- Founded
- 1965
- Headquarters
- Plymouth, United Kingdom
- Shipyard location
- Same as headquarters
- Official website
- https://www.princessyachts.com/
Brand Overview
British motor yacht builder founded in Plymouth in 1965, producing the V, S, F, Y, X and C classes from 40 to 95 feet.
Overview written fromprincessyachts.comread 9/13/2026
YachtCodex Analysis
AI-generatedAn independent reading of this builder written by AI. Unlike the specifications and descriptions elsewhere on this page, it is interpretation rather than a sourced fact — treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
What this builder is
Princess Yachts built its first boat in a rented shed in Plymouth in 1965 — the founders had set up Marine Projects (Plymouth) Ltd as a charter business in 1963 — and still builds every yacht at its Plymouth shipyards, where the site says over 80 per cent of each boat is made in-house. Its 2026 range on princessyachts.com is organised in classes: the V Class sports yachts (V40 to V65), the S Class sportbridge (S65 to S80), the F Class flybridge (F45 to F65), the Y Class motor yachts (Y72 to Y95), the X Class 'superfly' yachts with their full-width upper decks (X80, X90, X95 Vista) and the new C Class (C48, C48 Open). Every model page lists principal dimensions with lengths including and excluding the pulpit, displacement at half load, tankage, two engine options and a maximum speed range.
Who sails them
Princess owners are typically affluent owner-operators and families cruising the Solent, the Mediterranean and the US coasts who want a conservatively styled, well-built British production yacht with a strong dealer network; the Y and X classes are usually run with professional crew.
Signature models
The V Class (V40–V65) and F Class flybridges (F45–F65) are the volume sellers; the S74 and S80 sportbridges, the Y95 and the X95 Vista — the widest-decked yacht the yard builds — define the upper range, and the C48 opened the C Class.
Strengths
Princess is known for hulls developed for the North Atlantic conditions off Plymouth, consistent in-house build quality (over 80 per cent of each yacht made by the yard), a class structure that lets owners move up in size, and a global dealer network that supports resale.
Considerations
Published performance is a range that depends on the engine option, displacement is stated with 50 per cent fuel and water, the C48 and C48 Open pages carry no dimensions yet, and the site sits behind a bot wall, so figures should be re-checked against the current page before purchase.
Analysis generated 9/13/2026
Part of
Where they build
The building sites this yard publishes, in its own order.
Plymouth
Plymouth, United Kingdom
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 18
- Length range
- 12.98–29.1 m
- Hull forms
- Motor Monohull 18
- Cabins
- 2–5
Models by this brand
18 models
V Class4
F Class5
S Class3
Y Class3
History
In 1963 three friends -- Cliff Viney, a former merchant-navy engineer, and David King and Brian Phillips, serving Royal Navy officers -- set up Marine Projects (Plymouth) Ltd to fit out a Senior 31 hull in a rented shed in Newport Street; the Project 31 sold so quickly that they turned to boatbuilding, building their first boat in 1965 and over 150 Project 31s between 1966 and 1969. The Princess 32, the first yacht to bear the name, was unveiled at the 1970 London Boat Show, and when the 1973 oil crisis threatened sales the yard diversified into a thirty-year partnership with A.H. Moody and Sons that produced forty sailing models and more than 4,000 yachts. Bernard Olesinski was invited to design in 1980: his Princess 30DS sold over 500 and set the decade's design language, the Princess 45 of 1981 was then the UK's largest production motor yacht and earned the Queen's Award for Export in 1988, and the 286 Riviera of 1983 was the first sports yacht. The 1990 Princess 65, the first V Class, the first 20 Meter and Europe's first electronic-diesel yacht followed; Marine Projects became Princess Yachts International in 2001, the Princess 42 of 2003 set the benchmark for the modern entry flybridge, the 95 flagship arrived in 2007, and in 2010 Princess was the first major European yacht builder awarded ISO 14001. The company celebrated fifty years in 2015 and sixty in 2025, still on the Plymouth waterfront.
History written fromprincessyachts.com/our-story/· Our storyread 9/22/2026