Princess 33 Mk II info needed

mbird

mbird

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Newbie needs help!:o

My family and I are trying to find a boat to suit our needs and offer us our first taste of boating at sea. We currently own a river cruiser based on the Norfolk Broads, but have decided to sell her in favour of a "proper" boat. Our main problems are budget, and finding something to suit our accomodation needs, with two growing sons.

We have recently been quite impressed with a 1982 Princess 33 Mk II flybridge which has twin 130hp diesels on shafts, but I am a little worried about the engines being underpowered for the size of the vessel, and not being able to maintain the plane.

I have now seen an identical boat, but with twin 167hp petrol engines on sterndrives, and wondered what the performance is likely to be with those?

Probably 80-85% or our cruising will still be on the rivers of the Norfolk Broads, so petrol could possibly make sense over diesel at slow speeds. When we are brave enough to venture to sea, our trips are likely to consist of jaunts to Southwold and the like.

Any ideas or comments, or does anyone have experience with the P33 in these configurations?
 
Hi tamd31s wont be very exciting, will barely get on the plane but will be fine on the broads, they also did that boat with tamd40 165 engines in and was a bit better, some have been re engined with tamd41 200hp engines, that would be the 1 to go for, the corniche is also a good bet but go for one with the 200hp engines as again some had 165hp engines in and were not that exciting.

As for the petrols thay will be £££££ to run, unless you find one cheap and re engine with a pair of 200hp diesels, volspec currently have a pair with single prop drives, but duo prop drives are around secondhand.
 
Corniche is also a better riding boat then the Princess 33 Mk.II but I would guess they also keep there value more
the 33 rolls quite a bit and its hull is also designed for the low twenty knots in my opinion
a local one here was repowered with KAD42 230hp, doing about 29/30 knots max
the hull of this Princess is also I think by Bill Dixon and not Bernard Olenski as they are today and have been since the late eighties
we had a few Princesses of the time locally who also blistered so better to check this up as well, Fairline are less prone to this, still these are old boats so if they are left two years plus in the water is a situation which can happen to any boat....
 
IMHO , leave an older boat alone with petrols and stern drives.
Yep, I know 'budget' is the thing.
Good advice earlier off two experienced Chaps.

However, the Princes mk2 is a good ship.
Born out of the 'Profile' mark.

There are some good boats about at the Mo in the sub £20.000 region if you scour the titernet.
Maybe not 33footers however!

Try looking at single engine shaft drive diesel propelled boats.
With semi dispalcement capabilities.
Good for the Broads and for the sea.

If you are thinking of venturing out to sea.
A vessel capable of a 12 kt cruising speed would be good.

I don't know the area you fancy cruising in.
No doubt a local expert will turn up and advise you.

Welcome to the Forum as well.
There is a wealth of knowledge on ere!!
 
Think a P33 with 130 hpdiesels would be with TMD40 A's ... solid engines with good reputation, but would not expect to get more than around 20 knots out of her.... fully laden, with dirty hull...you'd be pushed to get much more than 17 ish.

In this price class/age, also look at Fairline 32 Sedan (if you want flybridge),but you'll be more impressed with the space inside a Fairline 32 Phantom, which have a semi-flybridge as single helm and all below for accommodation.

This Sedan looks good... with new(ish) diesels...

http://uk.yachtworld.com/core/listi...rency=GBP&access=Public&listing_id=76742&url=

Personally, I'd stay away from petrols due to accessability of the fuel at pontoons.

If you're mainly dong canals though, I'd seriously consider semi-displacements ...including Princess 37's without flybridge and 2 x 120's, which will inspire more confidence at sea with longer hull length and weight, but will progress at lower speeds..
 
Any ideas or comments, or does anyone have experience with the P33 in these configurations?[/QUOTE]


