Princess 42 on shafts

[sap_2000]

Once it was not unknown for customer specced oddballs to escape the factory, Princess 37 or 38 fitted with pair of weeny Mermaid 80HP diesels (cross channel swim safety boat) or single engine Princess 35 with single engine and no flybridge on the Thames.

Exactly. Even I as non-Brit have noticed some odd Princess builds over the years that was never even on any spec sheet or princess "heritage page", like the single engine "river P35´s".

As an example: A friend of mine owned the (probably) only V39 MK1 with KAD43 engines fitted as new.
Short story; Boat was one of the last V39s built and suffered water ingress in engine bay after launch with the original KAD 42s in there.
Boat was some time later, and after the introduction of the V40 fixed and refitted with the (at that time) brand new KAD 43 engines and sold through a dealer as a new boat. Probably at a discount because of the happenings, but still a new V39 with KAD43s.

In this case someone was very persistent insisting on that a boat specked like that was never made and then later after seing the pics, claiming re-badging. And this about a boat i have physically been on board and considered buying.

"Everyone" with a interest for Princess from 80s and 90s knows that the V40 shaft drive option became less and less popular as the difference in price increased.
However some people wouldn't consider a boat on legs and willing to pay that premium. I wouldn't be surprised if there also in the first following years a shaft V42 could be ordered if the customer was willing to pay.

After all, V40 and 42 is basically the same hull, only longer for the v42, and it wouldn't be hard for them to make a custom V42 in the early years. The development work was already done on the V40 and the sterngear could just be ordered from the previously used suppliers.

As of the difference of the hull, the prop tunnels and different transom (all the way to the end of the swim platform) was probably just a matter of an insert for the tunnels and different module at the end of the mould for the shaft drive version before laying up the hull.

I guess there are far less or none custom builds of the smaller boats in recent years, but as a boating geek i find those stories very interesting

By the way. Does the motor boat forum have a Facebook page anywhere?

 

[Portofino]

It’s got a cave where you paint a message on the wall with the blood of a recently hunted sabre tooth tiger

Such is the level of tech of this forum .