up and running.

Meanwhile, Spirit Yachts will continue building its distinctive brand of high-quality wood/composite yachts. Despite recent forays into powerboats, sailing yachts will continue to be their focus, particularly in the 60 ‘ –90 ‘  range (their “sweet spot,” according to Underwood). The new 72-footer is particularly popular right now, with three built in two years—one for charter (with a cabin forward for paid crew), one for racing, and the third for bluewater cruising.

McMillan shows no signs of slowing down, and neither does the company he created in a disused cowshed all those years ago. At last, it seems the world has caught up, and the McMillan joke of delivering modern performance boats with vintage aesthetics is one we can all understand.

About the Author:   Nic Compton is a freelance writer/photographer based in Devon, U.K. He lived on boats in the Mediterranean until the age of 15 and worked as a boatbuilder for many years before swapping his chisel for a pen and his router for a computer. He sails a Rhode Island–built Freedom 33, currently based in Greece.

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Spirit Yachts: Inside the British yard behind some of the world’s most beautiful boats

• February 6, 2020

Few builders possess the power of seduction demonstrated by British wood epoxy experts Spirit Yachts. David Glenn reports

Spirit Yachts’s workforce with one of the laminated sapele frames of the Spirit 111. Photo: Emily Harris

Today, Ipswich-based Spirit Yachts is embarking on a new phase in its development, having recently launched a 111ft sailing yacht that exploits the benefits of electric propulsion, the latest high voltage lithium battery technology and smart control systems to reduce the need for fossil fuel power.

Like all Spirits, she was constructed in timber from sustainable sources and because of her light and easily driven hull she could potentially become one of the most efficient sailing yachts afloat. On the face of it she’s an eco-warrior’s dreamboat, which means she was scrutinised down to her last plank of Douglas fir before her launch last year. But more of her later.

A joiner marking out a below waterline area. Photo: Emily Harris

In spite of a full order book, Sean McMillan, founder of Spirit Yachts, whose distinctive design style and inherent skill as a woodworker are responsible for these luscious-looking yachts, is the first to admit that it hasn’t always been an easy ride: “It’s been a roller-coaster, but it’s also been a great experience,” he says.

McMillan’s passion for wooden boatbuilding, and dogged determination to retain a highly skilled workforce through thick and thin has put him and Spirit at the very forefront of modern wooden yacht building.

Raising the profile

Five years ago the Ipswich-based company was facing a tough market as the ripple effect of the 2008 financial crisis continued to hobble business. Refit came to the rescue, but only up to a point. “I knew that we could not afford to lose staff,” said Sean, who has always placed his boat builders at the heart of Spirit’s success.

Article continues below…

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The directors also realised that running the company and designing the yachts (as well as not being able to resist some hands-on boat building), was too much for one man to handle. So they appointed Nigel Stuart as managing director. He came from Discovery Yachts and quickly raised Spirit Yachts’s profile.

Together with the Brexit effect and the consequent fall in sterling, making British products considerably more attractive, things began to look up. Today the company has an enviable, trend-bucking order book.

Fling in timber

The Spirit 52D Oui Fling racing in the Solent in July 2017. Photo: Emily Harris

After just a seven-month build period Spirit launched one of its more remarkable modern classics in the summer of 2017, the completely stripped out Spirit 52D for high profile, serial racing yacht owner Irvine Laidlaw, who was keen to add a modern classic to his fleet of Highland Flings. The D incidentally stands for ‘Distilled’.

On her first outing at the Panerai British Classic Week in Cowes, Oui Fling , surely the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing, dispatched the opposition in short order. Her victims included Sean McMillan (sailing his own Spirit 52, Flight of Ufford , which is anything but stripped out) who couldn’t quite catch Fling on handicap!

Laidlaw’s boat, which apparently touched 16 knots in the Solent, weighs just 6.8 tonnes – extraordinary for a wooden 52-footer – and is two tonnes lighter than Flight .

In addition to Oui Fling ’s exploits, the announcement of the 111ft sloop contract was a massive boost, in fact a potential game changer for Spirit. Sean McMillan believes she is the largest wooden yacht of her type built in Britain since the J Class Shamrock V was launched by Camper & Nicholsons in 1930.

