Buying & Owning a £1.6 million Princess F55 | Owner's Review

should we go up to 20 knots and yeah absolutely does that actually happen right no essentially it's a hundred thousand pound box to tick yeah we're lucky enough to test lots of new boats here at yacht buyer but what we unfortunately don't get to learn about is what these things are like to live with well today hopefully we're going to get an insight into that because we're here to meet a chap called Henry who earlier this year took delivery of this princess f55 and today we're going to take it for a spin he's going to show us around and we're hopefully going to learn a bit more about what it's like to buy own run and live with one of these boats let's get going I'm Jack Haynes and this is [Music] [Applause] all right [Applause] [Music] Henry thank you very much for having us on board mango uh we're gonna have a tour of the boat and hopefully have a quick spin later but before that it would be really good just to get an idea of your boating history the boats you've owned previously what else you considered before you landed on the f55 and what specifically it was about this boat but um you like so much uh in terms of ownership history so started off um little four wins 195 inboard V8 we used uh water skiing in the lakes and then some Coastal work first sort of proper boat uh Fairline Targa 35 1995 I think CAD 42 engines uh moved from there to a fly bridge the sports boats are a pretty boat but I didn't like all the bits of tent pole and stuff that went with it so went to a phantom 42 63p engines yeah that was a 97 I think now boat yeah uh when we're looking to change that we looked at the fell on 43 it almost felt a bit smaller than the 42 so we then looked at the princess and the princess p-42 got a 2007 uh p42 with Volvo d6s in it fantastic boat I mean at that size you know did everything really really well having had boats a while I fancied looking at the charter business so we looked at bigger boats um and then we then got a princess 50 Mark III so the first of the full beam 50 fly bridge yeah yeah First the full beam owners cabins and so we had that we bought that in 2012 and that was a really really good boat yeah four B Minor's cabin a lot bigger than the p-42 and we could operate as a charter boat quite well yeah and so it we ended up keeping the the 50 for for kind of 10 11 years so a lot longer than we thought in 2017 2018 we ended up at one of the boat shows and we saw this the f55 for the first time yeah and that was the first boat that we went on that we suddenly thought right yeah you know you know when you go on something and it just sort of ticks all the boxes it was bigger in every respect and a major that we thought then yeah right you know that this might work as a boat and so and it ended up placing an order for this in uh September the Southampton Boat Show 2021 okay and what else were you looking at in this sector apart from the f55 if anything uh we looked at a lot um I mean in the UK boats obviously fell on and Sunseeker were the other big boys um Fairline they volumetrically they were too small right inside so that they it didn't really work for us uh Sunseeker I think had been the same but with the Advent of the Manhattan 55 suddenly that that I think competes with the princesses in terms of internal volume we look seriously at that we had big discussions with their sales team which is a yeah they've got a pretty strong sales team uh you know and uh so we were looking at those as well ultimately um I didn't feel it was quite as practical a boat as we were looking for styling wise I think the sun Seeker is probably more Lamborghini than Porsche and we're probably you know more Porsche we're not a bit gregarious one of the closest boats uh at I think can we saw a manufacturer Serena Turkish company and they had a 56 58 I think 58 it might have been yeah which is volumetrically against it it's a ton of trawler style boat modern trawler style yeah a lot of space inside massive fly bridge yeah the problem is I don't think it quite had to build quality that princess has well we'll start at the back shall we because I don't know that this is the first few having the hydraulic bathing platform yes which actually it technically is an option uh technically I think yeah I don't have any boats I've ever been produced ever without them but technically you pay extra on the on the checklist for it yes um it's I liked a fixed bathing platform with a pastoral crane to launch and recover dinghy um I haven't had extra I've started using this in Anger yet so um I'm sure once you get used to it it's lovely certainly from a from an actual bathing perspective it's nice yeah if Charter guests want to go swimming we can lower the platform in makes transitioning out the water really really easy yeah um and other people seem to manage to launch and recover okay so we'll do the same I think most of these boats probably carrier Williams of some description but yeah you're not going down that Avenue no uh We've we we're looking at um it's a very lightweight carbon fiber or grp carbon fiber boat a rigid boat um it's like 40 45 kilos of the boat a little 15 horse engine but it's still a 3.3 meter boat um but great for kind of going ashore so so we use a tender as a just a kind of tool to get from an anchored boat to go ashore to go into town to go to up a beach or whatever so I want to be able to drag it at the beach um I'm not bothered about dragging water toys around and that sort of thing