Help needed to choose new 42 Flybridge

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Suzie Q

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Hi

Looking at purchasing our first boat. I have no boating experience and hubby has done some sailing with a friend.

We have viewed three new flybridge motor boats - Princess 42, Fairline 42 Squadron and Sealine F42. We saw them one after the other all on the same day and our views were:-

Princess - beautiful boat, superior quality, dated interior design.
Fairline - liked the contemporary look but felt that all interior finishes were of inferior quality. Not so keen on overall look of boat.
Sealine - prefered the contemporary design, happy with the interior finishes, liked the size of the second cabin, prefered the space on the flybridge and overall liked the spacious feel.

I'm sure, that from the above, you can tell that we had decided to go for the Sealine - so what's the problem? Now, after speaking to various people, rep from Ancasta and Fairline rep, who we felt were giving 'fair' views on each product, we are unsure.

The main consensus is that it's all about what you don't see. Apparently the Sealine's hull is not constructed so well and in the build things are just glued instead of screwed and glued.

As the F42 is now two years old I wondered if owners could give an unbiased opinion and perhaps Fairline and Princess owners could give us some constructive advice. Apologies to Princess and Fairline owners if our assessments have caused offence!

We are going to use the boat as a second home as well as taking her on local trips and, when we become more experienced, take the occasional trip further afield to Jersey and France.

Sorry if this has been covered in previous threads. I did do a search and came up with only one similar question but it didn't particularly answer my concerns.

Hope to hear from some of you soon. We would like to make our minds up soon and take advantage of this glorious weather!
 
My non-expert view is that your choice is between three really good boats:

P = Trad

F = Contemporary

S = Leftfield
 
If you had have spoken to any ancasta rep a year ago sea lines would have been the best boat on the Market, funny now they are not selling them they don't give the feedback, just like peters over fair lines when they stopped selling them, all wrongly biased comments.

I'd buy what takes your fancy, certain boats suit certain people, from many angles wether you want glitz, value for money or look at it if you want to look after it yourself then thee are makes I wouldn't go anywhere near.

If we all had princess and fair lines the places would be so boring, abroad it's a different matter , you see some stunning craft out there, shame some of it never hits our shores.

The p 42 is a great bet, dated I know but very well put together and will reward you the day you sell over other makes.

On the machinery side which is my living I'd get quotes on running costs, an I p s boat servicing charges will make your eyes water, straight conventional shafts make more sense if you don't want to be paying silly money every year to me or the dealers.

As on here most people are happy to help and give views on what to buy.
 
We looked at the same 42ft boats (and others too) as an upgrade from our 33ft Fb then decided to go sailing instead..!! Anyway, IMO, if we were buying, it would be the Princess both for design and build quality. I don't think you would be disappointed with any - all excellent choices, but for us, the Princess would be the one.
 
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Hi there.

We bought a Princess 42 new in 2007 and were delighted with it. We sold it easily recently for good money so clearly we are not the only people who liked the model!

One of the things you don't mention is the dealer selling the boat. I would suggest that is one of the most important considerations. The support we have had from Princess has been superb. They are here for the long term, they aren't going to suddenly start selling some other brand and leave you in the lurch and they don't wipe their hands of you once the cheque has cleared. We have just purchased another Princess from them, a P50 and whilst we did look elsewhere to see what was available there was little doubt who we would be purchasing from.

As for a dated interior, well it works very well. The spaces are all perfect and make best use of what's available. There is a risk that what seems contemporary today is seen as a fashion disaster in a few years.

Listen to Volvo Paul's wise words on propulsion. Shafts are in my humble opinion the only option. There is nothing to go wrong, you won't have seal problems, props disintegrating, water ingress causing expensive damage and so on. Controlling a boat on shafts is very intuitive. If you thrown in bow and stern thrusters then you just have to think about where you want the boat and it goes there!

