Sunseeker Stand - Southampton Boat Show 2021

[doug748]

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Nothing about Princess is British? What planet are you on? The factory is in Plymouth where foreigners won’t be able to understand a word the locals say. Yes, some components come from overseas ..................

Henry

Indeed.
I am not fully up to date but Princess have c 7 factories' in Plymouth plus secondary production sites around the city. They employ over 3000 local people.
Things are looking up right now:

Plymouth's Princess Yachts reveals record billion dollar order book



Just saying like.

.

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

Indeed.
I am not fully up to date but Princess have c 7 factories' in Plymouth plus secondary production sites around the city. They employ over 3000 local people.
Things are looking up right now:

Who is not looking up right now? I mean boats are selling easy right now. Covid boosted the sector not by little.
It will be interesting when the sea gets rough what remains of who.

My remark was that in the design the functionality a British boat does not need a passarelle, you berth along side.
Does not need an astern galley, you need a cozy saloon for a place where it rains 300 days a year.
For a boat in the UK a central galley in the saloon makes more sense.
These are all Med boating. Okay we live in a global-World and one has to compete.
But to take an American analogy sport fishers and center-console are the dominant sales in the USA, while in the not so far away Holland aft cabin cruisers are doing the same.

Also the designer of Princess since the last couple of years is Pininfarina.
Pininfarina is not consulting, what started with the R35 has gone into the X95, the F45, and new Y70.
Same for the upcoming F85 and Y95. These are models totally designed by Pininfarina in concept and lines.

Now lets change a bit our thought here;
Most of the production parts sourcing in this line of yachts, from metals to steel to electronics come from Italy. With some exception here and there.
There was a big reason when Beneteau Group choose Italy to build Monte Carlo Yachts.
The fact is that when you build a yacht of 20-50 meters in Italy especially in areas like Liguria to Tuscany to Lazio, and Marche to Emilia-Romagna to Veneto everything is easier to make.
Technically if you had financial means and knowledge behind you, you could build a 25 meter in Viareggio by sub-contracting everything and possibly arriving at the same cost an off the line bean counter produced Princess Y85 costs. Re-selling would be another thing though as we have seen with some fresher names; Cantiere delle Marche comes to mind, reselling one of there yachts (even though the yard has only just over ten years age) has actually been much easier to any production yacht.
The same thought exists in Holland, they have a similar system like in Italy, but geared for steel rather then fiberglass and wood. So for them building a steel yacht is very easy.

As for the engines. Italy made huge mistakes in the eighties and nineties and could have dominated the diesel market for decades.
The biggest one was the selling of direct injection technology to Bosch in the mid to late nineties.
Without this Common-Rail would have not evolved how we know it today, and really it was taking pence for a penny.
In the eighties.
CRM was the name for big diesel engines, remained as a pocket machine builder. They where much better then the GM and Cats which followed.
Isotta Frashini stayed in the commercial side of things, but over 20 liters they where so advanced.
Sea-Tek which is based on a Leyland block also remained a strictly performance engine.
Iveco today FPT never was I would say never interested in Marine and while it had huge success with its trucks, many say are among the most reliable, never went outside the lines to enter the Marine market.
It is a pity with Iveco I have friend who have nineties 400hp Iveco engines and the cost of parts and the trouble free running is impressive.

 

[henryf]

Not sure you answered your “pricing has no substance” comment. I’m on tenterhooks here waiting to hear where all these bargain boats are and what our next steed is going to be.

Is reliance on subcontractors really the way forward as you seem to imply? What do you do when another builder tries to bully the subcontractor into an exclusive deal? How do you avoid convergence and blending into a sea of identical offerings? What happens when third party companies let you down or cease trading and how do you create / protect exclusivity and individuality? Providing you can reach a critical mass able to support well equipped specialist facilities then in house works well.

As for design we currently have a galley down design and it works but I can see some advantages with galley up. Until now there’s been nothing to temp us away because those raised galleys have been too small with limited refrigeration but the Princess F55 and Sunseeker Manhattan 55 will work.

Whilst is has been known to rain here in the UK the great joy of a flybridge is its cockpit. The flybridge overhang makes fitting canopies really easy and you can adapt to suit conditions from fully enclosed to fully open. At anchor you are also downwind in most cases. With the heating on and the patio doors open you can use the space pretty much all year. That tropical air conditioning also provides much better heating that previous webasto set ups thanks to the increased volume of air. The aft galley also serves the flybridge as it’s steps are right next door so the internal staircase argument often debated on here becomes less of an issue in my humble opinion.

We use the passarelle as a crane but when a high low platform is fitted don’t tick the passarelle option and save £20k, ditto powered capstan winches at the back. Ultimately build a boat that works for you. Mid galley is an option but it potentially restricts view from the lower helm and cupboard space if you want to maintain huge side windows. The space under the flybridge stairs is pretty handy and you service inside or outside areas.

The one thing which massively appeals to me about Princess is its usability here in the UK and it is that which is making it hard to look elsewhere. I see loads of the being used in anger on the Solent and further afield. Cleats are easily accessible rather than hidden under mouldings, there is a clear line down from the cleats to the dock without ropes fouling on bodywork, helms are laid out well, moving around the boat is clean and natural. This doesn’t happen by accident, it happens because plywood mock ups are build that people can walk round during the design phase. Computers are great, but only up to a point.

Ive been to Cannes and Düsseldorf on multiple occasions now waiting to discover the holy grail of non UK manufactured boats and it hasn`t happened. Lord knows I`ve tried, the last thing I want is a manufacturer thinking they`ve got me by the short & curlys because I’ve got nowhere else to go. The closest I`ve found is Sirena but they aren`t quite there yet in terms of expanding their dealer network into the UK.

Anyway, this is moving a long way from discussions surrounding the Sunseeker stand at Southampton which for us was excellent.

I will start a new thread in due course…..

Henry