so I don't need 50 knots it's a really practical thing and also if I'm leaving it tied up in a little tender Park you know I'd rather have you know a more modest amount of money tied up there rather than 40 grams worth of tender you say AMT is the brand so it's AST it's the German company and then the option on this boat you can either have storage back here or yes so so we we had on the 50 we had a crew cab in uh never once slept in it it's it's this size of boat you only get a single berth which if we're using it for actual crew we need two people so we would have to use our third cabin as our crew cabin so just point out at this point that when you run the charter that is you and your partner Sharon you're yes no no so I'm the captain yeah and so it helps I'm sleeping with a Hostess but don't tell my wife who's also my hostess so um so yeah don't judge me too harshly um but so so we would if if it was an overnight Charter we would share the third cabin I have to say 99 of our Charters are day charters um but I think there was a a lot of people will specify a crew cabin and it's a you know twenty thousand twenty five thousand pound option to do and yet never actually use it so I just thought look if we haven't got all the Clutter of bathrooms and toilets and you get much more storage and so for us actually that gives us a really big storage area which we can use for all the you know stuff yeah yeah and and we've kind of got all the gubbins plus our coding gubbins yes seating here uh is really great particularly you know when used with the the galley aft yes and obviously this folds up yeah so Sharon can kind of manage the the lower area yeah in terms of serving guests from here keeping Eyes On Down Below yeah I'm upstairs at the helm position and I've got eyes on it there but you know you can get sort of five six people sat really come from around the table and then you've got your space inside as well and I guess the area I guess would absolutely [Music] up here on the fly bridge I imagine this is a space where you really feel the difference over your previous bow absolutely um so on the uh 50 you probably got six or eight people on the fly bridge and a you felt that you know the weight on the top and just the space we had a kind of our bathing area here you know some beds here uh this is absolutely spectacular it's really weird but from a personal level I buy the flybridge not for the fly bridge but for the cockpit because I like the the fact that you can put your cover around the cockpit and make it fully enclosed or you can have it open and also when you anchor it's always downwind and so for me actually a fly bridge boat is for that however from a charter perspective this is is unbelievable you know we we've kind of got the flybridge of a 60 65 foot boat you know comfortably we get 12 people up here to the point where I actually get my safety briefing up here yeah um and people do like to be sat up here we've got a Bimini which if one if we need to we can electronically fold away one of the things I sort of wrestled with a bit when we were specking the boat was the power operation of the Bimini so standard is a manual benefit well no no no you're sorry yes if you expect the respect the Bimini yeah it's it's a it's a it's a manual Bimini and that's what we had on the 50. the the the the the the power operation of it is a kind of ten thousand pound box to take and you know need it we don't need it it's spectacular again it's so easy it's a massive thing and even on the small 50 Bimini you kind of wrestle with it a bit with this you just unclip your wires and your and your rods and then it button and it folds over it goes forward yeah but rather windscreen yeah but the reality is of course if you want to go somebody think you're going about yes you know because on this you've got the the step through bow seating and then the sun bathing area on the front there so um so yeah it was this was again one of those areas that you just look at and think yeah it works really well and I think one thing we should talk about before we head downstairs because I think we're feeling the effects of it up here is that you expect a sea keeper yeah the first time you've had a stabilizer I believe yeah and a big call because they they're not cheap it's essentially it's a hundred thousand pound box to take yeah um that's a jittery thing it's it's a some things like a bit of extra anchor chain you can just do that and not even think about it yeah but you know it's the size of of a small house in some parts of the UK yeah um having done it absolute Game Changer right um and and I think from from with my kind of mean man must head on I think you'll get all your money back on a sea keeper to the point where I think if you wanted to sell a boat of this size without a sea keeper I think people would probably penalize you the cost of a sea keeper right um or Overlook it yeah it is so so you know it's yeah or they simply wouldn't buy it at all um we've got a sea keeper nine on this some of the boats at this size is a sea keeper six right um and it is an absolute Game Changer both um when you're at anchor it takes the roll out yeah obviously you can't take the pitch out yeah uh when you are going on with displacement and we do quite a lot of displacement work so if we're relocating from our home birth to another birth to do a charter from we tend to you know the sun is easy to judge the tide on so we'll take a tide and do it with using no fuel but then even with guests