M5 Yacht

Design & Construction

Designed around a GRP hull and superstructure she features a 14.8m beam and a 10.2m draft. The yacht is built over 3 decks with an internal volume of 1,004 GT (Gross Tonnes).

Exterior Design

M5 is 75.22m (246.8ft) long, but the mast is still the thing that sets the scale. The single rig rises 87m (285.4ft) above the yacht, and almost everything around it has been kept low so the sailing gear remains visually dominant. From above, the deckhouse sits as a fairly small block amidships, with long stretches of teak running forward and aft.

Ron Holland designed M5, originally Mirabella V, around two non-negotiables from her first owner: she had to be built in composite and she had to carry a single mast. The yacht actually began on the drawing board at around 61m (200.1ft), but the hull had to grow substantially to create the required accommodation while still hitting the sailing and weight targets.

The hull itself was a serious piece of composite work for the time, built from layers of glassfibre and E-glass around an Airex foam core. Keeping weight down was critical because Holland wanted the displacement below 750 tonnes. Additional fire-safety requirements added roughly 60 tonnes during the build, yet M5 still floated within about 1cm (0.4in) of her planned half-load waterline.

Her lifting keel is the really big bit of engineering below the water. The original system allowed the draught to change from around 4m (13.1ft) for harbour access to 12m (39.4ft) under sail. A single hydraulic ram moves the keel vertically, while four 60-tonne locking rams on each side hold it in position. It can be set fully raised, just below deck level, halfway down for motoring or fully lowered for sailing.

That keel became one of the main jobs during the 2019/2020 NCA Refit programme. An earlier alteration had replaced the bulb with a tip and upset the balance, causing heavy vibration whenever the hydraulic ram moved the keel. NCA removed the 90-tonne, 13m (42.7ft) long structure, dismantled it, rebalanced it, repainted it and put it back into the yacht.

The same refit changed M5 visually as well. The hull, superstructure and mast-boom assembly were repainted in three shades of grey, while a rigid composite hardtop replaced the earlier bimini. Rob Doyle Design and Adriana Monk worked on the new hardtop and flybridge helm stations, giving the upper deck a much more permanent structure without making it feel closed in.

The hardtop itself follows the geometry of the sailing hardware rather than ignoring it. Its shape picks up the line between the mainsheet and traveller, while indirect lighting and a sunroof over the dining area allow guests to see the sails above.

Interior Design

M5's interior has changed quite a lot since the Mirabella V years, but the refits have worked with the original layout rather than wiping it clean.

The first interior was developed around pale cherrywood, teak, Italian fabrics, oriental rugs and antique furniture sourced around Europe. The owner's brief was quite personal, with individual antique pieces in the cabins and furniture chosen for use rather than simply filling the rooms. The main saloon originally mixed casual seating with a large expandable dining table, full bar, games table and cinema setup.

The 2019/2020 refit moved the interior in a sharper direction. Rob Doyle Design worked with RWD on the update, replacing older fabrics and Alcantara with more current materials and reworking spaces including the owner's suite, bathroom and library.

One of the loveliest details is the red jasper bar top. The stone had been given to the owner as a gift and had broken into eight pieces. It was too hard for the local stone workers to deal with, so sculptors from Pietrasanta were brought in. They spent 75 days cutting, matching and finishing the pieces by hand until the joins disappeared.

The colour of that jasper also fed into the wider interior palette, with new soft furnishings and finishes built around its deep red tones. Against the older timber and the stronger black-and-white contrasts introduced during the refit, it gives the rooms a bit of warmth without sending the interior back towards the traditional look it once had.

Accommodation

M5 accommodates up to 12 guests in six suites and carries up to 14 crew.

The original guest arrangement comprised four doubles and two twins, reached by a stair from the main saloon. Each cabin had its own colour scheme and was named after a semi-precious stone, with walnut veneer charts inset into wardrobe doors, antique bedside chests and full en suite bathrooms with baths and integrated showers.

The owner's suite sits forward of the main saloon and is entered through a private study. The original arrangement placed the bedroom to starboard, with walk-in wardrobes serving the sleeping area and bathrooms, while Georgian and Regency furniture sat alongside the yacht's built-in joinery.

The 2019/2020 refit updated the owner's suite, bathroom and library, and also created a dedicated wellness room elsewhere on board.

Performance & Capabilities

M5 was built because her first owner wanted the range and comfort of a large motor yacht without giving up proper sailing. That sounds simple enough, but doing it with one mast at this size created some fairly extraordinary engineering problems.

The mainsail was one of them. A sail of this size could not realistically be taken into a normal sail loft for repair, so Doyle Sailmakers split it into seven sections connected by battens. The upper battens use S-glass for extra toughness, while lower sections use carbon fibre to save weight. Two of the most heavily loaded battens were fitted with nitrogen-damped compression springs to absorb shock during an accidental tack or gybe.

The mast has twin sail tracks which divide above the boom, allowing alternate sail sections to flake down on either side of the wide W-section boom. This keeps as little cloth as possible above the boom when the sail is down and cuts windage under power.

The headsail arrangement is similarly serious. Three headstays carry a Utility Power Sail, working jib and staysail, all using hydraulic furlers. Hydraulic power for the winches and furlers comes from four pump motors capable of supplying up to 180kW. Even the sheets had to be specially developed, with 34mm Dyneema lines rated to around 110 tonnes breaking load.

The control system is there to stop all of this getting silly. A Praxis monitoring network watches rig loads, the lifting keel, machinery and hydraulic systems across around 1,800 channels. If sheet loads or heel angle exceed set limits, the system can ease the sheets and raise the vang automatically to spill wind.

Under power, M5 uses twin MTU 12V2000M70 diesels producing 1,080hp each. She cruises at around 10 knots and has a quoted range of about 3,455 nautical miles at 11 knots, while under sail the owner has helmed her at 22 knots.

Leisure & Entertainment

M5 has a gym, sauna, wellness room and cinema, but some of the outdoor kit is even more unusual.

Two inflatable tenders are carried forward, and once they are launched the deck space beneath reveals a large spa pool to port and a seawater exercise pool to starboard. The latter allows guests to swim against a current rather than simply sit in the water.

A mast lift takes guests up the rig for views over the yacht and anchorage, while the stern garage houses the main tender and watersports gear. The transom opens hydraulically and the lower stern drops to water level, with teak steps lowered into the sea for swimming.