Manticore Yacht - Northern Cross

The Manticore yacht seen in the 1995 movie GoldenEye is the Northern Cross, a 43m (141ft) luxury yacht built in Sweden in 1991.

In the film the Manticore yacht is owned by the Janus crime syndicate ("leased to a known Janus corporate front" according to Miss Moneypenny) and used by Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen).

James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), from his look out point at Theatre Fort Antoine in Monte Carlo, uses his Pysis Night Vision Digital Monocular and sees Xenia and Admiral Chuck Farrel arrive at Yacht Club de Monaco in Xenia's Ferrari F355 GTS. The couple boards a Riva Aquarama Special speedboat to get from the dock to the Manticore. The Riva has the name "Manticore" and the letters "Y.C.M." (for Yacht Club de Monaco) on the stern.

Bond gets information about Xenia and the Manticore yacht via his Alpine 7817R car radio in the Aston Martin DB5.

On the yacht, Xenia Onatopp kills Admiral Chuck Farrel with her powerful thighs. Xenia then takes Farrel's ID card to get access to the La Fayette navy vessel and steal the Eurocopter Tiger helicopter.

The next day, James Bond uses a Riva Monte Carlo 30 Offshorer to get to the Manticore yacht. There he climbs on board, enters the Main Deck Saloon, takes out a crew member and finds the body of Farrel hidden in a closet in a cabin. When he understands what's going on, he jumps back in the Riva and speeds toward the La Fayette, where he's just too late to prevent Xenia from stealing the helicopter.

About the Northern Cross
The yacht was designed by Tor Hinders and Per Kavli and built in 1991 at the Marinteknik Verkstads AB shipyard in Sweden. For many years it was owned by Finnish business man Jorma Lillbacka.

The top speed of the yacht is 24 knots thanks to two large Caterpillar engines which came from a locomotive in the USA, but were converted for use on the yacht.

The accommodation is designed to sleep up to 10 guests over 5 cabins: 1 Master suite, 2 double cabins and 2 single cabins. The crew cabins accommodate up to 8 people. There is a bar, a saloon dining area and three sun decks.

The following sales numbers are not confirmed, but it looks like the yacht was refurbished in 2001, sold in 2006 for $7 million, and in 2012 the yacht was offered for sale at the price of approximately €5 million and a few years later offered for €2 million.

The yacht is currently offered for sale for €2,295,000 (approx. $2,420,000) by Infinite Yachts.

For years the Northern Star yacht was available as a charter for approximately €100,000 ($113,000) per week. The yacht is docked at Mariehamn at the Åland Islands in Finland (thanks to coments below for update) where the technical operation is managed by ASP Ship Management.

The yacht is named after the Northern Cross astronomical asterism in the northern hemisphere celestial sphere, corresponding closely with the constellation Cygnus (The Swan).

The Manticore name in the film might have been chosen because of it's symbolism: Manticore is a Persian legendary man-eating monster similar to the Egyptian sphinx. The creature It has the head of a human, body of a lion and a tail of venomous spines similar to porcupine quills, while other depictions have it with the tail of a scorpion. The name is derived from the Persian name for “Man eater”, which could symbolize the power of Xenia as a 'man-eater'.