Back to the superyacht: Interview with Princess Yachts CEO Will Green about the 106 Odyssey

Long awaited, now here. Princess Yachts announces a model with a length of over 30 metres. BOOTE EXCLUSIV spoke to CEO Will Green about the 106 Odyssey and further plans for the established shipyard based in Plymouth, UK.

A princess with more than 100 feet - it's been done before. In 2013, the British shipyard presented the 40M, the 132-footer was built until 2020. Now the 106 Odyssey: a 32-metre-long, fast displacement yacht that stands for efficiency, range and the comfort of a true superyacht: with a spacious owner's suite, divisible VIP cabin, a stern with lowerable bulwark and three cabins for five crew members. Construction number one is due to be launched in 2028. In Monaco, on board the first Princess Y95 with six guest suites, Will Green tells us what paved the way for the 106 and how far along the design process is.

So Mr Green, Princess Yachts is returning to superyachts...

Yes, we want to get back into the big boat business in earnest. At 254 gross tonnes, the first Odyssey has a generous volume and is therefore comparable with much longer formats. We think that volume is more important today than overall length. The 106 is a mixture of everything we have learnt with the M or X-Class. In our view, there is definitely room for a Northern European offering in this size class and we have what it takes to do it right. We are starting with a 106, but a larger model is also planned. We have sold 41 of the Y95 and the next one will be number 42. We had 52 units of the 85. In total, we have built hundreds of yachts over 80 feet, all with owners potentially looking to upsize.

So was it a request from customers who wanted a bigger boat, but for whom you couldn't do anything so far?

We have become best friends with some of our competitors in the industry by giving them customers from the top end of our product range. But now we're giving them the opportunity to keep sailing with a Princess.

Last year at the Yacht Festival in Cannes, you said: "If someone asks us for a bigger boat, we'll send them to Ferretti ....

Really, have I? I think we have a very loyal customer base, many have grown up to 95 feet with our product range. If they want to grow bigger, they have no choice but to leave the Princess world. So our idea is that we develop and build a range so that they continue their journey with us.

Please tell us a few technical details about the new addition.

The 106 is the first ship in a new series that will have a fast displacement hull. It is a hybrid shape that has the typical characteristics of a Princess, i.e. first-class handling, efficient cruising speeds and a range of 2,500 nautical miles at ten knots. We will offer a range of engines, the MAN V12 is the base, starting at 1,213 kilowatts and going up to 1,618 kilowatts. We expect speeds of more than 21-22 knots.

Princess customers have become accustomed to sailing their boats a little slower, the larger ones at twelve knots. Although the 95, for example, is a glider, she sails very efficiently at ten knots. With just under 14,000 litres of fuel, she can cover almost 2,000 nautical miles, but can also travel at 18 to 20 knots. The Odyssey will share these characteristics. Her hull lines are completely new to us: a fine V as an entry at the front, then double chine edges that merge into round frame sections at the stern and follow a constant upward curve. Because the crack runs flat aft, we hope that there will be no large stern wave.

Are there any new designers in sight?

The basic design is a combination of Princess Yachts and the designers from Olesinski, whom we have known for decades. But we are looking at alternatives to open the next chapter of the Princess design language. There are no names we can name yet, but it will be a slightly different concept. The idea is that we will be more semi-custom than the traditional Princess. So we're designing the technical systems so that we can be more flexible with the interior and still keep our signature style, which we think we need to offer to stay competitive.

Is it possible for the owners to bring their interior designers with them?

Yes, but basically the boat is made by us. We also do the interior work with our craftsmen. We employ over 2,000 people who build everything, the furniture and cabinets, the fuel and water tanks, the wiring harnesses. So the 106 is a project that we are carrying out completely ourselves. But we will be discussing some interesting details with other design partners before the market launch.

We are very proud to have the greatest vertical integration in the industry.

How many 106 can you build per year at Princess Yachts?

I think we could deliver up to four a year with the current pitch. As we will soon have a bigger programme, we will need to invest in infrastructure to increase our indoor space. But that will still be in Plymouth.

So you have no plans to go elsewhere and relocate production?

No, it's hard enough in your own culture, in your own city, in your own language. We build composite yachts, never say never. We are not fundamentally against the idea, but we are yacht builders from Plymouth, so we will build this project here.

They had a tough time before the last Christmas, 2024...

Yes, we had that. We restructured after the Covid boom, we wanted to build a lot more boats than we could get components for. That was basically our challenge: we had the customers, but we couldn't get the parts. That's why we adjusted to a lower volume last year and are now back in balance. We are very lucky with our shareholders. KPS Capital Partners bought Princess Yachts in March 2023 as the majority shareholder and has invested in us.

We have spent two years trying to reorganise the company, which has involved some pretty painful restructuring. But the results show that it is working; we are seeing an increase in net profit of £50 million. We now have the freedom to tackle interesting projects, such as the new C-Class, the new 90, which completes the X-Class, and now the Odyssey.

How did the name Odyssey come about?

This is the result of an internal brainstorming session. The reason I liked the name so much is that a Princess Yachts is about travelling and exploring, not just a boat lying in a marina. Our customers really cruise, they spend months on board in the summer and travel long distances. Odyssey was very appealing because it is also about travelling. We also have a relationship with a yacht owner who has a Princess tender on board a superyacht called Ulysses, and who had a 40-metre Princess called Odyssey. So there's a certain connection there, and maybe that was part of the inspiration.

What are the next steps in the design process?

We have been working on the project for about two years and are currently finalising the exterior details. We're working with potential clients to make sure we've got the concept right. Then we start modelling the interiors, which means we build a scale model of each new boat. Then we walk around in it, change something and perfect it. That's an element of the design process that we think is very important. In virtual reality you can see a certain dimension in 3D, but it's only when we physically build a model that we realise that maybe the doors here clash or we should plan a bit more space elsewhere. That's an invaluable part of the process. I don't think we'll ever replace that.