Princess V42 MKIII
The last in the line of this iconic series makes a great used buy
Princess Yachts International have an occasional slightly confusing habit of using boat model designations more than once. Understandable for a minor facelift of course, but it can be a little discombobulating when the boats in question are entirely different models. The Princess 45 is a prime example – originally launched in 1983 and at the time, the biggest boat in the range, it ceased production in 1991, only for the badge to crop up again a decade later on the side of a different boat. There have been two totally separate Princess 52s, V65 has appeared on entirely different models, and Princess 50 has cropped up more than once.
With the Princess V42, it gets even more confusing, as Princess used the moniker for both a facelift and the following new model. It goes like this: 1994 saw the launch of a whole new genre of Princess sportscruiser, the ‘V’ series, used for its sportscruiser boats ever since. The first ‘V’ boats were a V52 and a V39 (both badges that have cropped up again). The V39 gained an extended bathing platform in 1996 earning it the ‘V40’ designation, before a stretch to incorporate a dinghy garage beneath the aft deck of the sunbed version in 1999 (previously it had just been a large locker) created the V42. A huge success for Princess, over 300 V42s left the factory, taking the V39/40/42 tally past 500 boats.
A 2006 freshen-up (the V42 MKII) consisted of a few cosmetic changes such as black windscreen mullions and re-profiled seating and wet-bar, but by 2008, nearly 15 years after the V39 was originally launched, it was decided that the company had had its money’s worth out of the boat and a keel-up, blue-sky, blank-sheet new model was proposed, called, imaginatively, the Princess V42.
The boat you see here is that brand new model. In designation, it’s the V42 MKIII, but it’s an entirely different boat to the MKII. Launched at the London Boat Show in 2009, LOA grew by just over a foot and the beam by just under a foot, but the results of that gentle swell in volume are out of all proportion to expectations – aided and abetted by an increase in freeboard (which matched the V48 of that era – not to be confused with the current V48 which again, is a completely different boat – two boats, in fact. Perhaps I should draw a diagram).
Those changes start right at the back. The original V42 was available with a choice of two cockpit layouts. The standard layout saw a large seating area that ran back to the transom plus a smaller seating area next to the helm. A sunbed version lost that aft seating area (although the seating next to the helm increased slightly) in favour of a sunpad atop a garage that would swallow a small flat-bottomed inflatable (in fact, the sunbed version was far less popular, and was quietly dropped during the MKII facelift).
However, buyers of the V42 MKIII got to have their proverbial cake and eat it. The garage and sunpad are standard, but head further forward and you’ll find a large sweep of cockpit seating opposite an L-shaped wet-bar, plus the forward seating area opposite the helm for the best of all worlds.
The other big difference is overhead – the MKIII came with the option of a hardtop. It cost about £20,000 but
Dominic Edmonds owned the immaculate example here until very recently. “We live in the Midlands but are on the boat almost every weekend and use it mostly in and around the Solent. But every year we have a two-week trip, usually across the Channel, and the V42 has proved phenomenally capable. It replaced a Sealine SC35 – I wanted a bigger, more robust boat and was drawn to the Princess brand. The boat has been brilliant. The only slight issue has been keeping the sliding vinyl roof clean – solved by replacing the outer portion from white to black and laundering the inner lining annually.” A need for three cabins has seen the Edmonds family upgrade again – a Princess V48 now occupies their Swanwick berth. every V42 MKIII went out with a lid except one, and that boat had to be custom made because the reality was that Princess Yachts didn’t actually have any tooling for a non-hardtop version! Open backed and with a massive vinyl sliding roof section, this is very much a convertible cockpit, not an upper-deck saloon. There is even an electric retracting side window next to the helm – with that lowered, the roof retracted and the aft cover removed, this is proper open boating.
Downstairs, the layout apes the previous V42, albeit with more space and style – neither areas that were exactly lacking in the earlier iterations. So you get a master cabin forward with an ensuite, a saloon (with dinette converting to double berth as standard opposite the galley), and a mid cabin with two singles, plus there was the option when new of a slider to allow one berth to cosy up to the other to create a double. However, there is one major uplift generated by that super-sizing of the MKIII. Squeezed into the corner of the mid cabin is a second ensuite, giving both cabins the convenience and privacy of their own facilities. I say squeezed – in fact, this is a perfectly decent heads, complete with a rotating clear acrylic shower screen.
The cherry wood interior finish of the previous V42 continued for the MKIII, as did the light oak that was added towards the end of the previous boat’s life cycle, while walnut made up a third option – make that six options actually, as all were available in high-gloss or satin finish. Meanwhile, on the outside of the boat, the plain white or dark blue hull colours of the earlier boat remained, but the MKIII later gained a third choice of mid grey, which was becoming popular at the time.
Engines are the other major area of variance, in theory, at least. The original 2009 Princess V Class brochure (which would have been published for the 2008 Southampton Boat Show in September before a single boat was
built) shows rendered images of the new V42 MKIII, and suggested that buyers would be able to choose between twin Volvo Penta D4s offering 300hp per side or twin D6s of either 330hp or 370hp per side. In reality, only D6 engines actually went in and by 2010, the V42 brochure showed only the D6-330 engine option, perhaps as a way of differentiating the V42 from the conceptually extremely similar V45, which came with 370hp D6 motors as standard.
Trying to railroad new boat buyers into specific engine choices can be a little like herding cats, however; while some customers were happy with the (perfectly sufficient) D6-330 motors and the resultant circa 34-knot top end, most wanted the bigger engines and got them. The following year, the twin D6-370 option was back in the brochure along with the promise of 37 knots. In June 2011, Volvo Penta launched an upgraded version of the D6, the D6-400 with, unsurprisingly, 400hp, which quickly became the most popular option, pushing the top end tantalisingly close to 40 knots.
With the engine specs and both interior and cockpit layouts – not to mention price – encroaching on Princess V45 territory, about the only major difference remaining was the dinghy garage. The V45 would take a jetrib, the flat-bottomed floor of the V42’s garage would only accommodate a 2.7m inflatable dinghy. But for 2011, an amendment to the order/pricing sheet offered ‘garage electric winch and Williams tender launching system, includes high-capacity air compressor for rapid inflation of tender’. That last item was due to the fact that the tubes had to be let down in order to squeeze it in, but the jetrib had finally arrived in the V42’s world in the shape of a slightly deflated 285 turbojet. A further addition of a high/low platform wasn’t to allow another ‘toy’, it simply granted easier access for a jetrib. It’s worth noting that the Williams tender launching system (which comprises a new garage floor with inset rollers) can be retrofitted to earlier boats, so if this is a deal breaker, don’t let the lack of it put you off.
On the subject of retrofit options, a bow thruster was technically an extra cost addition, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a V42 MKIII without one – most dealers would tick the box for their customer almost as a reflex action as it’s a long, high boat for outdrives. But they can be retrofitted, unlike Volvo Penta’s joystick control for engine throttle/shift, which had to be fitted when new if required. Other musthave’s to look out for include a teak cockpit deck, electric hob, holding tank and a generator (Onan 4kw and 7kw were the factory options – make sure it has the latter if you want air-con).
The V42 MKIII never quite captured the market like its V42 forebears, perhaps due to its close proximity to the slightly larger and conceptually very similar V45 that cost little more new. The plug was pulled in June 2013, just shy of four years into production with 84 examples built. But while the V42 MKIII lived in its bigger brother’s shadow when new, it makes a lot of sense on the second-hand market, paying back handsomely that slight loss in volume with sharper styling, cheaper berthing and lower asking prices.