Here’s a boat that will turn heads: The 31-foot, all-wood, all-electric custom Riverbreeze, developed and owned by Frank Stephenson for cruising on The Thames, behind his house about 35 miles west of London.
What’s unusual about this boat, other than its beautiful lines and gleaming brightwork, is its owner. Stephenson is the head of Frank Stephenson Design in London, and he designs cars, usually fast cars, always iconic cars. Over the years, he’s been the design director of McLaren Automotive, and he’s drawn the lines of custom and production cars including the McLaren P1 (above), the Ferrari F430, the BMW X5, and even the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500, among others. Motor Trend once called Stephenson “one of the most influential automotive designers of our time.”
Most days, Stephenson listens to the high-decibel roar of some of the automotive world’s most powerful engines. On the river, behind his house on Henley-on-Thames, he searches for peace and quiet.
Stephenson designed Riverbreeze himself. It’s powered by a 42kW electric motor and eight 120-volt lead acid batteries, producing 14.7kWh of energy for silent, carbon-free running. It’s made of rosewood and mahogany from Africa and Brazil, and it has more than 15 coats of varnish.
On spring and summer weekends, Stephenson cruises up the Thames to locks near the Cotswolds, the river’s highest navigable point. The trip takes about ten hours, and it depletes the battery bank by half. But the cruise is peaceful, and quiet. Read more:
