Princess 33 foot advise

[Metal Mickey]

Hi All, in a moment of impulse my wife and i traded in our 1966 slowish boat even though it had 2 old 6 cyl Bedford diesels in it, 14 knots with the tide running with you and the wind in your favour, 8 knots if the conditions were againt you and instead now have a Princess 33 foot with two Sabre 6 cyl Ford based turbocharged diesel engines, on shafts, twin fuel tanks with a joint capacity of just short of 500 galllons (UK) and gets very quickly up to 27 knots. The boat needed a bit of work and i have 85% rewired it and am quite handy with a pair of spanners having done my apprenticeship at Fords themselves and changed many a Ford D series engine, mostly V8's then, (I am showing my age now). I am tidying up the boats interior and going to recarpet and recover the walls in the near future. I believe the boat was built in the mid '70's.
I just wondered if anyone has any experience of these boats, good or bad, although i appreciate they can all be a bit differnet.
Regards, Mike.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/member.php?155168-Metal-Mickey#qJ2BCiXGJKuqv3CA.99

 

[PCUK]

Sounds good to me. Get some pics on here and everyone will be interested.

 

[rafiki_]

Warm welcome MM. You will probably find more of these on the rivers, so have a look at the Thames forum. Not limited to the Thames, but covers river boating for the forum.

 

[oldgit]

Our first proper boat the P33 and we had lots of fun with her. Burnham and Ramsgate by way of Topnbridge and Sonning over 6 or seven years and a about 1500 hours.
Our boat had a pair of rather geriatric VP 40A 135HP engines on outdrives and we regularly failed to get 15 knots out of her.Apart from the well known designed in window leaks,esp the front over the bed ,very little prevented our travels.....well lets not open old wounds regards outdrives.

 

[Metal Mickey]

Hi.
I'd jut like to say how much i appreciate these comments coming in and i'll post some photos's when i can as they are in an old computer that has a virus in it so as soon as i get it safe to plug in i can get the photo's and other information out of it, oh don't worry this PC is brand new and 100% clean. Oldgits comment about leaky windows, yes they do, i take it they are known for it, is there a repair or is new windows the answer if we ever decide to go that far, if they are available of course. My last boat, a 30' Freeman, as slow as it was, the windows were leak free yet they look not that different to the ones fitted to the Princess..............i take it it's leave bowls inside it whist she is standing at her moorings?
A big thank you to all that have replied so far and all comments are gratefully received, Mike.

 

[oldgit]

P33 was known for leaky windows.As the hull flexed the old seal crumbles away plus the canvas channeling rots.Your fuel tank capacity estimate may be a little on the optimistic side.Doubt you would get 500 gallons if you filled up the entire boat.More likely to be max of 200 or even less.Probably cost more than the boat is worth to fix all windows properly.A fine bead of clear sealer will keep most of the english summer off your bedding.
Boat came with two hull options with or without a little keel which was alleged to help with keeping the boat in a straight line at slow speeds and several engine flavours including petrol/diesel.twin/single and power ranged from 80HP to 165 HP ? in the much nicer MK11.
Would assume that all the galvanised freshwater tanks would have rotted out long ago and been replaced by now.
A real pig of job as hidden away under side decks and behind all sorts of other stuff.Normally bottom seams or tank base where it rests on bearers.Look for rust stains announcing the good news and get your grinder out of the garage.
Only way out is in bits.

 

[Metal Mickey]

Hi Old Git, sorry that sounds sooo rude, lol.
About the fuel tanks, i have seen them and i have been told they are long range tanks and are dark brown in colour in a primer matt like finish. They are large and retangular, i have refitted the wood but from memory they are 7' to 8' long, (The full length of the inner wheelhouse) about 4' tall with a depth of say 18" and i went on this website
http://www.regaltanks.co.uk/calculator/ and used the sites calculator.
I measured them at the time and that's how i got to my figure but i don't have the exact measurements now and i don't want to take off woodwork that i am renovating.
I mentioned the capacity to another boater and out come his iphone (Now i am feeling dumb) and he used it to calculate the capacity and he said they are very big and the weight when full must be enormous.
I believe you are in the Medway and i understand the boat used to live there so you might even know the boat....is it considered ok to quote the names of our boats on this forum or do we PM them or ????
I initially thought the D series based Sabre engines were 150bhp each, someone else told me they are 175 bhp each. I hope other find the website i have put on about tank capacity helpful as long as it is allowed by the 'Mods' and a big apology to you if i have posted something that is not allowed as i do not wish to break any rules nor annoy anybody.
I am painting the interior, restaining etc right now and i will gladly post photo's when she looks much better.....the only major modification i have made is to remove the bow partician so making it open plan to the from cabin/front bunks as i felt that area was too enclosed.
Regards MM.

