BOAT REPORT


The interior is simultaneously calming yet interesting, with intricate detailing that stands out


The top-hinged window in the aft galley


T The excellent L-shaped wet bar


Drawer storage is cleverly incorporated into the saloon sofa so it’s very easy to access


he recent Princess S Class series of boats is perhaps the fi nest marketing strategy since Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa, fi gured he was on to a


winner with a machine that cut loaves into slices. This is what fl oats around my head as we navigate the Hamble River, eight hours and 150 miles into my introduction to Princess’s latest fl ybridge cruiser, the 62. In fact, it is the second philosophical


thought of the day. The fi rst was, ‘Is Andy Lawrence, Princess head of design, a genius or a just a master illusionist?’ The question occurred to me as I approached the stern of the Princess 62, because it looks fantastic – and it’s only when you stand next to it that you realise it stretches up into the clouds like the Burj Khalifa. It’s taken some clever penmanship to make such a tall boat look so good, and it starts right at the top. “Traditionally, hardtops have been added


late in the design process,” Andy tells me. “But we incorporated the hardtop into this design from day one. We also put a lot of work into slimming the pillars that support it and integrating them into the design. If you look at the aft pillar, instead of being a separate entity, it segues smoothly into the roof – it’s one complete curve.” Andy’s visual alchemy doesn’t end there


– the boat is a smorgasbord of carefully considered radii. There’s the moulded accent line that bisects the fl ybridge side, stretching from the top of the windscreen back to the trailing edge of the cockpit overhang, visually lowering it without compromising practicality or integrity. Massive side windows are split by a ‘fl oating’ GRP spar – it isn’t connected at either end. In fact, it’s purely cosmetic – the windows are one piece. Andy tried deleting it altogether in the design stage but it just didn’t look as elegant apparently. Lower your eye and you’ll


spot two more swage lines in the hull topsides, one arcing powerfully forward from the bathing platform, the other discreetly linking the top of the


engine vents with the sabre-like slash of forward hull windows. Andy describes it as clean hull graphics – “the windows and engine vents need to look as though they belong together.” It’s a big improvement over the earlier Princess 68 which, because of its multiple different window and vent shapes, isn’t quite as harmonious. The trapezium master cabin window looks much less like a fl atscreen TV embedded into the topsides than the old rectangular windows too. A stainless-steel slash in the engine vents traces its roots right back to the inception of the fl ybridge Princess in the ’70s. It’s a far more successful retro touch than the twin chrome horns on the front of the fl ybridge – surely that parts bin must be empty by now? Hike up to the aft deck, pass the fi xed


table that the cockpit seating surrounds and step inside. The fi rst thing that hits you is a sense of space – this boat replaces not only the 60 but also the 64, houses 10% more volume than the former, and crucially, gets within 3% of the space inside the latter! The galley has moved from the centre of the main deck on previous boats to immediately inside the saloon doors, joined by a dinette. Apart from being a more sociable layout, it allows the space- robbing fridge-freezer to slip beneath the fl ybridge stairs, and lowering the galley fl oor area makes room for the useful overhead lockers that are often missing on galley-aft layouts (although I guarantee you’ll stumble down the shallow step at least once).


A STYLE EVOLUTION But beyond the layout and space, there’s a new sense of style to this Princess. “The interior is the start of a new concept” says Andy. “It’s an evolution rather than a radical departure, and we’ve gone for a slightly more architectural design with soft folded surfaces and a layered look”. Fabrics are of similar colour tones, with texture and fi nish differentiating surfaces instead. It’s simultaneously calming yet interesting. But what stands out is the intricate detailing. Princess interiors have always been well resolved, sometimes a little too well, to the extent that they sometimes come across as unremarkable. No chance of that here. Everywhere you


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