Nic de Mey: builder, racer, innovator
Tucked away near the Port of Tauranga you’ll find Nic de Mey Yachts. This isn’t a production yard or a flashy showroom for mass-market boats. It’s a workshop where carbon dust hangs in the air, designers and builders are deep in concentration, and half-finished hulls wait to become something remarkable. Everywhere you look, three decades of boatbuilding and entrepreneurship are glaringly obvious — in the precision of a CNC-cut part, the gloss of a finished hull, or the sketches pinned to the wall.
At the centre of it all is Nic de Mey, a boatbuilder whose career has spanned America’s Cup campaigns, Whitbread racers and countless composite innovations. Since launching his own shop in 1994, Nic has built a reputation for taking on the hardest jobs: the unusual, the demanding, the builds that require equal parts imagination and engineering. His guiding principle is clear: build boats that stir the soul. “If I’m not excited by it, I won’t build it.” That test has driven every project in the Tauranga workshop, but nowhere is it felt more strongly than on the ski racing circuit — a sport Nic has lived and breathed for more than three decades.
Racing boats, racing blood
If there’s one arena where Nic’s philosophy is tested to the limit, it’s ski racing. He’s been part of the sport for 31 years — as a racer, a builder, and now President of New Zealand Waterski Racing for 2025/26. For him, the draw is simple: the competition, the camaraderie, and the thrill of watching young skiers come off the water proud of their runs. “What you think you are capable of is only the beginning,” he says. “Never quit, and remember that a team working together is unbeatable.”
That passion is embodied in the Phantom F2, a full-carbon Formula 2 ski race boat that has quickly become a benchmark at the top level. Built to IWWF standards, the Phantom F2 measures 6.25m with a 2.03m beam and is powered by Mercury’s 300R. But what sets it apart is Nic’s dual role as builder and racer: “I drive race boats myself. I know what works.”
The boat is already making waves internationally. Earlier this year De Mey Yachts exported its first Phantom F2 to the United Kingdom, purchased by Damian Hopkins for his son Sam to compete at the 2025 World Waterski Racing Championships in Belgium. Since taking delivery, Sam Hopkins has won every race he has entered behind the green “81” hull — proof of both his skill and the Phantom’s performance credentials.
Each hull is infused carbon over foam, with a solid carbon transom and structural ski pole. Details such as billet fuel caps, CNC-machined fittings and exacting finishes set the standard high. To push boundaries further, Nic developed a stripped-back R&D boat nicknamed War Machine — a brutal, ultra-light test platform for structural experimentation and innovation ahead of the 2027 Worlds.
From podiums to passage-making
Ski racing may be Nic’s passion, but his vision stretches far beyond the racecourse. The same carbon mastery that produces championship-winning Phantoms is also shaping long-range explorers designed to travel anywhere in the world. The Spaceship 60, a 60-foot carbon catamaran drawn by Roger Hill, shows just how far Nic de Mey Yachts can reach.
Walking through the unfinished yacht in Tauranga, the design and build philosophy is clear. Every detail tells a story — from the way a bilge drainage issue was re-engineered into the layout, to the subtle choices made for comfort and efficiency. This is not just construction, it’s design thinking in action: listening to owners, understanding how they want to live aboard, and shaping solutions that make sense at sea.
Powered by twin 550hp Cummins and carrying 10,000 litres of diesel, the Spaceship 60 cruises at 18 knots on just over 6 litres per nautical mile. Ease her back to 10 knots and her range stretches well beyond 3,000 nautical miles. Semi-displacement hulls, foam-cored carbon structure and CNC precision combine strength, speed and efficiency in a way few boats of this scale can match.
Fit-out is equally considered: a tender garage along with a de Mey designed carbon catamaran tender, lithium power bank, solar array, panoramic helm and multiple living zones. From cabinetry and soft furnishings to composite fabrication, the finish is as tight as the engineering. The aim is simple — that each time the owner steps aboard, they pause, smile, and say: “Wow. That’s my boat.”
Building the wow factor
That “wow” moment doesn’t happen by accident. Nic knows that to deliver it every time, De Mey Yachts has to control more of the process than most yards do. That philosophy has shaped the business as much as it has the boats.
Over the years he has brought almost every trade in-house: cabinetry, upholstery, painting, CNC machining, even 3D printing. It’s not about empire-building, but about ensuring quality never slips. “We replaced a lot of traditional skill with better tools. But the mindset, the pride in each detail, is the same,” Nic explains.
That investment proved crucial during COVID, when skilled labour was scarce. Rather than compromise, De Mey Yachts doubled down on precision. Today they design and print their own moulds, fabricate carbon parts in-house, and prototype everything from stainless fittings to complex ducting systems. The result is visible everywhere you look — from curved walnut tables inlaid with carbon, to furnishings that feel tailored rather than fitted.
Design is also a conversation. Nic shapes the concept, while Gregor — his Slovene collaborator — brings finesse. Their back-and-forth is equal parts creative and clinical. Whether designing a 17-metre powercat being built by another builder, adjusting 20mm of camber or reshaping a transom line, every design is stress-tested on screen before any carbon is cut. The result: builds that look like renderings, and perform even better.
For clients, that precision comes with something rarer: connection. Each project begins with Nic and Gregor sitting down to listen. “People don’t always know what they want until you draw it,” Nic says. From first sketch to sea trial, every decision is collaborative. Buyers don’t just get a boat, they get a journey. And when launch day comes, their stride down the dock says it all.
Nic has no interest in scaling up. De Mey Yachts builds fewer boats with greater care, while lending its design expertise to other yards and select projects — from foiling cats, to design studies for Haines Hunter, to speculative work on electric boats and carbon-bodied cars. “I don’t want to build average boats for clients,” Nic says. “If we do it, it has to be exceptional.”
While the industry chases electric dreams and production numbers, Nic stays focused on excellence. Carbon, lithium, petrol — the power source doesn’t matter so long as the result is unforgettable. Whether it’s a world-class ski boat or a long-range carbon cat, the De Mey signature is unmistakable: precise, innovative, uncompromising.
Nic de Mey doesn’t do average. It’s exceptional or nothing. Step back into that Tauranga workshop and you see why: the dust, the gloss, the sketches on the wall — every mark of three decades spent chasing boats that stir the soul.
