Robb Princess 37 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design Brief & Intent

Arthur Robb designed the Princess 37 to serve as a premium, long-range blue-water passagemaker. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, competitive offshore racing under the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) rules heavily influenced cruiser design, emphasizing heavy displacement, excellent tracking, and seafaring safety. The Princess 37 was positioned as a luxurious step up from the yard’s smaller offerings, competing directly with the premier wooden and early composite cruisers of Sparkman & Stephens or Philip Rhodes.

The defining characteristic of the Princess 37 is the sheer quality of its materials. Early hulls were built completely of old-growth Burmese teak planking over dense, rot-resistant Ipol (merbau) or Yacal frames, fastened with silicon bronze and monel. When Cheoy Lee transitioned to fiberglass, they launched the "Lifetime" series, combining a heavy-duty, solid Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) hull with the same massive teak deckhouses, bulwarks, and interior joinery. Below decks, the interior finish is a masterpiece of traditional joinery, lacking the sterile plastic liners of later eras. Solid teak cabinetry, hand-rubbed varnishes, and deep bilges create a cabin that is warm, remarkably quiet at sea, and insulated against temperature extremes.

Variations & Configurations

While Arthur Robb's office drew several rigging configurations, the Princess 37 was most famously and commonly rigged as a masthead yawl. The yawl configuration, featuring a mainmast and a small mizzenmast stepped aft of the rudder post, was highly prized by mid-century cruisers. It allows for a versatile sail plan, enabling the crew to drop the mainsail entirely in heavy weather and sail comfortably under a highly balanced "jib and jigger" configuration. A few sloop-rigged variants were produced for owners prioritizing simpler rigging and marginally better windward performance, but the yawl remains the definitive aesthetic and functional representation of the model.

Under the water, the draft remains a uniform 5.58 feet, utilizing a deep, traditional full keel with an attached rudder. This configuration is heavily integrated with the hull, protecting the propeller and rudder from debris or groundings. The most significant structural variation is the hull material itself: the earliest hulls from 1958 through the early 1960s are carvel-planked timber, while later models feature the solid, over-engineered "Lifetime" fiberglass hulls topped with extensive wood superstructures.

Sailing Performance & Handling

The Princess 37 is a quintessential heavy-displacement cruiser that prioritizes seaworthiness and comfort over raw speed. With a Displacement-to-Length (D/L) ratio of 479.78, she falls squarely into the ultra-heavy category. Her massive 20,000-pound displacement on a modest 26.5-foot waterline means she carries immense momentum. Once she finds her stride, she is nearly unstoppable through a head sea, slicing through waves that would stall or buffet lighter, modern fin-keel designs.

Her Comfort Ratio of 51.97 is exceptionally high, translating to a slow, gentle, and highly predictable motion in a seaway. This reduces physical fatigue on the crew during multi-day ocean passages. Complementing this is a Capsize Screening Ratio of 1.4, indicating extraordinary resistance to rolling and ultimate stability in extreme weather conditions—well below the traditional safety threshold of 2.0.

However, the boat is not a light-wind performer. Her Sail Area-to-Displacement (SA/Disp) ratio is a conservative 13.61, meaning she is relatively underpowered in light, variable coastal breezes. The high wetted surface area of the long keel creates substantial drag, requiring at least 12 to 15 knots of wind to truly wake the hull up. Once the wind builds, however, she settles onto a stable angle of heel, tracks beautifully, and can be easily balanced to sail herself with minimal helm correction or windvane input.

Market Snapshot & Economics

On the brokerage market, the Robb Princess 37 occupies a highly specialized niche. She commands a premium among classic yacht connoisseurs who appreciate the artistry of Cheoy Lee’s early craftsmanship, but her target market is self-limiting. Because of the intensive maintenance required by her wood superstructures, teak decks, or entire timber hulls, she is often priced lower than modern, low-maintenance production boats of similar length.