on board you know they they can't you know drink lager as quickly as I can burn diesel on the plane so and and it's just nice you know that they can they can have a chat the wind isn't howling away and just chat have a a drink and you know as as you quietly slip down the solent so we do a lot of displacement work so I think when a lot of people discuss stabilization they're talking of absolute extremes and I think for the kind of 50th percentile um for us the the gyro stabilization worked really well fascinating well that's great I think we should carry on the tour and head downstairs no problem foreign then and you said that the p50 you had that Galley down layout so we're here we have the you know yeah absolutely everyone's going forward now how are you finding that uh really like it right you know I must be honest I've been one of those people that you know Galley down that you find all the reasons that Galley down Works uh and so well the fact that you can have a cup of coffee in your underpants I now have to come up with these big Windows I'm a good looking guy so I get away with it but uh so you know you'd sort of say I'll grab a cup of coffee in the morning the the biggest thing was that that the fact that with the galley below Galley down you get full-size fridge freezer because you're not kind of precious about window space as soon as you bring the galley up all the manufacturers a they want big windows so they're trying to protect their windows but have the galley up and so as I say with Princess the 52 and the 56 that they were really limited Refrigeration um but with this they've integrated a full-size fridge freezer and it's the one step down you've the reason why they put a little step down is because it allows you to get the full size fridge freezer Under the Stairs um but the nice thing is it means that we can service the cockpit the fly bridge and if you want to the internal dining room table and so you can do them all so yeah really big fan and also I I when you're at a boat show you're probably not aware of how much storage there is and there's a lot of storage so with a combination of this area and then the sideboard opposite a couple of things we didn't specify so we didn't put a dishwasher in because it takes up I think valuable real estate yeah the other thing we don't have is a washer dryer big cost same reason or two reasons there I I worry that whenever it breaks as it will do it's a nightmare to replace it and also I know from home where if it's a washer dryer it puts that really humid yes air out and it makes your whole boat steamy and horrible so we just we wouldn't do it I was worried that on the 50 we had two separate seating areas so we had the lower Saloon and then the upper dining area right on this we've only got one space yeah so I hadn't probably appreciated how big each space is yeah I can lay out on here yeah and Sharon can sit and lay here yeah you could lay it we could all lay together be lovely maybe later um so actually in terms of seating capacity yeah we've got more capacity in this one area yeah than we had in in the in the in the two separate areas um so that was a worry that yeah was unfounded and you don't know I feel the benefit of these windows when you're sitting here it's lovely yeah I mean we keep the kind of blinds down because it keep the shade in but you can pull them up yeah and you know if we're in a really Scenic area you get full visual yeah um and then again loads of storage under the seating there you've got storage and stuff this kind of raises and lowers it slides in and out and obviously opens up yeah so if you're eating or or on a computer you know I think that what you need to eat you also need for a computer table Yeah and and I think in this modern day yeah you know we find ourselves more sat on a laptop or iPad yes doing a bit of work yeah you know whilst on here yeah the necessarily eating as a family um but being able to to change it around behind user big Telly big 50-inch telly from here yeah also a lot of the stuff I hadn't appreciated accent lighting I hadn't appreciated um things like the Telly you know we've gone from a small Telly to this massive thing that you actually use the boat almost as a hotel yes rather than just as a boat it's really nice yeah we're talking that should we go have a look at the lower deck and absolutely yeah foreign where you feel the size difference over the previous bit I know you have you said that was the first in midship so yeah the p50 Mark III was the first full beam yeah um but yeah this is this is where the magic happens as they say on MTV it feels you know volumetrically massive yeah um and and combined with bizarre thing the mattress is the first night we spent on board I hadn't appreciated the vice spring I like to look them up and apparently they were on the Titanic whether that's good or bad um but really really comfortable mattress I appreciate it so yeah you don't because they specifically say don't lie on the bed and so you can't you you bed you're not allowed to lie on the tour yourself toilet you're not allowed to use yeah so when you're in boat Dusseldorf don't don't don't use the toilet they don't let you use the toilet so it was like being in a hotel room with a mattress and then going into the the the the the the bathroom and you you know the fine porcelain bowl and the fittings and it just felt such a lovely experience and I hadn't I I didn't realize it was going to be like that I thought it would be more like the the