PRINCESS 286 RIVIERA
BUILT 1988 PRICE £29,500
If you want to go bigger you either need to spend more money or buy an older boat. The latter is a great way to increase the scope of your budget, especially if you buy a sturdy old timer from a high quality marque. The inevitable downside is normally older (thus higher maintenance) engines and dated, worn soft furnishings. Which is why the refit (all £25,000 of it) carried out on this boat in 2010 makes it such an intriguing proposition.
INTERIOR The Princess 286 is a very wide boat, and that’s most noticeable in the cabin. Where most of its contemporaries were typically 10ft wide, the 286 is 11ft in the beam, which means you get an L-shaped galley and a nice wide squared-off saloon with, in this boat, more contemporary upholstery (1988 Princess upholstery was very ‘busy’). There’s a separate mid cabin with a double berth running beneath the cockpit.
EXTERIOR One area where the boat feels its age is outside. There’s no transom door and the bathing platform is ‘bolt on’ rather than integral (although that helps the length, it’s 30ft long if you include the platform). It’s also ‘set square’ angular, predating curved windscreens for example, although now the design is over 30-yearsold it’s actually looking pleasingly classic and the almost completely flat foredeck and wide side decks are a bonus.
PERFORMANCE Although twin 130hp and 200hp diesels were an option, the vast majority left the factory in Plymouth with a pair of Volvo Penta Aq211/dp 5.0 litre V8 petrol engines beneath the cockpit floor, which gave a healthy 36 knots. These engines are getting on a bit now, so it’s nice to see that the 2010 refit included a pair of modern fuel injected Volvo Penta GXI 5.0 V8s. Giving 270hp rather than the original AQ211 at 210hp, top speed is lifted to 44 knots, according to the owner. That’s progress, literally.
LOA 30ft 0in (9.1m) Beam 11ft 0in (3.3m) Draught 2ft 9in (0.8m) Displacement 3.3 tonnes Fuel capacity 591 litres Engines Twin Volvo Penta GXI 5.0
FOR SALE Boat Showrooms www.boatshowrooms.co.uk
SEAKEEPING Solid and capable, it’s a good offshore boat and a pretty easy one to handle in close quarters too.