henryf
Well-Known Member
First of all a little background. Current boat is a Princess 50 Mk3 flybridge. Bought off Princess in 2012 as a new boat but actually a 2011 model, it was the London boat show boat and featured in their brochure at the time. Because it was a stock boat we had no say in the spec, we got what we were given. As a result there were a few firsts for us including reverse cycle A/C. It has a fixed bathing platform with a paserelle / 300kg crane.
For those that don’t know the 50 Mk 3 was one of the first with a full beam owners cabin in that size bracket. The very first one we saw was a Fairline 48 whilst owners of a Phantom 42. Re-visiting before be bought this boat the 48 was quite tight inside space wise in comparison. In fact that’s why we moved from the Fairline Phantom 42 to a 2007 Princess 42 fly, it seemed a bit bigger inside all round.
Since buying the 50 we’ve kept our ear to the ground and done the rounds at boat shows to try and find it’s replacement. Unfortunately it’s proved to be something of a tough act to follow. The trend towards galley up arrangements has meant very limited space and in particular refrigeration. An under counter fridge freezer doesn’t pass muster so the Princess 52 and 56 were non starters. Not bad boats per-se but the thought of spending a big wedge of cash only to lose one of the upper seating areas (we currently have a saloon and separate dining area) AND suffer a tiny galley was too bitter a pill to swallow. So we remained in the Mk3 50.
Looking elsewhere Fairline was still very tight inside but Sunseeker broke the mould with their Manhattan 52. Princess rivalling inside space but sadly a caravan fridge freezer. The new Princess 50 can be specced with a full size fridge freezer now and was in the running but it features IPS engines and I do love the simplicity and frugality of shafts, they are also very intuitive to manoeuvre. The new 50 didn’t give us the extra feeling of space either (and why should it being the same size), despite chucking more than twice the money at it.
Something else to throw into the mix is the fact we charter our boat here in the Solent so it has to be safe and easy to handle. We aren’t just a family who can work round design flaws, we have different guests on every day so it needs to flow naturally. We also find ourselves in a wide variety of berths and anchorages during the course of a season. We can’t just make a boat work on our home dock, it has to work everywhere and sometimes that means tight or otherwise quirky little spots with no prior warning.
For that reason things like cleats have to be in all the right places and accessible. You would be amazed how many boats fail on that score. We need to operate with a captain and single deck hand who is more usually found performing the role of hostess. In my case that person is only just into the 5ft club and a sports model rather than a comfort model so the boat has to do all the hard work.
Being UK based which is home to the best boat builders in the world its easy to forget other manufacturers do exist so we had a few trips out to Cannes and Düsseldorf.
For those that don’t know the 50 Mk 3 was one of the first with a full beam owners cabin in that size bracket. The very first one we saw was a Fairline 48 whilst owners of a Phantom 42. Re-visiting before be bought this boat the 48 was quite tight inside space wise in comparison. In fact that’s why we moved from the Fairline Phantom 42 to a 2007 Princess 42 fly, it seemed a bit bigger inside all round.
Since buying the 50 we’ve kept our ear to the ground and done the rounds at boat shows to try and find it’s replacement. Unfortunately it’s proved to be something of a tough act to follow. The trend towards galley up arrangements has meant very limited space and in particular refrigeration. An under counter fridge freezer doesn’t pass muster so the Princess 52 and 56 were non starters. Not bad boats per-se but the thought of spending a big wedge of cash only to lose one of the upper seating areas (we currently have a saloon and separate dining area) AND suffer a tiny galley was too bitter a pill to swallow. So we remained in the Mk3 50.
Looking elsewhere Fairline was still very tight inside but Sunseeker broke the mould with their Manhattan 52. Princess rivalling inside space but sadly a caravan fridge freezer. The new Princess 50 can be specced with a full size fridge freezer now and was in the running but it features IPS engines and I do love the simplicity and frugality of shafts, they are also very intuitive to manoeuvre. The new 50 didn’t give us the extra feeling of space either (and why should it being the same size), despite chucking more than twice the money at it.
Something else to throw into the mix is the fact we charter our boat here in the Solent so it has to be safe and easy to handle. We aren’t just a family who can work round design flaws, we have different guests on every day so it needs to flow naturally. We also find ourselves in a wide variety of berths and anchorages during the course of a season. We can’t just make a boat work on our home dock, it has to work everywhere and sometimes that means tight or otherwise quirky little spots with no prior warning.
For that reason things like cleats have to be in all the right places and accessible. You would be amazed how many boats fail on that score. We need to operate with a captain and single deck hand who is more usually found performing the role of hostess. In my case that person is only just into the 5ft club and a sports model rather than a comfort model so the boat has to do all the hard work.
Being UK based which is home to the best boat builders in the world its easy to forget other manufacturers do exist so we had a few trips out to Cannes and Düsseldorf.
