Bond’s Boats
Fans of 007 are eagerly anticipating who will next play their beloved secret agent in the James Bond films, but boat enthusiasts are patiently awaiting the reveal of 007’s newest tricked-out vessel. When people think of 007, they remember his Walther PPK, his Aston Martin DB5 and his shaken, not stirred, martinis. Yet Bond continuously found himself on the water aboard some kind of craft in each of his adventures. There was the infamous Glastron GT-150 in Live and Let Die, the Riva Aquarama in Goldeneye, and the 54-foot Spirit Yachts sailboat in Casino Royale.
Bond, it seems, knows his boats. In this photo from 1999’s The World is Not Enough, Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) speeds down the Thames River in a Q Boat while chasing a female villain on a Sunseeker Superhawk. In the Bond universe, the Q Boat is powered by a turbine jet engine with twin jet exhausts. It also features a dive function for underwater operation, a torpedo launcher in the bow plus a GPS navigation system. In reality, the Q Boat with standard deep-V hull had a 300-hp marine V8 engine that powered a water jet drive system. When on plane, the Q Boat could cruise in just 4 inches of water. The vessel was a custom design by Doug Riddle and built by Riddle Marine in Idaho.
Filming the Q Boat chase was a feat, with 15 boats built for the film, a number of which were wrecked during production. Only nine of the original 15 boats remain. The filmmakers received special permission to exceed the strict 12-knot limit on the Thames while filming. Eyewitnesses who were on location during filming remarked that Brosnan looked to be “thoroughly enjoying himself” while driving the Q boat. And seriously, who could blame him?
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