Merkki

Sunseeker

Sunseeker International is a British builder of motor yachts based in Poole, Dorset. Its origins trace to Friar's Cliff Marine, a boat dealership near Christchurch, Hampshire, run by the Braithwaite family from the early 1960s. In 1969, having outgrown the Friar's Cliff site, Robert Braithwaite and his brother John moved production to Poole Harbour and renamed the business Poole Powerboats; sources differ on whether the first boat, the Sovereign 17, was built that year or in 1971. The brothers put the Sunseeker name on two 1976 models, the Sports 23 and Daycab 23, and adopted it for the whole company when it was renamed Sunseeker International in 1985. Sunseeker's design direction was shaped from the late 1970s by naval architect Don Shead, whose first project for the yard, the 1978 Offshore 28, opened export markets in France, Spain and Germany. The 1980s range added the Portofino 31 and Tomahawk 37. The Predator name, applied to performance sports yachts from the 1980s onward, became one of the brand's longest-running lines; the jet-drive Renegade 60 and the Predator 80 of the mid-1990s moved the builder into larger, faster designs. The Manhattan flybridge range also dates from this period. Entry into the superyacht segment is usually dated to the 105 Yacht, launched around 2000-2001 as the largest model then built; one other source instead puts Sunseeker's first superyacht as early as 1990. An Ocean range of larger yachts followed from 2020, later renamed under a standardised naming convention with "Ocean Enclosed" suffixes (e.g. 82 Ocean Enclosed, 90 Ocean Enclosed). Robert Braithwaite led a GBP 44 million management buyout in 2006. Sunseeker yachts gained wider recognition through James Bond film appearances from The World Is Not Enough (1999) through Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008). Braithwaite stayed associated with the company until his death in 2019. Ownership has changed repeatedly since. In 2013 China's Dalian Wanda Group agreed to buy a 91.8% stake for GBP 320 million, completing that August; its holding later grew to roughly 96%. After eleven years, Wanda sold the business in October 2024 to Lionheart Capital (US) and Orienta Capital Partners (Italy). Financial difficulties followed: lenders Cheyne Capital and Cross Ocean Partners provided emergency funding from around November 2025, and in March 2026 a consortium led by KCP Holdings, with Lionheart Capital, was reported to be buying out that lender debt to acquire the company. The deal collapsed in April 2026, and in July 2026 Cheyne Capital and Cross Ocean Partners instead converted their lending position into ownership, becoming long-term shareholders and providing about GBP 68 million in further funding. They installed Scott Millar, previously advising the business through Teneo, as chief executive, with Adrian Mardell (formerly of Jaguar Land Rover) as non-executive chairman and other senior appointments alongside. As of 2026 Sunseeker operates from Poole across several production sites, employing roughly 2,500-2,600 people and building on the order of 150 boats a year from about 38 to over 160 feet. Current ranges are grouped as Predator, Manhattan, Ocean and Superyacht. On 8 September 2026, at the Cannes Yachting Festival, the company under Millar presented a new brand platform, "The Original Mavericks," built around its history of departing from convention in yacht design, alongside new models including the 45M Superyacht, the 86 Ocean Enclosed and the Manhattan 94.