Mirabella V launched in 2004 at 75m LOA, the largest single-mast sloop in the world by a wide margin. Built by Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton to a Ron Holland design, commissioned by Joe Vittoria, the founder of Avis Rent A Car. She entered the open charter market immediately and ran a normal Mediterranean and Caribbean calendar for the first five years of her life at an asking rate in the 2004 to 2009 Mirabella V weekly charter rate band range. In 2009 Vittoria sold the yacht and the new owner renamed her M5. In 2017 Pendennis Shipyard extended her to 78m. The yacht the world knew as Mirabella V no longer exists under that name. This is the historical post and the reason matters.
A yacht's history affects the yacht in front of you. If you are pricing a 70m-plus sailing charter in 2026 and you have heard of Mirabella V, you are researching a yacht that has been M5 for over fifteen years and physically different from her original launch configuration for eight. The pre-rebuild Mirabella V is not a charter option. The post-rebuild M5 is.
Original specs at launch
75m LOA, 14.8m beam, retractable centreboard giving a draft of 4m board-up and 10m board-down. Composite hull built by Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton. A 90m carbon mast giving roughly 1,500 square metres of sail at launch. Single 1,500 hp diesel coupled to a feathering propeller. Top speed under sail in the high teens. Twelve guests in 6 cabins from launch.
The sailplan was the defining engineering achievement. A single-mast rig at 75m LOA puts an unusual structural load through the hull, and the carbon mast at 90m above the waterline required engineering that had not been demonstrated at this scale before 2004. The yacht held the title of largest single-mast sloop in the world from launch in 2004 until 2017, when the same hull, now M5, was extended to 78m and retained the title at the larger size.
The charter years 2004 to 2009
Mirabella V chartered actively under Vittoria. The asking rate was in the 2004 to 2009 weekly charter rate band range, peak Mediterranean. APA was the standard 30 percent. Charter brokers in London, Monaco, and Fort Lauderdale handled the listings, with as the central agent of record. The yacht moved between Mediterranean summer and Caribbean winter, with a delivery passage to and from the East Coast US in early winter and late spring.
The charter calendar in those years was full by the standards of an unusual sailing yacht at this scale, though not as densely booked as a comparable 75m motor yacht in the same era. The reasons were the ones that still apply to large sailing-yacht charter in 2026. The keel draft limits some anchorages. The rig handling requires a longer setup at each stop. And the experience aboard rewards a charter party that wants to sail, not a party that wants a stationary luxury platform.
A specific note that we have not seen handled clearly elsewhere. In 2005 Mirabella V suffered a knockdown in the Mediterranean that drew significant attention in the sailing press. The yacht recovered, the structural and rig damage was assessed and repaired, and the yacht continued in service. The incident is part of the history of the hull and worth knowing about for anyone researching the yacht as a buyer or a charter client doing due diligence on the structural record..
The 2009 sale and rename
Vittoria sold the yacht in 2009. The buyer was. The new owner renamed the yacht M5 and removed her from the open charter market for a period of private use, then returned her to commercial charter under the new name and a different central agent.
The asking price at the 2009 sale was reportedly in the range. The final sale price was. Asking and sale prices on yachts of this scale are rarely the same number, and most public reporting reflects the asking price, not the closed transaction.
The Pendennis programme and the rename to M5
In 2017 Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth completed a major rebuild and extension programme. The hull was extended from 75m to 78m. The interior was reworked. The rig hardware was updated. Systems were refreshed across the yacht. The yacht has operated as M5 since the 2017 completion and her current charter spec is described in our M5 charter profile.
Pendennis is the British answer at this scale and one of the few yards in the world capable of executing a 75m-to-78m hull extension on a composite-hull single-mast sloop. The programme is documented in trade press and the result is the yacht currently on the open market as M5. The structural elements forward of the stern extension are original Mirabella V; the stern section, the systems, the interior, and the rig hardware are post-2017.
What this means for buyers and charter clients in 2026
If you are researching Mirabella V as a charter option, the relevant entry is the M5 profile. The yacht under the Mirabella V name has not existed since 2009 and the original spec sheet has not described the yacht's physical state since 2017.
If you are researching Mirabella V as part of due diligence on a comparable yacht, the historical context matters in three ways.
First, the 2005 knockdown is part of the structural record of the hull and is relevant if you are evaluating a similar single-mast composite hull of similar age. The knockdown did not end the yacht's life and the repair work has stood up for over twenty years, which is a useful data point on the resilience of a composite hull of this configuration.
Second, the original asking and reported sale numbers are useful data points on the depreciation curve for a one-off large sailing yacht at this scale. The yacht held value better than a comparable motor yacht of the same age would have, though the rebuild programme that followed effectively replaced large portions of her commercial value with new spec.
Third, the choice to extend rather than scrap the hull is itself a data point. At 75m the yacht was the largest sloop in the world. At 78m she remains the largest sloop in the world. The decision to commit to a rebuild programme rather than acquire a different yacht reflects a particular value placed on the hull form and the engineering of the original build.
Three things we would change about the original brief
We would not change anything about a yacht that no longer exists, but reading the history backwards, the original Mirabella V brief had two structural questions that the rebuild addressed.
The first was the interior layout, which read as 2004 from the day she launched. The Pendennis refit reworked the interior to a contemporary standard. The original Vittoria-era interior is part of the charter record of the yacht in 2004 to 2009 and not part of the yacht today.
The second was the lower-deck cabin natural light, which the original hull-window layout limited. The rebuild addressed this in the context of a broader interior refresh. Charter clients aboard the yacht in 2026 should refer to the M5 spec sheet for current natural-light conditions, not the Mirabella V record.
What we have passed on
We have passed on the celebrity-charter speculation that surrounded the yacht in the mid-2000s, which is not relevant to the yacht's current case. We have passed on the technical detail of the Ron Holland design philosophy, which is well covered in the sailing press. We have passed on the build-cost number from 2004, because no publicly confirmed figure is reliable enough to repeat.
Where to look next
For the current charter case, see the M5 charter profile. M5 is the same hull at 78m with the Pendennis refit. The asking rate, the calendar, the crew, and the current state of the yacht are described there.
For a 90m schooner alternative from the same era, see Athena, the 2004 Royal Huisman gaff schooner.
For the current generation of Royal Huisman large schooners on open charter, see Sea Eagle II, the 81m three-masted aluminium schooner from 2020.
For a different rig technology at scale, see Maltese Falcon, the 88m Perini Navi DynaRig from 2006.
For a yacht with a different conversion-and-refit story at similar scale, see Enigma, the 74m Pendennis-history yacht.
Verdict
Mirabella V the yacht no longer exists in her launch configuration. Mirabella V the historical entry is worth preserving for the engineering case she made between 2004 and her 2017 rebuild. If you saw her listed in a charter brochure under the Mirabella V name in 2026, the listing is out of date and you should look at the M5 entry instead. If you are doing buyer due diligence on a single-mast composite sailing yacht of similar vintage and configuration, the Mirabella V hull record is one of the most thoroughly documented data points in the modern large-sailing-yacht era and worth reading carefully.
If you are visiting Falmouth or the southwest of England to see Pendennis or a yacht in refit, the team at HotelsForKings has the Cornwall list for places to stay.
Last updated
May 2026. We update this page when new public information about the original Mirabella V record is added, or when the M5 entry materially changes.