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EXCLUSIVE Nick says...


Princess 43 A


The new incarnation of a 10-year success story offers even higher levels of quiet sophistication


Princess has sold 333 of its flybridge 42 over the last 10 years, making it one of its most successful models


ever. Replacing it was always going to be a challenge, a tightrope walk between retaining the essence of what made the 42 so popular while changing enough to bring it up to date to create a distinct new model. Have they succeeded? I bag myself the very first test and find out.


LENGTH OVERALL 47ft 6in (14.5m) PRICE from £456,360 inc VAT TOP SPEED 28 knots BUILDER Princess Yachts International Plc ENQUIRIES www. princessyachts.com


potted history of the boat you see before you on these pages. Forty years ago Marine Projects


Plymouth (as Princess International was known back then) took a huge leap from its two open-backed wheelhouse models, the Princess 25 and 32, and launched a boat that was


to define the company for decades to come. That boat was the Princess 37, offering a fully enclosed deck saloon and a flybridge, and it was powered by a pair of shaftdrive diesels. It was a hit, and derivatives of that boat have wound like a silk thread through the company’s history ever since, regenerating every few years as though it were Dr Who.


The 37 was replaced by the 38,


followed by the 385, 388, 398, 410, 420, 430, then the 40 and 45. Finally the 42 was launched at the Southampton Boat Show in 2003 with such resounding success that buyers all but formed an orderly queue. The 42 was the first boat to be built on a proper production line at the company’s Newport Street base


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