Largest single-mast ship visits Southwest Harbor

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine — A giant sailboat hasn’t been turning heads in Southwest Harbor this week — not exactly. It’s more like it’s raising those heads and chins and gazes as people look to the skies to locate the top of the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world.

The M5 has been docked in Southwest Harbor since last week.

One Southwest Harbor resident said that the 89-meter mast can be seen over the trees at the town’s Causeway Club. That mast length is roughly the size of a football field. The boat itself is 78 meters long.

According to SuperYachtFan , “The superyacht is the brainchild of Irish-based, New Zealand-born yacht designer, Ron Holland, a respected name in the industry. The intricate composite construction of the hull and rig was closely monitored and supervised by High Modulus Europe Ltd, a renowned Hamble-based firm.”

Yachtsinternational.com says that M5’s giant mast holds a 36,000-square-foot sail.

According to MarineTraffic , she had last been in Providence, Rhode Island. She arrived in Southwest Harbor on July 16.

The yacht is currently owned by Rodney Ray Lewis, who founded Texas-based Lewis Energy Group . Lewis is a renowned pilot. He was a gauger in the late 1970s, purchased an oil well in 1982 for $13,000, and founded the company, which has operations in Texas, Mexico and Colombia. He purchased his first plane a year before the well — a hand-cranked Aeronca Chief. He’s also known as having what Forbes calls “one of the top vintage warbird collections in the country.”

There is often a plane resting on the back of the yacht. This is also the case in Southwest Harbor. Lewis’ father was a pilot in the Air Force.

This story was originally published by The Bar Harbor Story . To receive regular coverage from the Bar Harbor Story, sign up for a free subscription here .