Launched in 1987 Princess' third sportsboat, the Princess 266 Riviera was proportionally spot on and nothing short of perfect
Some products become icons, often imitated but never quite repeated, even by follow-ups from the same manufacturer. The Omega Seamaster 2531:80, the 964 version of the Porsche 911, the Bang & Olufsen Beocom 6000 telephone.
In the marine world, there are a few obvious examples, the Fairey Swordsman 33 Aft Cabin springing most readily to mind. But there are one or two that fly under the radar, that never quite get the iconic status they deserve. And perhaps the best example of this is the humble Princess 266 Riviera.
In the Seventies it was very simple. You wanted a flybridge boat, you bought a Princess. You wanted a sportsboat, you bought a Sunseeker. Sunseeker didn’t build flybridges, Princess eschewed sportsboats.
Then, in 1983, Princess moved firmly into Sunseeker’s lane, launching the 286 Riviera, a very successful open boat. The 36 Riviera followed, another great boat. But the 266 Riviera, launched in 1987, was simply
perfect.
The ‘modern’ grey vinyl finish
Proportionally spot on, it was designed by Bernard Olesinski and was the first Princess to feature a curved windscreen and an integral bathing platform. The deck line sloped gently down to the stern and the radar arch was set just so.
Inside, the layout was a conventional converting dinette forward, galley opposite the heads and a mid-cabin that ran beneath the cockpit to create a family-friendly four-berther. Interestingly, there was no wood on show, for the first time in a Princess, everything was vinyl wrapped in shades of grey, ostensibly to give the boat a more modern youthful appeal, but it can’t have hindered the aggressive pricing.
List price for a 266 Riviera started at just £31,150 plus VAT. That got you a single Volvo Penta AQ271 270hp petrol sterndrive, but that’s not the engine option you wanted. Pay another £5,000 (and most people did) and you got a pair of AQ205/dp 205hp petrols and a top speed of 42 knots!
But it’s not just looks and speed; the 266 Riviera out-handled virtually everything else below 30ft, cornering like a race boat and slicing seas like a thoroughbred. Even wound up to 40 knots you could launch it so hard and so high that the revs would flare as the props left the water, but still it landed as delicately as a figure skater.
Article continues below…
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It transcended what a boat like this ought to be capable of and because of that, and the way it looks, even nearly 40 years later it’s still one of the coolest boats on the water.
To submit your suggestion for the world’s coolest boat, head over to the MBY forum.
Princess 266 Riviera specifications
Year: 1987
LOA: 8.4m
Beam: 3.0m
Speed: 42 knots
Power: 2x Volvo Penta AQ205/dp 205hp petrol engines
Price: £36,650
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