GOAT: Princess V50

A Princess fit for a queen

One of the larger boats in the GOAT list, the built in the UK from the famous yard, I give you the Princess V50, a beautifully proportioned and easy to live with open sports yacht. I know everything has gone pod drive and joystick controlled but straight shafts with Volvo D12 715hp motors is the perfect power package for this boat. To be clear, we are talking about the original Princess V50, the open style, not the newer hardtop version. What makes it so special? well, its hard to point to just one thing;

Garage

One of the very few boats I can think of where it has been done right. The door is large and opens up sufficient that you don't feel like you´re potholing. The Opacmare gangway can also turn so far to starboard that it gets hidden inside the garage, leaving the stern clean and easier to move around, a decent sized tender can be stored easily and the garage door has steps molded into the starboard side, making both sides of the boat accessible from the stern.

Woodwork

The interior trim is beautifully finished, erring on the side of caution and tradition but beautifully done. The exterior teak is another point to mention, look at some of the competition 

Comfortable

It really is, both cabins are a good size with enough lockers for and extended cruise, the galley is large, the U shaped sofa has backrests of the right height, the cockpit is Goliathan in proportions, all topped off with a massive sunpad over the garage and even more sunbathing cushions on the bow.

Resistant to ageing

Admittedly the more classic design might not suit everyone (they're wrong obviously), for you see, this boat neither looks old or new, its modern enough to not look old fashioned yet classy enough to mix it up with much newer tackle that costs a whole lot more.

Lends itself to refits

One of the few boats that you are likely to get most of your return on when refitting. A refit is the boat equivalent of a restoration or modernization process to bring things up to date. This does not mean butchering it with vinyl crap (sorry wrap) and weird upholstery colour combos, let alone sponge deck material, its like putting spinners and go faster stripes on a Rolls Royce, it just doesn't work. I have been involved in some refits on this model, one of which was undoing the previous owners "personalization". New upholstery, covers, updated electronics, polish, some teak decking here, lights there and call it that, I will concede to allowing a carbon fibre dash, when done right it looks really good.

Navigation

Did I mention this boat was comfortable? For such a large sport yacht, it can maintain a surprising high cruising but it does it in such an easy going way, like it was the easiest thing in the world, soft, quiet and grown up, more suet pudding than birthday cake with sparklers.

Conclusion

So there you have it, if you want a comfortable, classy and timeless sport yacht that is versatile and will always be in style, look no further than the Princess V50, it is royalty after all, and, even more importantly, as far as I am concerned a GOAT.

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