Feadship Yacht Mira: Once Lost, Then Found, and Fully Restored

If Hollywood were to produce a movie about yachting, the story behind the yacht Mira would be a tearjerker. Build number 904 from 1953 isn’t a superyacht, but she’s a rich part of Feadship’s past—and future. A classic yacht that was all but doomed to obscurity underwent an entire rebuild by its apprentices, who blended time-honored craftsmanship with modern technology.

the original Mira circa 1953 — Mira in 1952, prior to delivery in 1953

Sijbrand De Vries, the director of Feadship’s Makkum yard, has a special place in his heart for classic yachts. His staff is well aware of it, too. “They know that it’s something I really like to take care of for future generations,” he explains. Back in 2020, his staff was reading listings on the Dutch equivalent of eBay when an ad for an old boat in a barn caught their eye. They brought it to his attention, and collectively they wondered whether she was one of Feadship’s storied Express Cruisers. Twenty-five in total, the Express Cruisers officially launched Feadship in the USA in the 1950s, beginning at the New York Boat Show.

the original helm on the Feadship Mira — the original helm and helm chairs aboard Mira

De Vries knew he had to see the 39-footer (12-meter) personally. He arranged a visit, and there in the barn was quite the startling sight. The superstructure had an extra roof, for instance. She wasn’t capable of cruising, either, with essentially every system stripped and scattered about. As for the engine compartment, “the engine was really a strange thing, and not what you normally see,” De Vries remembers. “If someone is restoring a yacht like this, he or she will always start with the interior, instead of digging into the technical.” That was certainly the case with this 39-footer. The person selling the yacht was the widow of a man who had attempted a rebuild but hadn’t completed it. By the looks overall, De Vries determined, “he was starting with all the detailing but forgot the engine, forgot the hull itself.” He adds, “it was really an old wreck.”

Although the widow knew the yacht was a Feadship and he and his team suspected the same, De Vries wanted confirmation. His uncle, Huib De Vries, is the Feadship resident historian, a walking encyclopedia of shipyard history. Huib dug into the archives and found not only that the boat was a 1953 build christened Mira, but that she also had an interesting history. In brief, a Dutch owner commissioned her, and Feadship requested permission to exhibit her at the New York Boat Show. The owner consented, on the promise that Feadship would build him a similar Express Cruiser. That new cruiser was Mira. (Good thing, too: The Express Cruiser sent to America sold at the boat show.)

Mira pre-restoration, with the extra roof

Striking a deal to buy the “old wreck,” De Vries knew that restoration would be an ideal project for the apprentices at the Feadship yard in Makkum. “You don’t do this to make money, you do it to educate people and to take care of our heritage,” he notes. Some of these same trainees learn by contributing to the more traditional Feadships under construction as well. It took the apprentices two years to complete her, versus the few months the experienced craftspeople would have needed. More importantly, though, De Vries says about 26 apprentices graduated with the restoration as the fruit of their learning.

They surely earned their diplomas judging by the scope of the work performed on the yacht Mira. “Many things are like it was, and some things are new,” De Vries points out. Upon stripping the hull back to bare steel, for example, “we found there were a lot of holes,” he says. The repairs therefore were a big job for the apprentices, with the guidance of an instructor. Additionally, the apprentices removed the extra deck from the teak and mahogany superstructure. Furthermore, “we made it hybrid,” De Vries says. Specifically, an electric motor provides propulsion, while a 15-kW Fischer Panda genset recharges a linked battery bank. Top speed under the electric motor is about 6 knots, for just shy of seven hours of cruising. Better yet, De Vries estimates, the yacht Mira can cruise leisurely for about 16 hours on batteries alone.

As much as De Vries is delighted with the restoration, he’s immensely proud of the apprentices’ future. “The thing I like the most is young people,” he says. “We have an opinion about young people, ‘in the old days, it was much better.’ Now, no way; young people are fantastic if they are really eager to learn. That’s what happens if you have a project like this.”

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