The Spirit 111 is, of course, a largely wood epoxy build, but incorporating a high voltage lithium ion battery-powered electric propulsion system and smart electrical management. Together with an original interior by world renowned designers Rhoades Young, and the appointment of a specialist project manager in the form of the highly experienced German Jens Cornelsen, this yacht places the company firmly in the superyacht league.

Spirit Yachts put its toe in the water with larger yachts when the 100ft Gaia was launched in 2007, but there were issues, especially in race mode upwind, when her timber hull deflected marginally more than anticipated, making it difficult to keep rig loads stable. The structure was re-worked back in Ipswich and Gaia returned to the circuit in good shape.

100ft Gaia is soon to be eclipsed as the yard’s flagship. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Refreshingly, Sean McMillan is not afraid to admit that he and the company have had to learn lessons over the past 27 years. With limited scantling and engineering information available from classification societies for modern wood epoxy construction, Spirit has, at times, had to feel its way along the design route. Today, with what they call their ‘file of evidence’ containing historic calculations and structural data, they are con dent about tackling just about anything.

For the Spirit 111’s structural engineering, there was input from Sean McMillan, his experienced in-house naval architect Lawrence Peckham, composite structures expert Gary Scott-Jenner of Ipswich firm Synolo Design, and the classification society RINA.

Work involved 30 laminated sapele ring frames over which Douglas fir planking was laid and then finished with quadruple diagonal layers of 3mm mahogany veneer. There is some local reinforcement in carbon fibre and the entire structure will underwent epoxy saturation for structural integrity, impact resistance and longevity.

A rendering of the new Spirit 111, which will be the largest wooden yacht built in the UK since the J Class Shamrock V in 1930

The owner of the Spirit 111 had an unfortunate accident with his previous yacht, a Spirit 52, when he hit a rock at eight knots while sailing in the Baltic. The yacht took in no water but a number of ring frames were cracked, so she returned to Ipswich for repairs to include‘ sistering’ or doubling up the frames in question.

Demonstrating his faith in Spirit, while visiting their offices to check progress on the 52’s repairs, the owner caught a glimpse of a previous design Sean McMillan had been amending. Not long afterwards the deal for a boat that would be more than twice the size of the Spirit 52 was on the table.

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ON TEST: Spirit 44e – the sustainable future of sailing?

• Theo Stocker
• November 1, 2020

A wooden boat that blazes a trail for modern technology and sustainability sounds too good to be true. Theo Stocker went to see if the Spirit 44e is as good as promised

Product Overview

Spirit yacht 44cr electric.

• Most sustainable yacht available today
• Sails beautifully
• Stunning looks
• Limited accommodation for length
• Upkeep of wooden boat

Manufacturers:

Price as reviewed:.

Boats have been built out of wood since Noah first put axe to tree, but when it comes to cutting-edge yachts, timber is right back at the top.

Spirit Yachts have been building head-turningly pretty wooden yachts with stiff, lightweight laminated wooden hulls since 1993, including the largest wooden yacht built in the UK since the 1930s in the shape of the Spirit 111 , launched this year.

But away from all the fanfare, the Ipswich-based yard has also just launched Avvento , smaller sister to its 47 and 55 Cruising Range yachts.

Far from being a lesser vessel, however, the Spirit 44 Cruising Range Electric Boat (44e for short) hides advances in sustainable technology under its gleaming topsides that offer a glimpse into the future of boat building.

Unrecyclable fibreglass and sails, toxic antifoul, and fossil-fuel propulsion are replaced by sustainably sourced timber, self-sufficient electric propulsion and zero-carbon emissions.

The proud new owner is Vincent Argiro, a retired technology entrepreneur who lives and sails in British Columbia in Canada.

Explaining his motivation to go for such a radical concept, he said: ‘My first sailboat was also the first of its kind to be built all-electric. I have never owned anything else, nor will I.

‘To me, it is a terrible corruption of the beauty and simplicity of sailing to add internal-combustion propulsion to it.’

