The Most Expensive Wooden Boat for Sale in Australia
It’s not often that you find a timber boat for sale on Pittwater where the vendor is asking well over $6M AUD. But that’s the case at the moment with the Spirit Yachts C72 - Gwenhyfar II listed with Yachtique in Palm Beach.
Many you would have heard of Spirit Yachts due to the brand’s connection with James Bond Films. A Spirit 54 was chosen to feature in the 2006 version Casino Royale with Daniel Craig and Eva Green cruising into Venice. The yacht used was named Soufrière. It also made history because it was the first sailing yacht to go up the Venetian Grand Canal in 300 years.
In the 2021 film No Time To Die A Spirit 46 featured. This time Bond had left active service and was enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica, spending time aboard a Spirit 46.
Spirit Yachts was founded in 1993 by lifelong sailor and yacht designer Sean McMillan, in partnership with his friend Mick Newman. After thousands of sea miles delivering boats around the globe, they had a vision to build beautiful performance yachts and started out in redundant farm building in rural Suffolk, with the first Spirit being a 37-footer.
Interestingly the boat for sale in Sydney, Gwenhyfar II, was reviewed in Yachting World Magazine in Guernsey in the Channel Islands in November 2023, just over two years ago.
As we made our way down to St Peter Port, it quickly became clear the owner of Gwenyfar II is infatuated with his yacht, despite having owned a Spirit before (a Spirit 63DH). He’d already moved the boat out to a neighbouring anchorage that morning, perhaps because we may have struggled with the depth over the marina sill. But maybe, I wondered, because first impressions and the ability to see a yacht’s lines really count, particularly when the sheer – the line it all started with for this owner – is so important.
I have rarely met someone so passionate about his yacht. We sat together in the whisky drinking armchairs in the saloon, as he pointed out the details and features, the fixtures and finishes, even the movement, smell and noise which brings this timber creation to life. It appeals to all the senses.
In particular, he wanted the finish to be kept minimal to expose and highlight the woodwork artistry. The hull’s sipo ringframes and yellow cedar planking are displayed wherever possible. So this yacht is very much in line with the original Spirit ethos, with an oyster white hull, gleaming mahogany brightwork and this uncluttered architectural interior. Or is it? While the majority of Spirit owners have raced as well as cruised over the yard’s past 30 years, Gwenyfar II’s owner wanted to turn the dial up on the yacht’s competitive ability. ‘GII’, as she became affectionately dubbed, needed to be a dual purpose boat. “She is built around the capacity to race, look good and go fast, and then transform to cruising,” the owner explains.
Well something has changed in the last 26 months because now she can be yours for the price of a three bedroomed penthouse apartment in Surry Hills
Have a sticky beak here!