Finding Mira
by Feadship 8 Apr 2021 10:49 BST
12-metre Mira © Feadship
The rich multi-generation-spanning history of Feadship underpins everything we do today as a world leader in high-tech superyacht building.
While today's Feadships are literally and figurately giants of the global fleet, we also take good care to preserve our heritage whenever possible. Imagine then how much we enjoyed welcoming the 12-metre Mira to our Makkum yard in February, a Feadship with a story or two to tell.
Mira is a so-called Express Cruiser, one of a series of 25 mini-Feadships built in the early 1950s as part of our successful brand launch onto the US market. The original build was for a Dutch owner who agreed to let his yacht be exhibited at the New York Motor Boat Show in 1952 as long as we built a new one for him. With her steel hull and mahogany superstructure, this 'second' Mira was given the build number 904 and launched in 1953.
Discovery trail
The boat was found last year on the Dutch equivalent of eBay by Sieger van Kampen, project leader at one of the Feadship training schools. Sieger is always on the lookout for early Feadships as they offer a fantastic way for students and staff alike to hone their refit skills on a yacht that will hold intrinsic brand value. As he looked at the images online the big question of course was whether she actually was a Feadship.
Jumping in his car to visit the seller, Sieger found a stripped boat with parts spread all over the place, even in the hayloft. "The owner, who had been unaware that he potentially had a Feadship on his hands, allowed myself and a colleague to search his premises for clues," remembers Sieger.
"There were boxes everywhere, but the big breakthrough came when we found the build number plate 904. We then dived into the archives at Feadship with the help of in-house historian Huib de Vries. Eventually, we found photographs of the boat including the name of the owner and the magic number 904. It was so exciting to be able to confirm that we had tracked down another Feadship."
Facelift
The students at the Feadship Makkum training school are now giving Mira a complete facelift, including her hull, superstructure, floors and technical aspects. We will share the results in due course but for now the moral of this tale is to keep an eye out when you come across classic boats... You never know where you might find a Feadship!