The financial reality of acquiring a Princess 37 is dictated entirely by her refit history. A vessel requiring a complete deck replacement, re-fastening of a wooden hull, or structural frame repairs can quickly become a financial black hole, with restoration costs easily eclipsing the market value of the completed boat. Conversely, finding an example that has been lovingly maintained, shed-kept, or recently refitted by a professional shipyard represents an exceptional value. Owners must adopt a "small ship" stewardship mentality, recognizing that they are preserving a piece of maritime history rather than merely buying a floating utility.

Known Issues & Triage

Prospective buyers of the Princess 37 must perform rigorous triage on several critical areas of the boat's construction. For fiberglass-hulled models, the primary "gotcha" is the teak-over-plywood deck. Cheoy Lee fastened the thick teak decks directly to a fiberglass sub-deck cored with marine plywood using thousands of individual screws. Over nearly seven decades, the caulking and bungs inevitably fail, letting freshwater seep down the threads of the screws and rot the plywood core. Any soft spots, elevated moisture readings, or signs of interior cabin-liner damage require immediate attention.

On older wood-hulled models, the focus must shift to the hull fastenings, the Ipol frames, and the structural floors. Arthur Robb’s designs of this era often utilized mild steel or iron floors to tie the frames to the keel. Over time, these steel floors corrode, swell, and split the surrounding wood timbers. Additionally, the carvel teak planks must be checked for fastening failure, and any signs of freshwater rot in the upper oak or Ipol frames—often caused by deck leaks—must be thoroughly probed.

Finally, the original metalwork is a common failure point. Original chainplates were sometimes secured using stainless steel plates paired with bronze fasteners, causing severe galvanic and crevice corrosion inside the deck penetrations. Original black iron fuel tanks are also notorious for rusting from the outside in, and their replacement usually requires invasive removal of the cockpit sole or salon joinery.

Modernization & Upgrades

Veteran owners of the Princess 37 have established clear pathways for upgrading these vessels to modern cruising standards.

Repowering: Replacing the obsolete original auxiliary engines with modern, lightweight marine diesels (typically 30 to 40 horsepower models from Yanmar or Beta Marine) is highly recommended. The deep, spacious bilge of the Princess 37 makes alignment and installation straightforward, and the reliability of a modern drivetrain mitigates the boat's sluggishness in light-air calm zones.
Deck De-Teaking: To permanently solve the leak-and-rot cycle of the traditional decks, many owners undergo the intensive process of removing the teak planks entirely, digging out any rotten plywood core, vacuum-bagging new composite coring, and glassing over the sub-deck with a robust fiberglass laminate finished in modern non-skid paint.
Electrical & Lithium Conversion: The heavy displacement of the Princess 37 makes her insensitive to weight changes, allowing for the installation of massive modern battery banks. Upgrading to Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) systems, paired with high-output alternators and solar arrays on the deckhouse, allows owners to run refrigeration, modern navigation suites, and watermakers without the need for a noisy, heavy diesel generator.
Rigging Upgrades: Replacing original internal chainplates with modern external bronze or thick 316-grade stainless steel chainplates eliminates the hazard of hidden crevice corrosion. Many owners also retrofit roller furling headsails and mainsail stack-packs to make the traditional yawl rig highly manageable for short-handed crews.

The Verdict

The Robb Princess 37 is an exceptional blue-water cruiser that stands as a testament to the golden age of yacht design. It is built for the purist sailor who prioritizes a soft, reassuring motion, beautiful classic lines, and bulletproof tracking over modern dockside living space. While her heavy displacement and conservative sail plan make her slow in light air, she is an incredibly safe and comforting partner when the wind rises and the seas turn ugly. For an owner willing to embrace the labor-of-love maintenance of her traditional woodwork, she remains a timeless and deeply rewarding vessel.

Pros:

Breathtakingly beautiful, classic aesthetic that turns heads in any harbor.
Extremely comfortable, low-fatigue motion in heavy seas due to her high comfort ratio.
Outstanding directional tracking under sail, allowing for easy long-distance helming.
High-quality traditional joinery and a warm, insulated, all-wood interior.
Highly stable and seaworthy with a superb capsize screening ratio.
Versatile and easily balanced sail plan under the traditional masthead yawl rig.

Cons: