PRINCESS R35 BRIT PACK
The 50-knot R35 isn’t just the fastest Princess yet, it’s also the most radical thanks to a state-of-the-art active foiling system. We take the prototype for a spin
We’re the first magazine in the world to get behind the wheel of the prototype and its revolutionary active foiling system
Nothing can prepare you for meeting the Princess R35 prototype in the flesh. Photos and some short video clips of the boat have been doing the rounds on the internet for a couple of months but sitting in a berth at Kingpoint in Plymouth, surrounded by the usual mix of marina inhabitants, it looks out of this world. It has a menacing, almost gunboat profile and the bright ‘camouflage’ hull wrap is extraordinarily whacky for a company that is generally rather reserved. But hell, this thing tears up the rulebook for breakfast, so why hide its light beneath a bushel? It stands out like a shire horse at Crufts.
As well as the spy shots and video snippets, rumours have also been circulating online about the technology the R35 will harness. BAR Technologies has been involved in its development, that much is certain, but exactly what the team behind Ben Ainslie’s foiling AC45 America’s Cup yacht has brought to the party has been unclear – until now. Imminently, I will plonk myself into the helm seat, the first person outside of the development team to do so, and see if one of the most mysterious new boats in years lives up to its billing.
Before we hit the water though, let’s look at how the R35 came to be. Like so many projects of this nature, the R35’s conception began with a phone call. Around 18 months ago, Princess’s executive chairman Antony Sheriff called his former Mclaren colleague and current CEO of Ben Ainslie Racing Technologies (BART) Martin Whitmarsh and suggested they should collaborate on a boat together. Sheriff wanted to target a new breed of Princess customer with something exciting that moved the game on.
“High-end sportscars in a similar price range to the R35 sell in their thousands,” Sheriff points out, “but equivalent boats
sell in their hundreds.” Princess wants to appeal to these customers, younger buyers who may have never considered buying a boat nor associate with the lifestyle.
The yard decided an entirely new approach was called for so having poached one of Mclaren’s top composite technologies experts Paul Mackenzie as product development director, they began talks with BAR Technologies and Italian design house Pininfarina to create something that was fresh, innovative but still, in its words, ‘recognisable as a Princess.’
“The creative process of the R35 is totally different to other boats within the Princess range,” Mackenzie says. “It has been a collaborative effort involving senior members of the Princess management team, BAR Technologies and Pininfarina from day one.” Dealers have been a crucial sounding board throughout too, a mouthpiece for the existing customer base that has shown a thirst for a Princess like this, especially in the Med.
CARBON COPY
The R35 will be constructed in its own dedicated facility at the Newport Street premises. The boat will be 100% carbon fibre – we’re talking everything from hull to decks to locker lids – and though Princess has been building components for its larger boats out of the material for some time, this is the first boat that doesn’t have a strand of glassfibre in its DNA. Princess claims it is 25% lighter than an equivalent glassfibre boat. A prototype has been built to allow the team to relentlessly test the boat’s handling and performance. A sage move given this is going to be the first 50-knot Princess.
The ‘R’ in R35 stands for revolution, and this is where BAR Technologies has a major part to play. The team at Princess want to create a fast dayboat where performance is truly accessible and ride comfort is paramount. A planing hull with a pair of Volvo Penta 430hp V8 petrols on sterndrives take care of the first part but it was the second bit of this equation that sent the BAR team back to their skunkworks to put their heads together. What they’ve come back with is a foiling system that harnesses the technology in an entirely different manner to what we have seen before. These guys have exhaustive experience in using foils to boost performance and efficiency, so this comes as no great surprise.
The inverted T-shaped foils on the R35 do not lift the hull clear of the water, as would normally be the case. Instead, the carbon-fibre fins deploy from within the hull just forward of the transom to produce additional lift at the stern and ‘push’ the bow down into the water to ensure the sharpest part of the hull is cleaving through it, softening the ride. In addition, a gyroscope is constantly monitoring the boat’s movements and feeding information to the foils via a computer so that they can actively adapt to the sea state. On the finished boat there will be a dial equivalent to Land Rover’s terrain response system, allowing the skipper to adjust it to suit the current sea conditions. The team is still configuring the settings but are thinking ‘comfort’, ‘sport’ and ‘rough weather’ modes. Within those parameters, the foils will adjust
themselves depending on whether it’s a head sea, a following sea or the waves are on the beam. The team claims that because the foils also work independently of each other, they can rectify lean if the boat is unevenly loaded so there isn’t the need for trim tabs or interceptors.
It’s important to clarify that from the hull up, this mule is nothing like the finished product. Pininfarina’s 3D renderings on the previous page give the clearest idea yet as to what the production version will look like and we know that below decks, there is space for a convertible vee berth and a separate bathroom.
