The history of the British shipyard Princess Yachts began in 1965 with a small hangar on Newport street in Plymouth. The company under the name Marine Projects was founded by marine officer David king, who still takes part in the development of all models of the Princess. With a couple of friends, he decided to buy a boat to rent it, but the money was not enough, so they simply decided to build it. However, to rent it out did not work — immediately found a buyer, so I had to build a new one. So, from 1966 to 1969 more than 150 buildings were built. In 1970, the company produces a model with Princess 32, which again set a record: for 10 years of production was released about 1200 buildings.
In the Wake of this success, Marine Projects has its own dealer network, and all subsequent models are already produced under the name of Princess. In 1974, the first flybridge model was created on the basis of the Princess 37 hull, and in 1980 the legendary marine architect Bernard Olesinski began to cooperate with the shipyard: his design Studio is still developing all the Princess yacht hulls. A year later, in 1981, the shipyard presents the model Princess 45, which at that time became the largest serial motor yacht in the UK. In the future, the shipyard will set several similar records: with Princess 65 in 1990 and Princess 40M in 2012.
Marine Projects continues to expand both the model range and its own facilities: for customers from the Mediterranean, Princess 286 Riviera is produced, and Plymouth has new production facilities. In 1994 production of high-speed sports models of V-class starts, and in 1996 the "meter" series where large yachts enter is based.
The company received the name Princess Yachts in 2001, and in 2008-joined the group Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (LVMH). Serious investments and development of a large-scale development program allowed Princess Yachts to become one of the largest yacht manufacturers in the world. In 2009, the shipyard signed an agreement with the UK Department of defense on a long — term lease of South Yard in Plymouth: this object of the XVIII century-the historic center of military shipbuilding in Plymouth. Princess Yachts has committed to preserve and maintain the legacy in its original form, so the shipyard can still see the room for executions, where the guilty sailors were hanged. South Yard allowed the Princess to build dozens of yachts at the same time and produce much larger models such as the flagship Princess 40M. All the huge production is still concentrated in Plymouth: the shipyard prefers to do almost everything "at home", using the services of third-party suppliers.
The model range of Princess is extremely wide: it includes flybridge models of F-and Y-classes, sports yachts of V-class, "hybrid" s-class, combining the presence of a hardtop and a flybridge. In 2018, Princess Yachts introduced the revolutionary hydrofoil model R35, which can reach speeds of up to 50 knots. This boat, created in collaboration with Pininfarina and BAR Technologies, for motor yachts for the first time used the wing technology of sailing yachts America's Cup. The shipyard plans not only to develop the R-class, but also to use these developments for other model lines. A new X-class, named Superflybridge, demonstrates a completely new approach to the architecture and layout of yachts.