the 50 but obviously as they've evolved and so on you know the windows we had sort of three windows in in the 50s and you know they gave you a good look out but you know that's why they're using glass yeah it's it's huge and then this area of Shannon insisted we had to have the coffee table well this is what I say in every review owner comes down get away from it all have it yeah does that actually happen right now because by the time I've gone up and made a coffee I might just sit on there and have a coffee yeah what we actually use it for is as a study in that you will sit here again with a laptop iPad you know the the modern world is that whilst we're here we're at work yeah and we've got to do accounting finances do emails keep in touch and this is a really really lovely spot to sit yeah with either two people or one person you know you will probably have a cup of coffee on your computer yeah with a a a view yeah so if you're on here for a week say just you two yeah you have enough space for all your clothes absolutely I have to go between cabins to the stove stuff no no click close wise not yeah um and it does mean then the other guests if they were staying can have uh so sometimes we'll have sort of Emily in the Ford VIP as our third Hostess right um because I think a bit of a mentioned we coded for 12 plus three so 12 guests right and three crew so that we can either run two hostesses ourselves or if we're working subcontract for an events company they can put their host Hostess on board we can have Sharon as crew Hostess and myself I'll skip myself a zipper so um you know it works to do that so you know if she's in there she can keep all the clubber in there and stuff cool well I think that covers its accommodation so we're gonna have a look at the engine room absolutely yeah [Music] engine Maxis here then in the cockpit lift up this hatch and again haven't said it before but this you said there's another space that does feel bigger than the previous boat yeah possibly a bit easier to yeah so on the 50 you kind of walk down a ladder straight into the engine space uh here you've got a sort of lazarette type area that leads through into the engine yeah where the engine is this is where the sea keeper is on so sea keeper sits underneath there underneath the Checker plate and then the air conditioning compressors are all kind of stacked up in the same place there yeah to do it all together to their uh engine uh your batteries are there so um it's it's pretty easy to kind of walk around and do your daily checks um location of uh raw water strainers and stuff are easier on this than the 50 that were you cut off were slightly awkward to get at yes okay um so yeah I I think it's just yeah and I think they're always trying to put a lot of gear onto a boat at a given size but there's more kits yeah there's more kit to put so you know I think real estate is always at a premium but yeah pretty pleased with it in terms of um sort of layout yeah you know pretty pretty straightforward what's your sort of routine sort of pre-departure checklist for checking the engine what what's happening well pray so we're looking at obviously you know levels uh so uh strainers a lot of it within with a new boat is actually quite easy because it's all clean you know if you've got a leak it'll show itself really quickly so it's a d Volvo D13 900 engines yeah 900 horsepower I think I'm running saying 3 000 newton meters of torque each which is the impressive one yeah yeah and they're good engines um we had cats on the 50 yeah um you have to have Volvos on this because it's what they build yeah um you know there's a there's a bit of getting used to them but yeah I mean it's a big boat they drive it along all right so I look forward to seeing what that's like should we fire up and see what she can do [Music] I get the impression that you try to drive up here as much as you can even though you've got that lovely lower hand downstairs this is where you'd prefer to be yeah I think the solent can be a really really busy place I mean today is is a really quiet day but you can imagine certainly a weekend a lot of sailing boats out commercial boats motorboats so it just gives me really good visibility if I've got a charter guests on board there's not the distraction of them being down below with them um so yeah I I'm you know it's kind of you're in the open air I kind of quite like it it's it's quite Pleasant and you tend to cruise I mean generally I suppose it depends if you've got Charter guests or not but where do you like to cruise what cruising speed do you tend to find yourself at um so if we we do a lot of displacement right um you know as I said earlier the the silence really predictable in terms of Tides you know if we were heading the other way now we've got three three and I'll have lots of Tide so if I do seven knots on the Keel we got 10 knots anyway for literally zero fuel burn um if we're on the plane we're probably you know in and around 20 knots that that sort of yeah but probably 18 to 22 knots dependent on you know conditions and what the boat's doing I I judge it more on kind of fuel burn really yeah so uh you know we we I'm probably 225 liters an hour okay and kind of whatever that gives me in terms of weight on board yeah there's probably not a great deal of difference if we went up to 270 yeah in terms of fuel per mile it's probably about the same so sure so yeah well should we get up to 20 knots and yeah absolutely [Applause] [Music] so that's got a 20 