She is built, Spirit claims, to last a hundred years and to be largely recyclable when the time does come. In the intervening century, she will burn no hydro-carbons whatsoever with not even a backup generator on board, or, for that matter, any obvious renewable energy sources. I was curious to see how she worked.

THE TEST VERDICT

The Spirit 44e is a fabulously expensive boat given her limited accommodation and shorter than average waterline length, if you are going to judge her by volume.

As managing director Nigel Stuart says: ‘You need to think about her volume relative to her waterline rather than overall length.’ That’s a nice idea, if you have the luxury of not worrying about marina fees.

You can get a lot of boat for this kind of budget, so why would you buy the Spirit 44e? Firstly, she is drop dead gorgeous. From her sleek lines to her dovetail joints, there is no part of the boat that is not a pleasure to look at.

Then, she is utterly engaging to sail. Lightweight, powerful and responsive, helming her will put a smile on your face, while she should cope equally well with the rough stuff. Finally, she is light years ahead of most production yachts in terms of environmental impact.

I would opt for the smaller rig and higher boom, and I’d like narrower cockpit seats. Most owners would opt for a backup diesel generator for peace of mind, though with new battery tech on its way, unlimited range is within reach.

The Spirit 44e goes a very long way to prove that yachts can be built and run in a sustainable way.

Would the Spirit 44e suit you and your crew?

This boat isn’t about mass-market appeal, but who wouldn’t fall in love given half a chance? In reality, for the kind of cruising most sailors really do, weekends and a few weeks here and there, she is luxuriously comfortable for a cruising couple with occasional guests. Liveaboard cruising is more of a stretch, but entirely feasible, while she’ll also do well racing round the cans.

There’s plenty of entertaining space, particularly on deck once you’re in harbour, and if you don’t mind the stares, she turns heads wherever she goes.

Very few boats out there could hold a hydrocarbon-free candle to the Spirit 44e. Even Noah might have been tempted to leave his animals for this boat.

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What is Robert Curry's net worth? 'Below Deck' Season 11 primary charter guest who owns a yacht rakes in massive money

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In the highly anticipated next episode of 'Below Deck' Season 11 , viewers will be introduced to new primary charter guests Noreen and Robert Curry. This dynamic duo is set to bring a whole new level of excitement and drama to the show as they embark on a luxurious yacht adventure. Get ready to witness their unique personalities and demands as they navigate the high seas with the crew of the Valor.

Noreen Curry is a dedicated philanthropist who tirelessly fundraises for scholarships to provide educational opportunities for underprivileged children. In contrast, her husband Robert is a successful entrepreneur renowned for his expertise in acquiring and selling various companies. Their dynamic partnership combines compassion and business acumen to make a positive impact on the world.

In his capacity as the founder of Serve First Solutions, Robert plays a key role in the company, focusing on strategic planning and financial matters. Prior to this, he held the position of Vice President at First Union Small Business Capital, overseeing a national network of regional offices and spearheading efforts to increase division profits and cultivate relationships with franchisors across the country.

Robert boasts a wealth of experience in business operations, franchising, and mergers and acquisitions. He is actively involved in organizations such as the Young President's Organization (YPO) and Vistage, and has previously held leadership roles in the Saint Vincent De Paul Society and The Covenant House in Los Angeles.

When discussing Robert Curry's financial status, it is worth noting that he earns an impressive annual income of $150,000.

'Below Deck' Season 11 primary charter guest Robert Curry specializes in strategic planning and finance 

Primary charter guest Robert Curry on Season 11 of 'Below Deck' is an expert in strategic planning and finance, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the yacht. He has devoted more than 25 years to various facets of the franchise industry, including franchise sales, development, and fundraising for franchisees and franchisors.

Robert currently serves as the CEO and primary investor of Alamitos Management Group, which operates multiple Jiffy Lube franchises, Golden West Tire Centers & Southland Tire & Service, which are multi-unit franchisees of Big O Tires, Serve First Solutions, Inc., a sales firm that specializes in payment processing for businesses; and Franchise Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in franchise development, acquisitions, and divestitures.

What yacht does 'Below Deck' Season 11 primary charter guest Robert Curry own?

For those who may not be familiar, let us share with you, that Robert Curry is the proud owner of a luxurious yacht. Alongside his wife Noreen, the couple is accustomed to the finer things in life, including having a butler at their service.

In a sneak peek of the upcoming episode of 'Below Deck', Robert was seen chatting with Fraser Olender about his impressive boat, and he couldn't help but compare it to the size of St David.

"This is three times the size of our boat. We have a 62-foot boat. You know I'm getting boat envy," he shared with a hint of admiration in his voice.

Curry also mentioned that he is the proud owner of a navigator with three cabins in total.

The new episodes of 'Below Deck' Season 11 release every Monday at 9 pm ET on Bravo

13 celebrities who have run for office

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Inside the refit of 64m Perini Navi sailing yacht Spirit of the C's

A major refit has managed to harmonise both the design of a 64-metre Perini Navi ketch and the disparate needs of a diverse family. Clare Mahon enters into the Spirit of the C’s

An all-out refit doesn’t have to obliterate the character of a yacht. It can, in fact, enhance it. When the 64-metre custom Perini Navi ketch Felicita West changed hands, Rome-based architect Michela Reverberi transformed the interiors of the yacht that is now called Spirit of the C’s (the 20th largest sailing yacht in the world).

But what at first glance may look like a gut renovation was actually done with a light, respectful touch that took into consideration both the varied needs of the new owner’s family and the yacht’s rich heritage – while strengthening its relationship with the exterior design.

“Our goal was to make the yacht as a whole more harmonious,” says Reverberi. “Before the refit her exterior was timeless, but we wanted to update and brighten up the interior, opening it to the outside while also bringing the yacht’s white and bleached teak exterior tones inside.”

Launched in 2003 for an owner who was on his third Perini yacht, Felicita West was a collaboration between the Italian yard, Ron Holland and Nuvolari Lenard . At the time she was Perini’s largest build in aluminium and, while her hull colour and material were unusual for Perini, her interiors were ultra-classic with abundant use of polished wood and cosy chintz.

At first her new owners set a time frame of six months for the refit, but that proved to be unreasonable. As Reverberi explains: “The work was done at Compositeworks [now MB92 La Ciotat] and they didn’t have a slot ready immediately. And there was also a bit of discussion on the couches.” Couches? Holding up a major refit? “Well, it’s not as simple as it seems,” laughs Reverberi. “The yacht is called Spirit of the C’s because it has to capture the essence of an entire family’s worth of strong and varied personalities. Their last name begins with a ‘C’, which presented a great opportunity for a little play on words.”

In this family there are party animals, artists, business people and designers. Some who are not part of the nuclear family are still considered family members and everyone had to have their say and their space. She wanted colour, but he wanted all white; a brother-in-law wanted neutral tones, but the sister-in-law didn’t agree. If this sounds like a nightmare in the making, it wasn’t. “We had a great time and became real friends during shopping trips and tours of Milan’s Salone del Mobile,” says Reverberi. “These are really interesting people; it’s not often that work is this much fun.”

While the Cs were scouring the Salone del Mobile, major work was going on at La Ciotat. “The party animal in the family wanted a proper sundeck for onboard entertaining,” says Reverberi, “so we lengthened the classic Perini Navi flybridge by three metres and added a spa pool and lounging area so he could get the party started.”

Captain Franco Guardi points out the areas that were reworked: “The helms and the crew area are the same as they used to be – all curved lines, polished teak and lots of cherry wood – but the aft area has been entirely rethought.” What once was an open area can now be covered by an electric awning.

“Not everybody wants all that sunshine,” Guardi points out, “and the air is still great up here.” Upholstery has been changed to a sandy-coloured terry cloth and other subtle changes were made to update the mood. “The dining table was in polished teak with thick, curved edges and seating was on banquettes, a set scheme that couldn’t be changed or adapted. Now the table is in square-cut white marble and seating is on free-standing chairs that can be moved around depending on where they’re needed.”

The same honey-toned teak that is used on the clean, contemporary bar also lines the sides of a new spa pool under the mizzenmast vang. Low teak daises with cushions can be sofas or sunpads. “And the entire new sundeck area, including the bottom of the pool, has skylights to bring light to the main deck guest cockpit below,” says Guardi.

