THE BEAUTIFUL 30M FROM PRINCESS YACHTS IS LESS THAN 100 FEET LONG, YET SERIOUSLY SPACIOUS AND DECIDEDLY SPORTY.
THE BEAUTIFUL 30M FROM PRINCESS YACHTS IS LESS THAN 100 FEET LONG, YET SERIOUSLY SPACIOUS AND DECIDEDLY SPORTY.
“AN M CLASS ENTRY YACHT, designed to bridge the gap between our flybridge range and our larger superyachts, giving the principle benefits of both,” is how Kiran Jay Haslam, Global Marketing Director of Princess Yachts International, sums up the British builder’s new 30M.
Ostensibly a replacement for the Princess 98 – very firmly a flybridge model – the 30M is an entirely different prospect, a fact that becomes obvious the moment I first clap eyes on Princess Yachts’ latest M-Class prodigy. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Sweeping in aboard a Princess S65 (ironically also a ‘crossover’ yacht, bridging the gap between sports yacht and flybridge), the Princess 30M is anchored serenely in a quiet bay a few miles west of Port Adriano on the south coast of Mallorca, and it’s abundantly clear that the 30M doesn’t need a second chance – it looks magnificent.
The rich dark-blue topsides extend to the top of the bulwarks, disguising the proliferation of dark-tinted hull windows while the architecture of the topsides consist mainly of a confident arch rising gracefully from stem to aft tip of flybridge bisected by a second sweep from the top of the pilothouse down to the stern where it segues smoothly into the flow of the transom.
Two years of intensive development, from first sketches at the Düsseldorf boat show in 2014 to the launch at the same show this year, have paid off – this is a very attractive yacht.
Once aboard, the differences between the 98 and this similarly sized vessel come thick and fast – nowhere more evidently than the master cabin. Where the 98 had a full-beam master on the lower deck in line with almost all other Princess yachts in the flybridge range, the 30M cements its superyacht credentials with a main deck master up front.
It is magnificent – the feeling of space augmented by huge glass windows either side (bulwarks cut away for an uninterrupted vista), while further glazing overhead throws yet more natural light into this stateroom. The detailing is quite good, too – witness the multi-faceted floating occasional table and airline chairs. Lined with pale marble, the en-suite bathroom behind the forward bulkhead also benefits from those large side windows.
Head aft past the capacious concealed galley (containing access to the three-berth crew cabins and side-door access to the port deck as well as direct access to the dining area, allowing the crew to remain totally separate from the main accommodation) and you find the saloon. Huge glazing is evident once again, incorporating sliding glass doors to a drop down balcony on the starboard side.
Princess Yachts claims at least 80% of the yacht is manufactured and built ‘in-house’ at its yard in Plymouth. It’s a fact made all the more impressive when you examine details like the graceful oval dining table. Finished in flawless high-gloss Macassar Ebony with contrasting cream leather padding beneath, it would grace any high-end West London furniture boutique.
Vertically integrated from the entire hull moulding to seam welding the black water tanks, only items like engines and electronics are third-party sourced, giving unprecedented control over sourcing, manufacturing and final supply, not to mention the sheer level of choice.
The one area where the Princess 30M’s superyacht crown slips slightly is interior layout choice, which is largely fixed. Only the lower deck standard layout of four large and equally sized guest cabins (two doubles and two singles, the latter of which feature beds that motor together to create further doubles if required) can be modified by swapping the aft pair of cabins for one huge suite.
Head up through the business-like raised pilothouse (another superyacht feature gained over the outgoing 98) to the flybridge however, and choice reigns supreme. The (slightly raised) upper helm is fixed, everything else is up for grabs. A perfect example of this exists aboard the first 30M from the factory.
The Owner chose to have the (optional) spa bath spun through 90 degrees to create room at the aft end of the flybridge for something rather special. A custom-made Opacmare crane with 1.2 tonne capacity lives on the starboard side, poised to lift a bespoke stainless steel and toughened glass display case from dock to trailing edge of flybridge where locks in place, showing off a magnificent motorcycle. And it’s no static display – the cabinet opens up once on the dock to release the bike for road use.
So far so 24-carat superyacht, but what of the exalted flybridge yacht crossover we came in with? Well to get to the bottom of this you first need to examine the specifications, where you’ll discover a load line length cunningly pegged just below 24 metres, meaning that MCA MGM 280 (small vessels in commercial use) is all that’s required for charter.
You’ll also discover a draft of just 2.06 metres, ideal for accessing shallow-water areas. But to really understand the dual-purpose nature of this yacht, you need to fire up the twin MTU 16V 2000 M94 engines (the largest of four options) and unleash the combined 5,000+ horsepower.
At 10 knots, the 30M is sipping diesel at a (comparatively) miserly 100 litres/hour for a range of over 1,000 nautical miles. But ease the throttles forward and the result is distinctly un-superyacht and decidedly sporty, the Bernard Olesinski-designed planing hull lifting its 100 tonnes and running with remarkable alacrity. Princess Yachts claims to have seen almost 30 knots out of this boat, entirely believable given that it is nudging 27 knots fully loaded.
The Princess 30M delivers on that entry superyacht promise in spades. With that sub 24-metre load line length, low draft and high levels of performance it nails the sports flybridge benefits part of the brief.
But the joy of it is that you can keep all of this to yourself if you wish – allowing the card-carrying superyacht credentials to shine through. As promised, this is an entirely different proposition to the 98 flybridge Princess it replaces – indeed it is no understatement to suggest that what you are looking at here is the sub-100ft LOA state of the art.