I felt that a lot of boats were, or are, being designed by non maritime or boating interior designers rather than people who use their craft in anger. No boat is perfect, it is always 4 feet too short and there are things you could improve on but the fact princess build mock ups of interior spaces during the design process really shows. When you have owned a boat and used it you view it in a totally different light to when you do the rounds at a show or with dealers.

Etiquette on here means no boat is bad, we all break bread with each other and it wouldn't be fair to cast aspersions on someone's pride and joy but for me the Princess 42 is a great boat and one we enjoyed owning for 5 seasons.

There was a hell of a deal to be had on a Sealine T50 when buying the current P50 but we stuck with Princess for the reasons mentioned above.

Henry :)
 
Love the Sealine F42 but no practical experience of that or the others. Just know we love the sc35 we have right now and we've looked at the F42 as a possible next upgrade (not for a long while yet tho!!). We love the design, the straight lines, the space and versatility etc. Tbh...I'd love to be in the position to choose from any of those 3. Good luck and enjoy whichever one you go for.
L
:)
 
Good choices, all three.

Sometimes model names can be misleading as the badge doesn't correspond to the actual size - the princess is a bit bigger than the others

The sealine has the most corners cut/economies made on the build. This is perfectly fine - you pays yer money and takes yer choice. You said you're happy with the interior finishes but you might wanna look again - the walnut "veneer" is printed melamine in many places, not real wood veneer. The princess has real wood veneer on the outside, but printed melamine board inside wardrobes etc. The Fairline is all real wood

The Fairline/Princess is down to personal choice. Both are good. One is more trad older design, the other much more contemporary, Princess is slightly bigger as i say. Both will resale well: the Princess will feel more trad interior design and there might be more of them on the market but it has a following so it will sell. Squadron will appeal to folks wanting contemporary design and will also sell. Both are up market brands which will grab a bit of resale premium over Sealine becuase no matter how good the sealine 42 is the brand is a notch down and that will affect resale £££. Very few people would agree your assessment of Fairline/Princess as "inferior"/"superior" quality. Both have high build quality and good quality components

I agree with Paul that IPS pods are better avoided so that means the wise choice is Fairline+Princess, purely imho. Out of those two you just have to make a personal choice. If you dont like the contemporary looks of the Fairline (it's a new 2010/11 design), definitely get the Princess (which is 2004 ish design)

In terms of dealer service the Swanwick Princess crowd are excellent based on many testimonilas here, and the Fairline lot (Essex Boatyards, also an office in Swanwick) are also truly excellent. Essex probably have the edge partly becuase of their fab facilities - they own all their marina, cranes, workshops whereas the others dont so they have to pay to crane boats out and stuff which creates an incentive not to obviously

After you've bought the boat, move it to the Med. You don't want to be messing about with all this wind and rain :-)

Anyway, none of these is a bad choice. Good luck
 
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All hull designs are a compromise between a comfortable ride , economy and space. In my opinion the sealine hull is designed with space being more important than a comfortable ride at sea.

If you are thinking of cruising across the Channel on a regular basis then you may well find the Sealine is less comfortable in a head sea.

First place Princess
First place Fairline
3rd place Sealine

All exceptionally nice boats :)
 
Other choices

I know that I am going to get my head bitten off but...

Have you considered anything else? I looked at all of the above makes together with Nord West, Azimut before settling on a Beneteau Swift Trawler 42 (now 44) with which I have been very happy.

Different sort of boat but very practical, safe and seaworthy. Flybridge is much nice in my opinion as it feels much more secure.
 
Yup swift 42 is a good choice. TBH I was sticking strictly to the Q which was the 3 boats mentioned. If the question is "what other 42 footers?" then yes Swift and others are worth a look

Note the pricing strategy on Swift Trawler is to offer a VERY attractive headline price but then charge arms and legs for the options, many of which are necessaries not options. For example a passerelle on a swift 52 is something like twenty grand. In the end it becomes similar price to Fairline and Princess pretty much, and like-for-like
 
the trouble with boats is that they are half sea going boat and half caravan/country cottage. You are in a lovely position buying new - but although the fairline and sealine interiors are new/fashionable etc when you go travelling its the boats ability that you will remember - especially if the wind changes and it gets a bit rougher than you might have liked.

