Top Gear's Jason Barlow heads to Monaco for seat time in the thousand-horsepower AM37.
It is perhaps a sign of the times, and a lesson in modern brand cultivation, that, a hundred years after its founding as a carmaker, Aston Martin has begun to affix its winged emblem and apply its refined aesthetic sensibilities to a broad array of non-car properties. Be it bedsheets from Emilia Burano, sunglasses from Marma London, or a high-rise tower in Miami, Florida, the UK's fourth-coolest brand has put its imprint on some of the world's most exclusive goodies. And one of the more overt expressions of Aston glamour comes from licensee Quintessence Yachts. Last year, the Southampton, England-based boatbuilder teased the very yar AM37, an Aston-themed power boat with a 007-worthy helping of style and performance and a two-million-pound price tag. This year the company made good on its promise, unveiling a fully loaded AM37 prototype at the tony Monaco Yacht Show.
Top Gear's Jason Barlow was there, and managed to score some seat time in the prototype. With grand-tourer-like ergonomics and a pair of Mercury marine gas engines producing a total of a thousand horsepower, the boat is capable skimming the waves at fifty knots, "which is pretty punchy across the water", notes Barlow. Designed to be "a powerboat that could also work as a day cruiser, the fastest vessel in its class, but one that was also comfortable", the AM37 is a hand-crafted masterwork, a clean-sheet design that, like Aston's AM-RB 001 hypercar, manages to come across as entirely new and instantly recognizable at the same time. It is not merely "the Aston Martin of boats"; it is an Aston Martin boat. Barlow recalls a conversation with Aston CEO Andy Palmer:
Rico says all it takes is a lot of money...“Wouldn’t it be great,” Palmer mused, “if you were down in a luxury harbour somewhere, staying in an Aston Martin apartment, with your Aston Martin parked in the car park, and your Aston Martin boat docked outside?”The AM37 is so-named because she’s 37 feet long, and, even surrounded by the nautical monoliths that dominate Monaco’s marina, this is an eye-poppingly pretty creation. All the rules that govern car design done properly— stance, proportion, seamless surfacing— are present and correct, to the extent that it almost looks effortless. Unsurprisingly, nothing could be further from the truth.
Let’s clear up a big question straight off. The AM37 is not a nautical revisit of the misbegotten Cygnet. This is not a pre-existing boat with some enameled badges stuck on amid fancy leather. No, this is an all-new design from an all-new company, funded by a wealthy Aston-owning Dutch entrepreneur. Quintessence Yachts, registered in Holland but based in Southampton, England, only got going when Aston Martin decided it liked the cut of their jib.
Everything is custom made, apart from the air vents, the microwave, and fridge. There’s a fifty inch television in the cabin, backed up by a server that can handle up to fifteen hundred movies. Even the lavatory has been specially designed for this boat (is this the Aston Martin of loos?)
“Look, I’m as cynical as you about badge engineering,” Aston’s chief creative officer Marek Reichman tells me down the phone from Japan (he’s showing the AM-RB 001 to potential clients; they now have more than six hundred firm expressions of interest). “The only way I would have done this is if we’d had the opportunity to design it ourselves. Over the years, various boat builders have approached Aston Martin about collaborating on something. It never felt right. But when Quintessence Yachts came to see us, we liked their approach. As a new company, they were interested in doing things differently.”
My pilot/driver for the day is Quintessence’s head of operations, Stefan Whitmarsh. He’s worked at (or consulted for) most of the big yachting guns, and is also a former offshore powerboat racer. I’ve met a few of that breed over the years, and they’re about as unhinged as human beings get. But, as this is currently the only AM37 in existence, Stefan chooses to ignore my enthusiastic imprecations to punch the throttle. We hit 35 knots, which is still quick enough to get some proper air. Like every fast boat I’ve ever been on, the AM37 adds an extra dimension simply by interacting with nature’s most thrillingly unpredictable force, although tellingly we don’t get even a tiny bit wet. The Aston guys worked hard to give her car-like ergonomics, so the throttle control has a seamless weight to it, and the view ahead is far better than usual. We still end up looking at the sky, though.
“She’s beamy, which gives you stability, comfort, and volume space, but the downside is a possible reduction in performance,” Stefan says, as we ride the waves with impressive commitment, and he monitors the shifting ‘sea state’. I’m sensing no performance downside so far at all. “This prototype uses two 520-horsepower Mercury marine petrol engines. The engine choice is tailored to usability and standardization of parts; the propellers, for example. These engines can be serviced anywhere in the world. We could have more performance with a different engine, but then servicing would be more difficult. To answer the question I know you’re going to ask, that’s why there’s no Aston Martin V12 in there. But as to the future, who knows…”
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