The Princesss MKII is the last version of the John Bennet designed hull.Most were the earlier MKI type produced from 1975 until the last few years with the later version being discontinued in 1987.
The hull in the later boat was the deep V version with redesigned topsides given much better use of space and interior finish more in keeping with modern tastes as opposed to the earlier "caravan" finish.
IMHO stay a million miles away from petrols and the outdrives should be kept perhaps at least the thickness of your wallet away.
For the odd weekend away the accomodation will be just fine,but you must love your kids a great deal to spend a week with them because persuading them out of the dinette bed in the morning and using the bogs will be fun.
The engines most probably will be (read hopefully) the tried tested and bullet proof 6 cyl 40A with a little turbo charger(as opposed the slightly vibratery 4 cyl to get you possibly up to a heady 15 knots,but they will run forever and on fumes and still be going when the latest D series thingies **** out and on their 4th expensive rebuild.
My MKI has the AQD40 which will give around 17 knots with a following wind,not very fast at all by todays standards but is happiest chugging along at 8/9 knots and will sip that expensive £5.00 a gallon red like a true maritime miser.Most spares are easy to obtain and can be bought very cheaply and apart from a major disaster a few hundred each year would cover belts/filters/anodes/oil/selection of hammers and antifoul.
info is lifted from from the MBM publication 25 years of Motor boats.
p33.jpg

For reference a non fly MKII with petrols was up for sale locally for around £25K it did not sell.
Have a look here http://www.princess.co.uk/princess-boats-heritage.html
 
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Thank you for the information guys. I guess I will ignore the petrol sterndrive version then!

I am quite surprised that the twin 130hp diesels will reach 17-18kts. For such a heavy boat that sounds quite respectable.

Sorry for the daft question, but at what sort of speed would you expect that type of boat to get up on the plane?
 
We had a P33mk1 with 2 x 80hp and the older "y" hull. Structure seemed well built. We cruised at 9.5knts regularly from the Clyde down to Bangor which is about 80 miles. Never had any great issues as far as seakeeping was concerned as long as your sensible of course. Two adults and two kids - no problems accomodation wise. Obviously if you are used to bigger then it may be an issue, but if you are used to smaller then it's a palace. It's all relative. I always thought that the flybridge was too small (ours didn't have one) however and not a place I would want to be too often. Frankly it looked dangerous IMHO. All in all we had a great time in our P33 and if that's the budget you have for a boat then I don't think you will go wrong assuming the boat is in good condition. Like everyone else I would stay away from petrol versions unless the price is low. BTW things to watch for are the steel fuel tank leaks if badly corroded. The windows are likely to leak which is not a serious fault and can be fixed.
 
Thanks asteven. We are quite happy the accomodation is big enough for us, as the other options within our budget seem to all be very old, or newer sports cruisers.

At the moment we seem a bit torn between P33 MkII or Sealine 310 Statesman. Similar accomodation in each, but one with shafts and 2x130's and one with sterndrives on 2x150's. I would guess from the look of the both though, the P33 would probably be a little more comfortable in a bit of a swell.
 
At the moment we seem a bit torn between P33 MkII or Sealine 310 Statesman.

Two very different boats,each with its own merits of course.The Sealine should be a lot faster due to its lighter weight(4 tons),but will probably be a little more skittish in its handling especially if its got outdrives,the smaller fly Sealines do have a bit of a reputation in the low speed handling dept,but their owners seem to manage.
The P33 is a much heavier boat(over 5 tons) and genuine 33ft, shaft drive will make it blow about much less in any sort of breeze which will make life a lot more tranquil when mooring up.
Would also have thought they would be in two totally different price brackets/
 
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We had a P33 Mk1 Fly. We cruised the whole of the Irish sea in it, Even up to Tobermory, IOM and most of Ireland. It did 18 knots with 130's on drives.

It slammed a bit, but think that was sort of normal for a 70's boat.

The fly can be a bit hairy, if getting down from it in any sort of sea. Your feet tend to fly of the ladder and your whole body hangs over the sea, with your hands gripping the rail for grim death.
 
oldgit said:
Would also have thought they would be in two totally different price brackets/
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We've seen both at around £40k for the same sort of age with similar engines, but we've yet to try any out.

I suppose my biggest worry is going for the P33 MkII, and being stuck with a planing hull that can only be used in displacement mode due to engines that aren't big enough.
 
mbird said:
We've seen both at around £40k for the same sort of age with similar engines, but we've yet to try any out.

I suppose my biggest worry is going for the P33 MkII, and being stuck with a planing hull that can only be used in displacement mode due to engines that aren't big enough.

Can you find find out exactly the engines are installed as the outputs from the block used varies depending on who/what is is being quoted.Have seen the 40 type block output hp being quoted from 90hp up to 165hp.

What ever you go for,you have the seller by the dangly bits,so go in with insult offers,no silly 5 or 10% broker rubbish,mebbe 50% or 25% off,basically as low as you can go and keep a straight face.
You are probably the only buyer in the entire UK at the moment.:)
Click to expand...
 
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