knots 21 knots yeah on the water yes um and yeah you know it's a fairly even uh run up on this there's no noticeable difference between displacement and the planet just kind of no goes on the plane quite nice it's interesting because when I tested this boat I sort of naturally fell at 25 26 yeah yeah that's where where I feel like that's where it feels most comfortable but actually it's interesting you you find this speed really is where you tend to live a bit more once you're on yeah because I'm playing for the field there is the reality is it's probably about the same in terms of fuel per mile yeah um uh you know I just find that at 25 26 knots you know if you if there's a better movement in the water yeah but take I'm really conscious of of keeping Charter gets comfortable they feel very planted yeah it's very pleasant very rough today no but there's a sort of solid feeling dude absolutely yeah and I I guess it's kind of that that I'm looking for really yeah and you tend to hamsters in the soda or do you use autopilot I a bit of both yeah so what I do tend to do is is sometimes I'll just put it on uh you know engage autopilot um and then what you can do on this which is a bit unusual is you can actually manually steer and break the uh the autopilot right and then when you stop it re-engates itself so you haven't got to press buttons or other yeah yeah but what what I sometimes do as well is just do a quick route to somewhere yeah just so I know what time I'm going to get there yeah of course if we've got to get somewhere by a certain time and is this how you generally have the screen set up charts engines and I'll see you've got the sea keeper yeah I've got a sea keeper that might be sea keeper autopilot if there's any risk of visibility I'll have that as radar yeah and a radar overlay yeah um the engines you know I need to know kind of less than that's a kind of speed and depth yeah gauge on there as well so and you find yourself comfortable at this home in a leg room and everything is really nice I can move the seat four and a half yeah um and it's it's a it's a really comfy seat yeah so cool well um that's great I think maybe if we head back in towards the marina we can talk a bit more about slow speakers and how you found that yep no problem [Music] so we're nearly back in uh back into Portsmouth and I thought it'd be worth talking about how you're finding slow speed maneuvering because there are some bits of kit on this boat that are first for you you've got your variable speed thrusters yeah and the joystick as well yeah so joystick um I must be honest I didn't actually spec and the boats that have arrived with it um the joystick I've used it a couple of times um on this boat it's a shaft driven boat rather than IPS uh but the Rudders are kind of electric servo Motors so they can turn independently and then you do have the uh uh variable speed thrusters and it kind of works using all those things it's it's probably not for me it's it's a little bit aggressive um I prefer to just use the controls you know a little input of control see what the boat's doing and just you know the joystick for me it's too aggressive I I wouldn't okay wouldn't want one so you're using the throttles and uh so just throttles yeah and the thrusters the the variable speed thrusters absolute Game Changer right uh first I've had them and just delightful whatever you like so much uh the fact that you can be really subtle with an input right and it makes you look like a hero you know you can just tease the the nose a little bit or the stern um and then once we're alongside I can just press the button and it just gives me a little bit of thrust just holding the boat in so it's easier for Sharon doing the ropes um but you know rather than again having to have that loud sort of yes you know full force of Thruster yeah either on or off yeah you can feed in yeah you can feed them yeah a bit more a bit more gently and incrementally as well yeah and it does make a make a very big difference it's really nice and it does have a hold function as well yes yeah and you can sort of hold it in various degrees of power um so uh so yeah it allows you to work to just hold it as you say against the the Pontoon and you'll tend to do the bulk of the maneuvering from over here as well you wouldn't want to be doing that down there now I tend the only time if we're going to go starboard side too so uh port side two I can be here and I can see Sharon on the port side one of the nice things about this is that the upper Helm is on the port side the lower Helms on the starboard side so if I'm going to go starboard sign two sometimes I'll drop down onto the lower Helm and then that way I can see Sharon and so I make sure she's not in difficulty or anything yeah yeah cool well we're nearly back in now so we'll let you concentrate but um Henry thank you very much for giving us so much time on board it's been fascinating and um yeah we massively appreciate it I hope you have a great season on board many thanks I hope you enjoyed that video something a little bit different for us something we're hoping to do more of us I hope you liked it do give us some feedback in the comments below and mango is for Charter and I'll put a link to her website in the description below if you'd like to watch my in-depth review of The Princess f55 you can watch it up here and if you'd like to subscribe then please click up here thanks for watching

2023-08-24 22:25

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