The new Princess Yachts Superfly X95 with its giant enclosed flybridge is an entirely new design for the UK based yacht builder and was created in collaboration with Italian Pininfarina design house and Olenski naval architects.

First unveiled as a concept in 2018, Princess Yachts have officially revealed the new Superfly X95 in a Facebook Live “round table” talk with various team members of Princess Yachts.

While usually held as a press conference at one of the major yacht shows, in light of current events, the Plymouth based company chose to instead hold the reveal at their South yard, aboard a 1:1 full-scale plywood mock-up of the X95.

The first model of the new Princess Yachts X Class, the long-range X95 is characterized by long-flowing lines extending from bow to stern and sees both the flybridge and main deck interior space extending almost the full length of the yacht.

It also features a fully enclosed and air-conditioned sky lounge, which together creates the “Super Flybridge” – the X Class’s defining characteristic and inspiration for the “Superfly” nickname. 

Describing the new design, Princess Executive Chairman Antony Sheriff said, “The X95 breaks the mould of traditional yacht design. The unique open plan architecture is brought to life through our design partnership with the legendary styling house Pininfarina. The layout provides 10% more outdoor space and 40% more indoor space than a traditional motor yacht. This leap forward in space and versatility mirrors recent innovations from luxury automotive brands who have developed crossover models.”

Having joined Princess Yachts only 4.5 years ago, Antony Sheriff is a relative newcomer to the yachting industry (previously coming from McLaren Automotive where he oversaw the launch of models like the MP4-12C and P1). While he still wanted to maintain the brand’s heritage, he was also looking for the company to be brave and try new things, citing “to innovate is to do things that others are scared to do” and it was this thinking that ultimately led to the creation of the X95.

During the early days of his role as CEO, Antony was sitting aboard the helm of a 75ft Princess Yacht at the Singapore Yacht Show and began to wonder, “What does one do with all this space in the front (foredeck) and is there a better use for it? 

He also asked himself, “Is there any way to get rid of the helm station on the main deck? Is it possible to create a massive space on the main deck and put the helm-deck somewhere up top? Why do we build a flybridge the way we do and is there a better or different way to build it?”

These musings led to the idea for a new yacht and further evolved into three questions that needed answering:  

1. Does it work?
2. Does it float?
3. Does it look great?

It would take another 16 weeks of pre-concept discussions and calculations with the team to get the proportions right and establish if the concept for the new Superfly X95 could even work. and getting the proportions right with naval architect Olesinski and Italian design house Pininafarina joining the project. 

There were several main challenges in achieving the desired outcome of the X95, with Andy Lawrence, Director of Design at Princess Yachts mentioning the first of those was getting the main saloon and the air-conditioned sky lounge on the top of a boat of this proportions.

Secondly, the naval architect Olesinki wanted the design to be very airy and flow well from the interior to exterior areas, requiring an unprecedented amount of glass to do so.

This led to the third challenge of needing a hull design that could support the increased weight of the glass and required Princess Yachts to be innovative and something entirely new design to them.

Taking all of these considerations into account, the design team finally settled on the “Super Flybridge” concept with a vast, fully enclosed air-conditioned sky lounge.

In addition to the new flybridge architectural design of the X95, Princess Yachts also worked on a new hull design, with a piercing bow that extends the waterline forward, improving efficiency up to 15% compared to traditional hull designs. This unique design was such a move away from previous models that they had to take the new hull design to the testing tank to ensure the design worked how it was supposed to.

Powered by twin MAN V12 engines producing a total of 3800hp and in conjunction with the new hydro-dynamic efficiencies, the Superfly X95 can reach a maximum speed of 23 knots, which is impressive when compared to previous generations that required a combined horsepower of 5200hp to achieve the same speed. With a full tank (13,400 liters), the X95 also has a range of 2,000 miles at a cruising speed of 10 knots and is suitable for long-range journeys. 

Design-wise, the X95 also offers the greatest amount of living spaces in a Princess design of this length and an even higher level of pre-designed options from the factory designed layouts. Before the X95, approximately 10% of the Princess Yachts design team worked on “non-standard” options for clients, but with this new project, that has now increased to 25-30%.

In the presentation, Sarah Verey, Creative Design Consultant Princess Yachts shared, “She’s got 30% more internal volume than another other 95ft boat design we’ve designed. The temptation is always to fill the volume but actually we wanted to create a really architectural interior on this boat. So we deliberately didn’t want to fill the space. We wanted there to be a lot of design elements in there, but when you walk in it’s a sum of all the parts. It’s walking in and going “[wow] there’s something about this. I can’t put my finger on what it is but it just works.”

One of the benefits of choosing a model like this is that each client is able to work with a creative design consultant like Sarah Verey to personalize the design and end up with a bespoke result that will take just over a year to build from the time the client specifications are submitted.

Onboard, the standard Princess Yachts X95 deck design can accommodate up to eight guests on the lower deck in a full-beam master stateroom, two twin guest cabins, and a double VIP suite forward. 

However, as an example of the versatility afforded with the X95, the owner of the first build slot opted to configure the yacht with a five-cabin layout consisting of a full-beam main deck master suite, plus a non-standard lower deck layout featuring an aft VIP stateroom with an adjoining gym. 

With ten X95 models already sold to owners around the world, Princess Yachts have even had to push back the production schedule of the M Class to accommodate the demand for the new Superfly X95, proving that this design has struck a chord amongst fans of the brand.

And for owners who are looking for something a little smaller but still wanting similar functionality, rest assured, plans are well underway for a younger sister – the X80.

Princess Yachts: www.princessyachts.com