 

[asteven221]

Hi MM. Welcome.

We had a "Y" hull P33 and really enjoyed owning her. Ours was fitted with 2 x 80hp Ford Mermaid engines (shafts) and we cruised all over the Clyde. We even ventured from the Clyde to Bangor in Ireland which is 75 miles each way. It sounds like yours is the planing hull version. The fuel tank (single) was located in the lazarette whilst two fresh water tanks (plastic) were located port and starboard in the engine compartment.

The boat seemed very solid compared with more modern boats and yes the windows do leak. Not a big problem and easily sorted out. All in all I think they are excellent boats and good choice to do a refurb job on.

Good luck.

 

[apollo]

Wasn't called Ariana by any chance was it?

 

[oldgit]

....is it considered ok to quote the names of our boats on this forum
Regards MM.

Perfickly OK ..have tracked down many an ex local boat on this forum.My old Princess went over to Wales and was spotted by a forumite some years ago.
Give us the name,my club has approx 100 know alls whos lives appear to be dedicated to recollecting dull boaty stuff from the past.
Boat ~I am interested in,in Wales started life here on the Mudway.Was able to discover what happened to a large chunk of it via the forum.
Several boats in our club started life being maltreated on the Thames.
This is worth look scroll down into the stone age just after dug out canoe bit of the list around 1975.
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...XTB14HptRqYBuvSwJXXPsfQ&bvm=bv.85970519,d.d2s

 

[Divemaster1]

That is massive tanks for the size of boat .... and you will then carry approx. 2 T (2,250 L) of fuel, so my guess is that you would not reach 27 knots with that sort of weight on-board (in comparison, we are 45ft, have a good range with 1,700L fuel)... The Princess 33 MK II I believe weighed in at approx. 5.5 T and fuel tanks at approx. 500L ... 2 T of fuel + tanks ...will have added a massive 40% additional weight....

Also I believe that the 6 Cyl Turbocharged Ford's of that era was delivered with two configurations Turbo & Turbo + intercooler @ 150/180 Hp ratings.... and the P33 Max ratings delivered was 2 x 150 ... but happy to be corrected ..

Nice boat and have always liked them ...

 

[Metal Mickey]

Hi All
The name i bought it with is 'Go Ford', now i am told it is considered unlucky to change the name of a boat but the name doesn't do it for me so i was considering getting some wooden name plaques engraved with 'Sabre' with a sword underneath and attach them to the side air boxes.........................comments please?
MM.

 

[oldgit]

Hi All
The name i bought it with is 'Go Ford', now i am told it is considered unlucky to change the name of a boat but the name doesn't do it for me so i was considering getting some wooden name plaques engraved with 'Sabre' with a sword underneath and attach them to the side air boxes.........................comments please?
MM.

All you need to change the name of a boat is some sticky letters and a steady hand. All my boats got renamed 30 secs after they tied up at my mooring.
All are still floating and all crew over the years are still alive and still being rude to me.
It used to be considered unlucky to have a lady aboard, might be worth try with the wife (once the boat is clean) but your on your own if shes not having any of it.

 

[Metal Mickey]

Incidentally i have been to Chatham/Medway Marina 3 times now, where you go through the 2 rotating black lock doors, twice in my last boat, the Freeman 30' with 2 90bhp diesels in it and once in the Princess, travelling from the Benfleet area. The last trip back was 'fun' as the boss (The wife) and i came back alone and apart from taking a wrong turning, about halfway back there is a concrete round fortress in the middle of the river, before the cranes, we should of kept left to the cranes but aimed right, almost got stuck on the mud as the depth gauge dropped off in seconds. 'Driving' sits well with me, class 1 HGV etc but boating of course is a whole new ball game and where the Medway and Thames Rivers mix got very choppy, and an easterly wind and a westerley tide (I think that's right) but our local moorings master that we travelled outwards with asked me to phone him when we got back ok, little did i realise he knew more than he was letting on and knew the crossing aiming for Southend would be lively to say the least.
On the speed bit it was 3/4 full of fuel and it made it's 27 knots quite easily apart from the rough part where we were getting too rough a ride and i had to slow it down a few times as the waves were taller than the boat. To be honest i love it even if it does get scary at times, once in the Benfleet Creek area it smoothed out ok.....anyone else done this run?
MM.