The Princess 49 is the first ever IPS-powered flybridge from the Plymouth yard. How does it stack up?
The Princess 49 is only the second production boat from the Plymouth yard that uses IPS.
Some may say that Princess is slow to the punch but in reality it’s caution and care that are the reason for the delay. The yard was also keen to use a hull that was designed from the start to use IPS, so that was the brief given to Princess’s long standing architecture partner, Bernard Olesinski.
It seems to have done the trick because the combination of the new hull and Volvo’s latest generation D8 IPS700 units with 550hp per side produced an easy top speed of 36 knots in pretty tasty conditions oi Plymouth sound.
On board there is a three-cabin arrangement with the main focus being a full-beam master cabin amidships. The 49 is slightly smaller than the new crop of 50ft rivals including the Sealine F530 and Sunseeker Manhattan 52 so it goes without a crew cabin and has bunks in the third cabin, though it does appear to be good value in relative terms.
The level of finish lives up to what we have come to expect from Princess with a classy, refined décor and a clear depth of engineering that few can match.
You can read the full report in the October 2016 issue of MBY.
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