New build Princess F55 flybridge

[henryf]

Lyme Bay should make for a nice shakedown tomorrow with the breeze forecast to reduce but a decent fetch. Stay safe.

I’m keeping half an eye on things but it’s not my trip. Very difficult not to get involved but I’m not in the drivers seat just ballast.

Very excited and at the same time strangely nervous for Wednesday when I think we might be taking delivery of the keys

Then we’ve got familiarisation, coding, photos and a load of stuff to do. Once I’ve done a couple of trips I’ll be fine. I don’t like learning new stuff. When we took delivery of the P50 I had someone spend a couple of hours with me on the Raymarine. I need a similar guru to walk though all the new stuff.

On handover we have a full day to discuss everything and to be fair if I needed it I think Princess give you a tuition skipper for a couple of days but hopefully I know my way round most of it…

I will keep the thread updated……

 

[Elessar]

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[Elessar]

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View attachment 151488

 

[Elessar]

Or is this it?

 

[henryf]

What a coincidence, were there in our new F55 today

let me get back home and I will postsome photos and a few words…..

But yes, it’s left Plymouth and is now relaxing in the Solent

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

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View attachment 151488

This is an F50. Looks sweet to be honest. The photo after this looks an F55.

I think the Princess smaller F series (50 and 55) look much better without flybridge HT, with this looking an after thought design wise.
The new F65 has a nice hard-top.

Its difficult to make hard-top on this size flybridge, sub 18-19 meters looking good, with many names getting it wrong.
I think Azimut from Righini looked very good, due to the design of the flybridge and radar arch.
OTOH the new Mancini designed 53 does not look good with hard-top. New Absolutes Hard-Top also looks good,

I know there was some discussions about HT at the start of this thread.

 

[rafiki_]

This is an F50. Looks sweet to be honest. The photo after this looks an F55.

I think the Princess smaller F series (50 and 55) look much better without flybridge HT, with this looking an after thought design wise.
The new F65 has a nice hard-top.

Its difficult to make hard-top on this size flybridge, sub 18-19 meters looking good, with many names getting it wrong.
I think Azimut from Righini looked very good, due to the design of the flybridge and radar arch.
OTOH the new Mancini designed 53 does not look good with hard-top. New Absolutes Hard-Top also looks good,

I know there was some discussions about HT at the start of this thread.

Azi 50 hard top looks great to me.

 

[henryf]

Today was quite a momentous one. It was the first time I’d seen our F55 in completed form, it was also the first time I’d seen it in the water and the first time I’d seen it used in anger.

Having been finished it was handed over to the Princess Sales Team who have a facility in Turnchapel Plymouth. They give it the once over correcting faults found. The final stage is a high speed run from Plymouth to the Princess sales office in Swanwick on the Hamble. We made the run together with a P50 on the same process. We have now paid in full but it’s still under the control of Princess sales so their skipper and crew were in control.

As a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster operating a charter vessel I’m quite hard to please so it was good to see the level of skill shown by the delivery team. From casting off the lines to a feather like touch of the dock at Swanwick. The boat performed like clockwork running against the tide which was heading towards the prevailing wind, all be it a fairly benign on. But there was still a bit of sea as we passed outfalls. We went close inshore at Portland to perform an honorary flyby for old mate @colhel who was ashore.

Once inside the Solent the sea dropped right off and the delivery team did some fuel burn / engine speed / speed over the ground data collection. I will get my own feel for the controls and report back here but for now the fast cruise delivery trip worked out at around 10 litres per nautical mile.

The next stage is a couple of days final check at Swanwick before the technical hand over on Wednesday. There are a couple of little bits to sort and I’m sure a few snags will materialise as we start to use her but Wednesday looks set to be day 1 of our ownership.

 

[henryf]

Some images from the day

 

[benjenbav]

Awesome, Henry. You must be very pleased.

 

[henryf]

And a few more….

 

[Bouba]

Congratulations on your new baby
I won’t say I’m jealous...because it’s pretty self evident

 

[henryf]

Awesome, Henry. You must be very pleased.

Yes, the boat ran really well and it was good to see things from the perspective of a charter guest. Whilst far from challenging conditions it was good to see it take on a bit of sea. Our work in the Solent is quite different from the open sea run from Plymouth.

 

[henryf]

In terms of the whole sales process Princess have been fantastic. Alan Knight our built liaison contact sorted out all the logistics so I just had to drive to Swanwick then a day later step off the F55 and hop back in my car.

Buying something like this boat needs lots of cogs to work together and the Princess sales team at Swanwick are a lot more than just order takers.

 

[henryf]

Oh, and I had my first wee on board as well. New toilets which will of course get their own dedicated post once I’ve become more acquainted but initial reports are positive - unless there’s a pool of wee somewhere I haven’t see yet

 

[ICTM]

Congratulations she looks fantastic. Look forward to seeing her on the Beaulieu River !!

 

[colhel]

And here she is passing Portland Bill

 

[MapisM]

Yes, the boat ran really well

Congratulations, she certainly looks awesome!
Talking of how well she ran, if you don't mind sharing the seatrial numbers (which usually the builder must observe/note upon seatrial, also for the warranty activation), I don't think to be the only one curious about them.

 

[Greg2]

Congratulations!
Sounds as though you had quite a day aboard your beautiful new boat - very envious!

 

[Martxer]

Congratulations on the new toy. Interesting thread to brighten up the winter evenings