The hull, engines, drivetrain and foil technology will adorn the production boat but the rest of this prototype is a throwntogether test bed made up of bits from the parts bin. It’s properly basic, with no soundproofing or even a windscreen, and the helm seats have been pinched from one of Princess’s flybridge models. Recognisable Volvo Penta switchgear and screens, presenting only what is strictly necessary, nestle within a roughly finished dashboard.
Simon Schofield of BAR Technologies is prodding away on a tablet, which is linked to a laptop lashed down within an inch of its life inside the cabin that talks to the foils. This is how the foils are controlled in the development stage but at launch, the boat will have an interface embedded within the glass bridge multifunction display that will allow the driver to switch between modes and adjust the foils’ pitch to plus and minus 5º via a touchsensitive slider.
We up the speed and it immediately feels as if there’s an invisible hand on the foredeck, pushing the bow into the water
ready for takeoff
Our skipper hits the ignition buttons and the V8s bark into life, barely muffled by the unsoundproofed engine hatch. The mule hasn’t been through Princess’s rigorous NVH process so it feels raw and ever so slightly unhinged.
We burble away from the pontoon with the foils in the up position so I can feel how the hull rides without them doing their thing. Adam Green, senior naval architect at Princess, acknowledges that the foil technology can in no way compromise the workings of the 35 in comparison to a regular hull design. “We’ve tested it to destruction in a massive variety of conditions and even run it up the mud flats. We’ve tested it to the extremes that most customers wouldn’t dream of but we have to be certain it works.” The foils themselves are designed to sheer off cleanly if they do come into contact with an underwater object so as not to leave a gaping in hole in the spot they once occupied.
We up the speed and it becomes abundantly clear that, foils aside, Princess has designed a serious hull here. It’s grippy, agile and pleasantly dry given how exposed we are in the sparse cockpit. We can’t test to full speed but it canters up to 35 knots in no time before the skipper chucks it into a few turns to give some before and after foils contrast.
Ultimately, the foils will deploy automatically at around 15 knots and get on with their job without input from the helm but in its current state, Simon needs to drop them via his tablet. On board, there’s no perception that they have entered the water but with them set to ‘comfort’ mode, we up the speed and it immediately feels as if there’s an invisible hand on the foredeck, pushing the bow into the water. The bow doesn’t rise as the speed increases and there’s a tangible feeling that the hull is extremely well adhered to the surface.
We reach the test top speed of 35 knots and I am given an instruction to hold on as the skipper whizzes the wheel from lock to lock and the boat attempts to detach my internal organs from each other. The poise, the grip and the tenacity is just extraordinary, and because we barely drop a knot in full-lock turns, the G-force is ferocious. It physically hurts to hold on because of the boat’s stubborn will to grip even in the most absurd manoeuvres. At one point, we cross a triplet of waves at 45º and chuck a hard turn to starboard over one of the peaks. I brace with every sinew in anticipation of an almighty lurch to port when we land but it doesn’t materialise. Accessible performance? I’d say so; you’d have to be a certified lunatic to outwit this thing.
in the driver’s seat
Simon comes alongside in the support RIB and puts the foils into ‘sport’ mode, which digs the bow down even further. Because of this, even during slower turns, the hull can throw up quite a bit of water and we take a drenching in the process. It’s a shame there wasn’t a spare windscreen in the parts bin. “We’re still fine-tuning it,” he says with a wry smile. Finally, the time comes for me to slip into the helm seat. “Take it easy, build the speed slowly and don’t prang it,” says Adam. With the boat’s occupants’ eyes burning into the back of my head, I ease the throttles forward and we surge to 25 knots. Back in ‘comfort’ mode and cracking along in a straight line at 35 knots, the boat carves through the short chop in Plymouth Sound with remarkable stability. The bow barely undulates as we take the waves head on and it’s clear after a brief spell at 25 knots for photographs that the R35 craves the higher cruising speed with the foils thriving off increased lift and forcing the forefoot through the water.
We run with the four people on board spread unevenly about the cockpit and the foils struggle to tilt us back on to the straight and narrow. The team are debating as to whether some form of traditional trim system would be beneficial but the last thing they want is the foils, tabs and sterndrive legs all fighting against each other. As it is, the legs remain clamped tight to the transom.
Money talks
Though it’s clear there is still some fine tuning to be done, Princess has already done more than enough to capture the imagination with this boat. The first year of production is already sold out before the price has been confirmed (Princess says it will be around £500,000). The fact that these customers have signed on the dotted line having only seen a scale model of what the finished article will look like and with no idea of how it will drive speaks volumes about the confidence they have in the project. Until we test a production R35 later this summer, we can’t be quite so certain that it will live up to the bold performance and efficiency claims being made for it. But having experienced the extraordinary ride and handling of the prototype’s active foiling system, we are confident that Princess isn’t just about to launch it’s most exciting boat yet, it’s also on the cusp of something truly revolutionary. Contact www.princessyachts.com