All great yachts begin with a great hull design. Since 1980 Princess has worked alongside Naval Architects Bernard Olesinski Ltd to create yachts with an unrivalled reputation for performance and sea-keeping. Here Justin Olesinski explains how.
Naval architecture and hull design is at the heart of every new project. A beautiful design alone is not enough; yachts have to withstand one of nature's most unforgiving arenas - the sea.
We invest over 750 man days perfecting each design, often going through over 50 hull revisions to perfect the final product. Peerless handling and unmatched sea-keeping are as much a part of the Princess promise as a luxurious fit-out and cutting-edge design. Our dedicated and proud designers are passionate and fully aware that every line drawn or surface modelled will be built so it has to be right.
Projects tend to start with a casual call from David King where a few points are discussed and a wish list is created. This triggers a series of meetings between the Olesinski studio and Princess to firm up the hull and superstructure design as well as the engineering and performance requirements.
Only once this is completed do we drill down to the detailed design. Concept designs are turned into 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings enabling the team to consider every detailed aspect of a yacht, from the superstructure of the hull and deck mouldings to the locations of berths and lockers. We utilise our cutting-edge in-house computational fluid dynamics software (CFD), a fluid mechanics simulator, to fine-tune the hull design of each new Princess. CFD technology allows us to measure resistance at all speeds and trim attitudes enabling us to refine a hull design to optimise performance and efficiency.
Year on year we have improved hull efficiency by 1% which, although it appears small, is impressive when you consider that a model today weighs up to 50% more than a similar sized boat 15 years ago.
Advances in hull design technology have helped us to achieve this, as well as cutting-edge manufacturing methods used within Princess such as resin-infusion, foam-cored hulls and decks and integrated structural trays. Benefits aren't limited to performance and efficiency either. Advanced hull designs and manufacturing methods give significant enhancements to interior volume too.
Every project is an intensive journey however we enjoy the daily challenges and the luxury of creating objects of desire. High-Tech Hulls.