Much as all three are lovely boats, the sealine is technically complex and the jury is still out that IPS drives really save fuel, but the servicing is definitely expensive,so factor in any expected fuel saving against service cost and long term reliability. Unless you plan on doing thousands of miles it probably isn't worth it. No doubt the sales man explained how easy it is to park an IPS boat, its not difficult to park a shaft drive boat either - have some lessons and get some practice

Fairline boats historically have always been very good boats and well screwed together, but the new 42 is quite wide and may not be as good as other fairlines. (short wide boats are not as good in waves as slim ones, a foot or two can make quite a difference)

The Princess although looking a bit dated as said before does everything well, they are well made and should keep their value better.

I'd pick the Princess too, but if the interior design is really important the Fairline.
 
I've owned several used boats including examples of all the brands you mention although not the exact models. First, you have to distinguish between finish and build quality. I would say that Fairline and to a lesser extent, Princess boats are finished better than Sealines but thats not the same as saying they're built better. In my limited experience and FWIW, bits fall off or break on all the brands you're looking at so I wouldn't rule out the Sealine on that count. Sealine do use a different method for constructing their hulls to the other 2, in that they use a spray lay up rather than a hand lay up. There are arguments in favour of both but in the end, its always down to how conscientious the blokes are who are building the boats. Note that spray lay up is used extensively in the US so it's not as if Sealine is using a unique build method. Yes, I can understand why you would think the Sealine better because, generally speaking, they're better than the others at maximising accommodation space in the same hull length and thats always been one of their strengths. In addition, on the F42, they are using the IPS drive system which has the advantage of releasing more space for accommodation than the shaftdrive used on the other 2.
However for me, part of the decision would be about money. I agree with the others on IPS. Whilst IPS has certain technical advantages, it is a more complex drive system than traditional shaftdrive and I don't doubt that volvopaul is right when he says that the service costs will be higher. Then there is the biggie as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to get flamed for this but IMHO Fairlines/Princesses keep their value better over time, especially in this size range so I think depreciation will be higher on the F42 and, in the end, like a car, depreciation is generally the heaviest cost of owning a boat. It's not as simple as that because obviously it will depend also how cheap the asking prices of each of these 3 boats are relative to the market but I believe generally speaking, I'm correct. So in the end it's a heart or head decision. None of these 3 boats are lemons but head says Fairline or Princess and heart says Sealine. I don't think you'll be unhappy with the Sealine but buy it with your eyes open
 
Firefly625 said:
he must be.... they should put him in charge of the greek tourist board...:D
Click to expand...

he surely is (or he's getting a hefty commission from each marina in SOF)

nah, he'll struggle in the greek tourist board, not worth it and then he wont have the strength to start MatchII and what more important Greek tourism or MatchII? :p

V.
 
Wow ..... Can't believe so many of you kind folk took the time to answer!

I have quickly scanned all of your replies but will re-read and thoroughly digest your comments again tonight with hubby.

It certainly seems like we are joining a friendly community no matter what we choose ...... However will keep you informed as to our final decision.

Many thanks, once again! :):)
 
When looking for my first boat we looked at all three makes of boats, our choice was made on advice from others, I liked the sealine and found the Fairline and princess dated but I ended up with he princess, on my second one now and love the build quality and I can live with the traditional feel about it, as VP said look at the running costs of the different drives, again as Henry said shafts are great and once used to them control is great, I believe in keeping things simple, less to go wrong so shafts do it for me, but if you are looking for living space I would go for something like a Nordhaven trawler yacht, displacement boat so slow through the water, slower than a planing boat and cheaper to run on fuel.

Good luck with what ever you decide
 
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