Pearl vs. the rest

[LWR]

Just wondering if anybody has any views on the Pearl 60 vs. the rest of Sealine/Princess/Fairline/Sunseeker...

Quite taken by the Pearl 60 - anybody got any experience of the build quality and after sales?

thanks!

LWR

 

[Nautical]

Have some experiance of the Pearl 60, very fine boat if you like the styling, lots of nice touches and well screwed together. Its a big boat inside and offers four double cabins incl a huge aft cabin, works extremely well as a charter boat med wise anyway cus you get the extra decent cabin. Good sized flybridge too with lots of entertaining space. Quite a sedate crusier and very quiet just dont expect razor sharp handling but certainly as good as any in the lumpy stuff gives you a great sense of security it just bashes the sea into submission. Down sides are not the most comfy of helm positions and no adustable seats and the companionway down to the for'd cabin starts well into the upper saloon so if you are not careful when you step away from the helm you end up falling down the steps, engine room is a tight fit and the outboard port side engine is a pig to work on but its all belt and braces stuff down there and as good as any of the others. Bow thruster is a bit useless so would spec hydrualic ones for and aft but good ground and mooring tackle, you'd need to spec also the rear mounted camera as even up on top you can not see the after end of the platform, hi lo platform is a great idea and has a useful lift capacity so good sized jet rib will fit and way better than any that have the dingy on the fly which is just about usless trying to launch in any kind of swell. Not much storage on the aft deck and no laz so fenders have to go in baskets and no where really for a roll up dingy or water toys.

All in all a very good boat though and owners seem very happy with them and seem to hold their value well, biggest bonus though is you get 70' boat inside for 60' money and boat is semi custom so I am sure they can accomodate most of your wishes.

The rest are well documented but of the rest if you can stretch the fairline 68 is about the best you can get but still only three cabins + crew but really well built boat and not much to touch it unless you go Italian and move up a league such as Ferretti. Squaddie 58 is a very popular model so much so even though its getting long in the tooth they would find it hard to build / design anything better but smaller overall than the Pearl. Princess have the new 62 which looks a cracker but fourth cabin is dinky, build is good but from experience a shade under Fairline quality wise, Sunseeker offer the Manhattan 60 which probably has the biggest and brightest saloon but the master cabin is a big short on headroom and I found it a bit tight for space, bit glitzy for my taste but well put together and handles well if rides a bit bow up.

Of the bunch Fairline probably the best handling boat but whether that is that important of a boat that size is up to you none of them are exactly rocket ships.

Not much to choose service wise indeed that comes down to the dealer really get a good one and no worries, Pearl seems quite handy at sending bods from the factory if needed.


Hope that helps!

Yours truely prentending he knows what he is doing /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

and the very scary bit.....mind you the rest are about the same fuel burn wise.

You could of course wait a season and have a certain Italian stallion of 70' that has four cabins (realy big ones) and runs at the same speed with similar horsepower and the same money as a brit 60 footer and just as well put togther /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Nick_H]

Can't argue with much of what Nautical said, except the bit about the fly being spacious. Its about a third smaller than comparable aft cockpit boats cos the bit over the cockpit is just a canopy, but it is well laid out so still quite useable.

Only thing i've heard is that they're heavy and slow, but in fairness that was the first of the 55's and i don't know what engines it had. Owner reckoned on 25 knots max, 21 cruising which is a bit sluggish, but easy enough to check on sea trial.

 

[Nautical]

Your absolutely right Nick, gotta remember though us sport crusiery bods don't have em so anything looks huge /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif though in fairness to pearl what is there is very usable and certainly up to entertainly quite a few peeps in one go, I found though that the aft deck was almost an extention of the flybridge or vise versa as there are only a few steps up to the flybridge and they are quite wide so almost worked as an upper and lower flybridge, er, sort of if you get my drift /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jfm]

Would agree with much of what Nautical says, but not all. Pearl flybridge is not a good size, it is tiny and makes the boat utterly unsuitable to Med cruising imho, and lousy for entertaining. They lose all of the "overhang" space on the flybridge becuase of the aft cabin design - that's the compromise you have to live with, if you get a Pearl. The Sq58 flybridge in contrast will do lunch parties for 8+ easily. Nautical is right that with the Pearl you get 70foot accom for 60foot money but with a Sq58 you get a 70foot fly for 60foot money and after a little while using the boat in the sun you'll realise that's the better deal

I wouldn't bother with hydraulic bowthruster. Better to get just a decent electric one, like an 11hp Sleipner or Sidepower. Going hydraulic, per se, doesn't improve the thrust. And I wouldn't bother with an aft thruster as the propellors altready do that job.

Sq68 has 4 owners cabins not 3, though the 4th is quite small (bunks)

If you are spending that sort of money consider also engine/exhaust noise. They dont tell you about this in brochures and boat shows. Dont buy a sunseeker manhattan or Yacht series till you've taken a test sail and got you and your family happy with the exhaust noise imho. (Expect blood to trickle down from your eardrums after a little while). Fairline, Princess and many others have, in contrast, quiet exhausts. Dunno about Pearl, never sailed one.