GREEN with ENVY

SPIRIT YACHTS has launched one of the most sustainable superyachts afloat—and she’s a beaut. goal without compromising aesthetics, luxury appointments or sailing performance.

The Spirit 111’s sustainability efforts start with a hull that’s built using wood and epoxy on a stainless-steel spaceage frame. “The research into materials and technologies was Spirit’s efforts,” explains Nigel Stuart, Spirit Yachts’ managing director. This began with timber selection. “The majority of the hull is made from Douglas fir from Canada, where the forests are tightly managed and heavily regulated.” These timbers were Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and Spirit Yachts took the additional step of conducting one-on-one conversations with foresters and timber-mill operators to thoroughly vet the supply chain.

While “green” epoxies weren’t readily available during the Spirit 111’s build, Spirit Yachts found other important ways to channel Elon Musklike thinking. These include four Bmw-built 40-kilowatthour lithium-ion batteries and a 100 kw Torqeedo-built electric motor that—while the yacht is sailing—harnesses the Spirit 111’s spinning prop and drive shaft to repower the batteries using regeneration.

“At the time of the build, the drive system was a new product for Torqeedo, and it was designed for Spirit but with other yachts also in mind,” Stuart says. Since then, Torqeedo added this drive to its standard menu, meaning that the Spirit 111 project helped spur a next-generation product for other similarly minded owners and builders.

Lighting and air conditioning represent greedy power draws aboard most superyachts, but Spirit Yachts employed LED lighting, motion detectors, a variablespeed air-conditioning system, and a smart control system (think Nest thermostats) to trim electrical consumption where possible. “The system is smart by turning off unwanted