Building a Spirit Yacht: The Owner's Side of a Cold-Moulded New Build

Aboard Gwenhyfar II at St Katharine Docks this October, the most instructive thing in the saloon was the deckhead. Spirit had left the laminated frames bare and varnished against the pale planking, so the structure of a cold-moulded hull was on show, and every layer of it had been inspected once, before the next layer covered it. For an owner commissioning a Spirit, the work on the owner's side falls mostly into two places. There are a handful of decisions before the contract, which set the cost of the yacht for as long as it is owned, and a run of inspections during the build, each of which has one chance.

Spirit Yachts was founded in Ipswich in 1993 by Sean McMillan and Mick Newman, had hull number 80 in build by 2023, and now builds everything from the R30 daysailer to the 33.8 metre sloop Geist (Professional BoatBuilder, 2023). The yard says on its own site that it is used to working alongside owners' representatives, skippers and outside designers. It has published two prices, as of June 2025: £350,000 ex VAT and eight months for the R30, and £4.5 million ex VAT and 28 months for the C72 (Spirit Yachts). Everything between those two is priced to the specification.

Before the contract

The deck comes first. Spirit's standard deck timber has changed twice over the years, from teak to an epoxy-treated softwood and latterly to quarter-sawn Douglas fir, after the yard tested panels for wear (Professional BoatBuilder). The specification should name the species, thickness, fixing and finish rather than simply "laid deck", since each carries a different maintenance programme and a different life.

Propulsion is the second decision. Nearly half of Spirit's recent new builds have gone electric, following the 44E in 2020. We would want battery capacity, charging arrangements, range under power and the reserve for domestic load written into the specification as numbers, with a diesel or hybrid installation costed alongside. Range under power decides where the yacht can be taken, which is not something to discover on the first passage.

Then the varnish, which is the part owners love and the part they pay for every year. Spirit's guidance is a touch-up most years and a full revarnish roughly every fifth; a yacht kept in the Mediterranean will sit at the short end of that. It is easier to settle how much brightwork the yacht carries with that programme in front of you than after launch.

The contract terms we would ask for are the same on any build, and none of them costs a well-run yard anything. Stage payments go against physical milestones rather than dates, title to the hull and materials vests in the owner as they are paid for, and the work in progress is insured in joint names. On a cold-moulded hull the milestones choose themselves; frames set, hull planked, veneers and sheath complete, hull rolled, deck on, launch. The reasons, and the yard record behind them, are in our piece on what happens to an owner when a yard fails, written alongside our article for The Superyacht Report in September.

During the build

Spirit uses no moulds. Ring frames are laminated over full-size patterns and set upside down on a strongback, and the centreline is laminated in one piece. The hull is then planked in Douglas fir strip, skinned with two layers of sipo veneer at 45 degrees and sheathed in epoxy and glass, or flax on the 30-footers (Professional BoatBuilder). The larger yachts carry carbon frames amidships to take mast, chainplate and keel loads, and Geist was built around a stainless steel space frame. Only then is the hull rolled over for fit-out.

Each of those layers hides the one beneath it, so the inspections follow the laminating schedule rather than the calendar. Frames and centreline are checked before planking, planking before the first veneer, and each veneer for glue coverage and voids before the next goes on. Epoxy depends on temperature, humidity and timber moisture, and the yard records all three in the shed; we ask to see the log.

After that, two things get most of our attention. The structural interfaces, meaning floors, keel attachment, chainplates and any carbon frames, are inspected before the joinery closes them in. And every penetration through hull and deck, where a through-hull or a cable run exposes end grain, should be sealed with epoxy before the fitting goes in. On a wood-epoxy yacht an unsealed penetration is the usual way water gets into the structure; checking it during the build takes minutes, and finding it at a survey ten years on takes a winter.

Handover and the first season

At handover, ask for the coating and varnish systems in writing, with products and coat counts. It is the first thing a refit yard asks for when the brightwork is next done, and it is often missing from the pack. Spirit offers aftercare to its owners worldwide. The inspection we would most want is at the end of the first season, once the timber has been through a full cycle of wetting, drying and temperature change, and in good time before the warranty runs out.

We have no commercial relationship with Spirit Yachts. If you are commissioning a Spirit and would like an owner's-side view of the specification, the contract or the build, our owner's representation page sets out how we work, and we would be glad to discuss it.