Luxury can mean a lot of things–spending the summer floating by on a yacht in the Mediterranean, it could mean strolling around town in a bespoke Rolls-Royce, or it might mean reviving the Rolls-Royce coachbuilding team to design cars that make you feel like you’re on a yacht. Comparable to luxury shipbuilding yards like Feadship in the Netherlands, the reestablished coachbuilding team at Rolls Royce designs motorcars using the vision of the patrons who commission them. Finding laps of luxury and inspiration on the sea, the coachbuilding team’s commissioned debuts, designed and built-in confidentiality, are three built-to-order Rolls-Royce motorcars called Boat Tails inspired by the build and structural anatomy of yachts.
The Boat Tail, a coupé born from the patrons’ enduring love for the sea and taste for nautical design, was designed specifically to celebrate the hand-craftsmanship and relative history of yacht building. Three coupés inspired by nautical shipbuilding design have been built under the modern coachbuilding department at Rolls-Royce. Merging today’s advanced technology with the trusted bespoke coachwork of yesteryear, the Boat Tail’s hand-formed chassis cradles a 19-foot bonnet that covers the car’s 6.75-liter V-12 engine. The stone azure coat of the Boat Tail slopes to a wisped finish around the rear and borders the motorcar’s painted pantheon grille.
Inside, the Boat Tail comes equipped with technologies and comforts that have never before graced the luxury-ridden Rolls-Royce interior. Among other hors d’oeuvres and apéritifs to bedeck the Boat Tail’s rear butterfly trunk, revealed through twin side-hinged compartments, champagne is stored in ice, and caviar is kept cool in trunk refrigerators and ice-boxes. Blooming from the same trunk cabin, a high-tensile fabric parasol provides shade and locks in place on stainless steel poles and aluminum connectors, stretching over carbon-fiber frame stays to remain in place even in the windiest of conditions.
Rolls-Royce carries a rich coachbuilding history that dates back to the 20th century. Progressing past their 2017 bespoke car building platform, Rolls-Royce built the one-off Boat Tail for an unnamed client, firmly establishing their specialized coachbuilding department for the 21st century. The many Rolls-Royce coachbuilders of the past would begin with the chassis, dedicating their expertise to the frame, motor, and suspension, before handing it off to different coach makers who would design the rest of the car’s body and interior according to the patron’s specifications. Today, Rolls-Royce announced a permanent coachbuilding department made up of skilled engineers and designers to roll out built-to-order motorcars that surpass the coachbuilding endeavors from the past, planting it distinctly in a motorcade fleet of its own.
Designer: Rolls-Royce
A rear-side parasol opens up from the Boat Tail’s twin butterfly trunk compartments for additional shade and weather protection.
The two-door coupé slopes to a gradient finish in stone azure blue.
Luxe additions like caviar and cooled champagne grace the inside of the Boat Tail’s trunk.
Gleaming aluminum panels line the Boat Tail’s sides and top.
Equipped even with coordinated watches for the bespoke model’s owners, Rolls-Royce made it happen with the Boat Tail.
Creators behind the Boat Tail call it the trip and the destination, equipped with all the amenities one might need for a highway rendezvous that culminates with a cliffside picnic.
A high-tensile fabric parasol provides shade and protection whenever rain comes.