The guest cockpit aft has kept the same general arrangement as before, but wicker couches have been replaced by more contemporary seating by Paola Lenti. Here too, table tops have been changed from thick polished teak with curved edges to white marble. But while alterations in furnishings have updated the yacht’s look, changes in technology have allowed for a significant upgrade in its liveability. The wide strip of honey-toned teak that runs down the centre of the ceiling conceals a drop-down flat screen and new LED lighting. “In 16 years technology changes,” says Guardi. “These are all things that didn’t exist when the yacht was Felicita West .”

Installing a flat screen in the ceiling meant that Reverberi could eliminate a large television cabinet that had been at the fore end of the cockpit, opening up a world of possibilities. The sliding glass doors in polished chrome frames that now lead to the saloon look like they have always been there, when in fact they are one of the refit’s biggest triumphs.

After eliminating the television cabinet from the guest cockpit, Reverberi ripped out another large cabinet that had been at the aft end of the main saloon: suddenly she had a wide-open space to work with. “The owners’ brief was for a lighter, brighter and more modern atmosphere,” she says. “They wanted to maintain the yacht’s typical Perini Navi elegance but let in as much light as possible. And I wanted to create interiors that were as timeless as the yacht’s exterior while still reflecting the spirit of the family that now owns the boat.” By eliminating the cabinetry and enlarging what had once been a small starboard door, Reverberi updated the yacht’s look and added a significant new source of light to the main saloon.

You can almost hear the sound of cherry wood splintering when you compare the interior before to the interior after. Reverberi exposed the trunk of the mizzenmast. “I wanted to bring out its sculptural, functional shape,” she says. By replacing the previous wooden door with a glass one and surrounding it with reflective chrome frames and a mirror she has created the illusion of a full-width double entrance. “It’s an amazing new source of light, and removing the cabinetry also significantly increased the size of the saloon. I used the two pilasters that had delineated the cabinetry as supports for a free-standing, glass-encased gas fireplace that I designed myself.”

The mirror and fire dazzle, and so does the brightness in the main saloon. But if at first glance it looks as if Reverberi tossed all of the previous interior into her fireplace, on closer inspection you can see what clever use she made of what was already there. While she removed most of the panelling above wainscot height, she kept what was below and painted it white. For colour and warmth she added central panels in roughly sueded leather in a light grey tone that are also an excellent backdrop for the owner’s wife’s artwork. She updated the lighting and air-conditioning system by adding a small drop in the ceiling and installed new flooring in caulked teak that creates a sense of unity between indoor and outdoor spaces.

If the party animal had his space on the flybridge, and the artist had her neutral-coloured walls to admire, the family businessman was still looking for his perch. To that end, Reverberi added a door on the port side of the main saloon to convert a space there into an owner’s office whereas previously it had been for the captain, accessible only from the bridge. An update to the communications systems allows the owner to stay aboard longer, using his yacht for business as well as for pleasure.

In the dining area, panelling that wasn’t removed was painted white and vitrines were replaced with more modern wine coolers. Reverberi also removed a bar that was at the head of the stairs to the crew area. “It cut off the space and there wasn’t enough room for a proper dining table,” she says. By adding a different bar starboard there is now seating for 20 guests – all of the Cs and then some.

While Reverberi also significantly altered the staircase that leads to the guest cabins, she left the cabins themselves essentially the same, painting over the cherry but leaving the layout untouched. “The quality of the stone in the bathrooms and the carpentry is amazing. But I simplified the furnishings in the owner’s cabin to leave more free space,” she says. The owner’s wife now has room to do yoga in the privacy of her own cabin.

With a combination of stripping back and painting over, Reverberi has managed both to update and to preserve: while spaces are fresh and new, you can still sense the substance of the Perini Navi backbone behind them. The yacht now works well as a whole and is open to light, air and the environment around her. In the end a refit that lasted almost a year took decades off, and managed to both capture the spirit of the boat and make room for the different lifestyles of the Cs.

Photography courtesy of Quin Bisset

This article first appeared in the May 2019 edition of BOAT International .

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