- Founded
- 1993
- Headquarters
- Ipswich Haven Marina, New Cut East, Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 0EA, United Kingdom
- Shipyard location
- Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
- Official website
- https://spirityachts.com/
Brand Overview
British custom builder of modern-classic wooden sail and motor yachts, founded in 1993 by designer Sean McMillan and Mick Newman at Ipswich, Suffolk — 13 designs from the 9.2-metre R30 day sailer to the 22.8-metre R74, each built to order in wood/epoxy.
YachtCodex Analysis
AI-generatedAn independent reading of this builder written by AI. Unlike the specifications and descriptions elsewhere on this page, it is interpretation rather than a sourced fact — treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
What this builder is
Spirit Yachts was founded in 1993 by Sean McMillan, a lifelong sailor and yacht designer, with his friend Mick Newman; after thousands of sea miles delivering boats, the yard says, they set out to build the most beautiful yachts that perform on the water. From waterside premises at Ipswich Haven Marina in Suffolk, a team led by managing director Karen Underwood and lead designer Tom Smith designs and builds custom wooden sail and motor yachts in-house, with sales contacts in Palma, Palm Beach (Australia) and Mystic, Connecticut. The style is a variation on 1930s classic yachts — long overhangs, low profiles, smooth lines — married to modern underwater profiles, and the hulls are built without moulds: laminated wooden ring frames set up on a strongback, timber planking stiffened with double-diagonal veneers bonded at 45 degrees, and an epoxy glass sheath, with carbon inner frames in the larger boats. The yard calls itself a custom builder where no two Spirits are the same; its portfolio presents named designs that are built again to each owner's brief — the Cruise C44, C50, C65 and C72, the Race R30, R46, R52 and R74, and the Power P35 EF (an electric foiler developed with BAR Technologies), P40, P50 Coupé and Sport and P70 — alongside one-off superyachts such as the 30.6-metre Gaia and the 33.9-metre Geist. A Spirit 54 starred in the 2006 Bond film Casino Royale and a Spirit 46 in No Time To Die.
Who sails them
Spirit owners are experienced sailors and motor-boaters who want a hand-built wooden yacht with 1930s looks and modern performance — classic-regatta racers, short-handed and family cruisers, owner-drivers of fast day boats and superyacht owners seeking a tender — who want to be involved in the design and are prepared to commission a boat built to their own brief.
Signature models
The Spirit 46, which the yard calls its most popular design and which appeared in the Bond film No Time To Die, and the Spirit 52 that founder Sean McMillan raced for many years define the Race range; the 54 seen in Casino Royale made the name famous, and the 33.9-metre Geist, whose interior won a World Superyacht Award, is its largest build.
Strengths
Spirit is known for timeless modern-classic design with long overhangs and flush decks, mould-free wood/epoxy construction with exposed frames and fine joinery, light displacement and fractional rigs that sail fast, full customisation with in-house designers and naval architects, electric and hybrid drives on recent designs, and a strong presence on the classic racing circuit.
Considerations
Every Spirit is a custom build, so each design page describes one built boat and later boats can differ; the pages give lightship displacement, upwind sail area and RCD maximum persons but cabin counts mostly only on the site's yacht cards; some story texts disagree with the specification block (the P35 EF's length, draft and cruising speed, the R30's and R46's displacement, the C72's beam at a glance); the superyacht pages are one-off commissions and are not listed as models; and owners must accept the care a varnished wooden yacht needs, which the yard says is less than commonly thought.
Analysis generated 10/17/2026
Part of
Spirit Yachts · since 1993
Fleet at a Glance
13 models in total
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
Sailing range
- Models in catalog
- 8
- Length range
- 9.2–22.8 m
- Hull forms
- Sailing Monohull 8
- Cabins
- 1–3
Motor range
- Models in catalog
- 5
- Length range
- 10.7–21.1 m
- Hull forms
- Motor Monohull 5
- Cabins
- 1–4
Models by this brand
13 models
Race4
Power5
History
Spirit Yachts was founded in 1993 by Sean McMillan, a lifelong sailor and yacht designer, in partnership with his friend Mick Newman. After thousands of sea miles delivering boats around the globe, the yard says, the two had a clear vision: to build the most beautiful yachts that perform on the water. Sean McMillan built the company into what it calls a worldwide success, raced his own Spirit 52 on the classic circuit and today consults on projects from his design studio in the Suffolk countryside. In 2006 a Spirit 54 was chosen for the Bond film Casino Royale; handbuilt in Suffolk, she was shipped to the Bahamas, sailed through Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands for filming and then to Venice, where, the yard says, she became the first sailing yacht to go up the Grand Canal in 300 years. In 2021 a Spirit 46, one of the original Spirit designs, appeared in No Time To Die. Today the company, led by managing director Karen Underwood with lead designer Tom Smith, designs and builds custom wooden sail and motor yachts at waterside premises in Ipswich, Suffolk.
History written fromspirityachts.com/about-us/· About Spirit: Masters of the Modern Classicread 10/17/2026