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performance an owner might typically expect. Certainly you’d need to think extremely carefully before speccing anything other than the largest D6-435 engines of our test boat. Of far more relevance is how


comfortable it is at the 20-25 knots most owners will wish to cruise at. Despite the shaftdrive layout placing the engines directly beneath the saloon floor the boat is astonishingly quiet, the noise meter peaking at 78db(a) flat out. To put it in context, at cruising speeds it seems as quiet as my car is on a motorway. Add in a terrific view from the raised lower helm and you have a phenomenally refined boat for covering serious distances. A phenomenally capable one too, as it turns out. The modern trend is towards ever


increasing accommodation. It is, after all, a massive factor in the buying decision. Manufacturers are wooing customers with bigger interiors, sometimes at the expense of ultimate seakeeping, and looking around the substantially larger-feeling Princess 43 the question had flitted across my mind as to whether all this space would mean compromises offshore. As we batten down the hatches and thunder bravely out of Cawsand Bay, turning to starboard into the monstrous swell, the answer is quickly supplied, and it’s an emphatic no. The 43 is quite simply sensational out in the rough stuff. It feels solid, planted and totally composed, nose down and shouldering


authoritatively through the big sea. The best way I can describe it is like a 60ft boat scaled down – it has that same impassive, heavily damped, soft-edged sensation. We manage to kick up plenty of spray at times, as you might expect hurling 14 tonnes of fibreglass through huge rolling waves at 20 knots, but even that is well managed, only the biggest swells eventually forcing us wetly from the flybridge. Princess has form with this type of boat and it shows. The 43 is quite frankly brilliant out here where it matters.


Specification and value


When did two-cabin 40ft-ish flybridge boats start costing half a million pounds? It’s what you’ll pay for your 43 by the time you’ve added your hydraulic platform and a few other goodies. To be fair, though, ‘43’ is something of a misnomer – this is a big boat, with an LOA of over 47ft. It’s about 6% up on the price Princess was charging for its 42 at the beginning of the year, and while inevitably there are options required, standard specification is pretty good, including items such as a bow thruster, teak-laid cockpit, autopilot and deck-level lighting. Some manufacturers charge extra even for a VHF radio and a cockpit canopy. I don’t think anyone will buy a Princess 43 because it’s the cheap option, but you certainly get what you pay for.


From the helm


Twin seats at both helms are comfortable (and the helm seats adjust), if not a patch on the (admittedly optional) Recaro chairs Fairline is fitting to its new 48. At the raised lower helm visibility, even in the challenging conditions we found ourselves in, is


excellent. If you’re planning to drive from here regularly


though, do specify windscreen demisters. It’s great to see the windscreen wiper and washer switches for the large two speed pantograph wipers grouped separately; maybe they do listen to us... Can we have an intermittent wipe next please, Princess, or better yet,


rain/spray sensors? There’s even space for a paper chart: remember those? Up on the flybridge the twin helm seats are pushed hard against the port side, meaning the crew has to displace the helmsman to get in or out. It’s a pity the seat base can’t be placed to let the crew pass between the seat and the flybridge coaming. Throttles almost on the centreline mean they’re within reach whichever side you berth, and the Sleipner electro- hydraulic power steering is finger-light at all speeds, although it is possible to adjust the steering weight if you prefer a meatier feel.


est


Fixed cockpit table


LEDs light up the cockpit steps motorboatsmonthly.co.uk


There is also plenty of space on the flybridge for seating aft


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