Tender for Princess P68 - F70

[menta]

Hello
Is there a possibility to have on a Princess Fly 68 or F70 a tender with outboard motor say Avon 3.8 or 4.0 meters or a Williams jet is the only option?
First answer of the yard is that they will only put a Williams due to height limitations because of the passerelle positioning
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated
Thanks

 

[Hurricane]

They said something similar to me when we bought our Princess 67.
I didn't want a Jet for probably the same reasons as you.
Wasn't a problem - I just supplied my own and they fitted it.
But they thought that a 4m RIB would be too big so with their advice, I bought a 3.4m Walker Bay.
Fantastic little tender - great fun but we outgrew it.

I ended up taking the advice of other people on this forum and buying a 4.3m Novurania.
Yes - 4.3m!!
There is a thread on here somewhere where we discussed how to fit a tender that big onto a P67.

Nothing like as much fun to drive as the Walker Bay but the Novurania is a very functional boat.
We go places without getting wet.
A trip round to the next bay for dinner is done in its stride.
To that end, I've fitted GPS, a Plotter and Depth instrumentation.
This is a "go anywhere" tender.

In your case, though, you would need to make sure that your tender fits onto the HiLo bathing platform and still leave space to stern dock the boat.
Our P67 is of the vintage where a crane was fitted and space/strength allowed to store the tender on the flybridge.
See here - big - but it fits - this pic shows the Novurania on the FB and the old Walker Bay on the bathing platform.
Apologies for the state of the cockpit covers!!!

If you look back at the thread where we discussed fitting my 4.3m Novurania, you would see that I really only wanted it to fit on the flybridge and I was planning on towing it on other occasions.
After one summer season of getting fed up with towing, I offered it up to the bathing platform and was amazed that it fitted!!
So, here is the Novurania on the bathing platform.

The end result is that we store the tender on the flybridge and when going into a marina.
Going between anchorages and during most of our longer distance passages, it goes onto the bathing platform.

As I say, in the case of the Princess models that you have mentioned, it would need to go onto the HoLo platform and allow enough clearance for a passerelle.

If you are looking at Novurania, they make a smaller versions - mine and others on this forum are Deluxe 430s.
Novurania is regarded as the RIB of choice for the bigger motor yachts/ super yachts.

I also think of it from a safety point of view.
If ever we had a problem on a passage and had to abandon, the Novurania would be launched ahead of the liferaft any day.

And if you get far enough to want to order a Novurania, please contact me - I found the whole buying process difficult.

 

[BartW]

The end result is that we store the tender on the flybridge and when going into a marina.
Going between anchorages and during most of our longer distance passages, it goes onto the bathing platform.

As I say, in the case of the Princess models that you have mentioned, it would need to go onto the HoLo platform and allow enough clearance for a passerelle.

Good going Mike,
I didn't realise / I missed that you managed to put the tender on the platform, was the arm from your crane long enough ?

we have exactly the same mode of operation like you. I love the empty platform in a marina !
unfortunately our crane arm is not long enough (would have been nice for the Jetski)
but as you know we have the hi-lo platform.

occasionally we put the tender on the platform in a marina (fe for cleaning or maintenance, tools nearby...)
we have some options that enable the use of passerel when the tender is on the platform:

- we lower the hi/lo platform, until just level with water surface,
- we made additional fixing positions for the tender chocks, so that the tender is 1,5m out of center, (in that case, the bow of the tender sticks out further than the side of the main ship)

 

[menta]

Dear both thank you very much for your replies even though it is not what I would like to hear
My previous boat was a P62 and I had a 3.60 tender with 40 HP outboard but it seems with the bigger one we may end up with a smaller tender and a jet for that matter
So next question. Assuming we will have to do with a jet any ideas what is the max size we could install?
Thanks again
Menta

 

[MrB]

Dear both thank you very much for your replies even though it is not what I would like to hear
My previous boat was a P62 and I had a 3.60 tender with 40 HP outboard but it seems with the bigger one we may end up with a smaller tender and a jet for that matter
So next question. Assuming we will have to do with a jet any ideas what is the max size we could install?
Thanks again
Menta

Williams recommend a Sportjet 345 (3.45m) for the F70 and a Turbojet 325 (3.2m) for the P68

 

[Hurricane]

Dear both thank you very much for your replies even though it is not what I would like to hear
My previous boat was a P62 and I had a 3.60 tender with 40 HP outboard but it seems with the bigger one we may end up with a smaller tender and a jet for that matter
So next question. Assuming we will have to do with a jet any ideas what is the max size we could install?
Thanks again
Menta

There is always the option to "over engine" an outboard tender.
My Walker Bay had a 40HP and the Novurania has a 70Hp

 

[MedMilo]

Hi - just to say that I have a Williams 345 Sportjet on my Fairline Sq 65. It fits very comfortably and allows enough room on the port side for the letterbox passarelle to operate and, equally importantly, for people to have a swim and shower off with the tender in place!

The rib itself is amazing. It has the new and much simpler Rotax engine which I’m told is more reliable than the previous Webber offering (that said, I had a few of the Webber powered Williamses and didn’t have any issues other than with my two very early ones (2005 / 2008). My new (2019) Sportjet is a different beast altogether and much more boat-like than tender-like. Very stable, takes five or six comfortably, huge range and amazing for water sports - mono-skiing no problem, even for single ski, deep water starts! And, so far, no reliability issues whatsoever.

Crucially, Williams have worked hard to grow their network of good service centres and, as long as you have one near you, then you could/should seriously consider this as a tender for your Princess. Obviously these high performance vessels are only as good and reliable as the quality and regularity of their servicing, so it’s helpful to have a service agent readily available to do the annual servicing etc.

 

[Hurricane]

Good going Mike,
I didn't realise / I missed that you managed to put the tender on the platform, was the arm from your crane long enough ?

we have exactly the same mode of operation like you. I love the empty platform in a marina !
unfortunately our crane arm is not long enough (would have been nice for the Jetski)
but as you know we have the hi-lo platform.

occasionally we put the tender on the platform in a marina (fe for cleaning or maintenance, tools nearby...)
we have some options that enable the use of passerel when the tender is on the platform:

- we lower the hi/lo platform, until just level with water surface,
- we made additional fixing positions for the tender chocks, so that the tender is 1,5m out of center, (in that case, the bow of the tender sticks out further than the side of the main ship)

Hi Bart
Yes, our crane was designed to span both the flybridge and the bathing platform.
It is offset on the starboard side so we lift the tender on the starboard quarter and it swings round - either to the flybridge or to the bathing platform.
In the second pic above, it is attached to the crane.
The only problem with this arrangement is that I can't operate the passerelle with the tender on the bathing platform - it has to go up on the flybridge in that case.
This inconvenience is a small price to pay for such a great tender.
Thanks for helping me when I bought it.

Here are a few more pics of our 4.3m Novurania with the 70Hp Yamaha - probably boring for most people though.

At our home berth in the Med, we have UK style pontoons so I have a plastic dock where I keep the tender most of the time when we are there.
This gives us the option of going somewhere on the RIB quickly.
I can launch it in seconds and as I said above, it can go places keeping its occupants dry.
So great for popping out to our lagoon where there are restaurants etc.

I bought the Bimini option for it so during July and August, we tend to keep the bimini fitted.

Also bought/made a bathing ladder so that us fat gits can climb on board after a swim.

 

[menta]

Dear all thank you all for your advice
eventually I ordered a Williams 395
hoping for the best
Happy holidays