My name is Miko. I have spent 14 years at sea, majority of which as skipper of various brand/model motoryachts from 50ft to 88ft. Besides skippering, I also surveyed/supervised 7 new build motoryacht projects for my employers.
Before my transition to the sea, I worked as an engineer for 8 years in two renown yacht maintenance companies in the Mediterranean. Now I freelance mainly as delivery skipper and survey new build projects.
In 2017, my employer decided to buy an easily manageable motoryacht which he would be able to skipper more or less alone, with the help of his family members when needed. After some research and couple boat show visits, they decided to purchase a brand new Princess 55 Flybridge from Princess Yachts UK, a subsidiary of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, De Beers, Moët & Chandon etc.)
Our experience initially started with positive feelings but gradually turned into a nightmare.
I have started this blog in order to share my experience as a freelance skipper/surveyor with the "new" Princess 55.
As it is probably the case with all boats, our adventure beginned with lots of promises and salesman painted rosy pictures. The yacht was built in 2017 and supposedly ready for handover. We ordered a few options that the owner wanted to have retrofitted before delivery. At the beginning of January '18, Princess moved the boat from Southampton to their newly built Princess retrofitting facilities in Plymouth. It took them 16 weeks to complete retrofitting works and prepare the boat to be shipped to its final destination in the Med. The boat finally arrived at the destination on the last week of April '18. Princess informed us that they needed 1 week to prepare the boat and fix "minor" issues, if any (!), and proposed to hand over the boat on the 2nd of May '18, which eventually did not happen.
I have decided to start this blog after being stuck at the dock for more than 9 additional weeks waiting for Princess technicians to bring the boat to a condition as close as possible for handover. We had not formally accepted the boat and did not intend on doing so unless the most important issues had been fixed, leaving a few "new boat bugs" to be handled post acceptance.
When I realized that the boat was nowhere near being ready for handover, a long time skipper friend of mine offered to help me by supervising repair works onboard on a daily basis while I was away for other projects.
Unfortunately, the owner has not been able to enjoy his new boat as he dreamed of, except for rarely occasional weekends when he could find a window between repair works. These rare weekends were barely an enjoyment for him as new issues kept on surfacing.
In 2017, my employer decided to buy an easily manageable motoryacht which he would be able to skipper more or less alone, with the help of his family members when needed. After some research and couple boat show visits, they decided to purchase a brand new Princess 55 Flybridge from Princess Yachts UK, a subsidiary of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, De Beers, Moët & Chandon etc.)
Our experience initially started with positive feelings but gradually turned into a nightmare.
I have started this blog in order to share my experience as a freelance skipper/surveyor with the "new" Princess 55.
As it is probably the case with all boats, our adventure beginned with lots of promises and salesman painted rosy pictures. The yacht was built in 2017 and supposedly ready for handover. We ordered a few options that the owner wanted to have retrofitted before delivery. At the beginning of January '18, Princess moved the boat from Southampton to their newly built Princess retrofitting facilities in Plymouth. It took them 16 weeks to complete retrofitting works and prepare the boat to be shipped to its final destination in the Med. The boat finally arrived at the destination on the last week of April '18. Princess informed us that they needed 1 week to prepare the boat and fix "minor" issues, if any (!), and proposed to hand over the boat on the 2nd of May '18, which eventually did not happen.
I have decided to start this blog after being stuck at the dock for more than 9 additional weeks waiting for Princess technicians to bring the boat to a condition as close as possible for handover. We had not formally accepted the boat and did not intend on doing so unless the most important issues had been fixed, leaving a few "new boat bugs" to be handled post acceptance.
When I realized that the boat was nowhere near being ready for handover, a long time skipper friend of mine offered to help me by supervising repair works onboard on a daily basis while I was away for other projects.
Unfortunately, the owner has not been able to enjoy his new boat as he dreamed of, except for rarely occasional weekends when he could find a window between repair works. These rare weekends were barely an enjoyment for him as new issues kept on surfacing.
This was a huge disappointment for the owner and his family after having invested approximately 2 Million EUR, including 240K EUR worth of retrofitted items for a "brand new" boat.
Please note that it is definitely not my intention to badmouth or damage the reputation of any company or person. I am only sharing facts and my experiences just so boat enthusiasts know what they might face should they decide to buy a brand new Princess Yacht in the future...
Disclaimer
Please note that it is definitely not my intention to badmouth or damage the reputation of any company or person. I am only sharing facts and my experiences just so boat enthusiasts know what they might face should they decide to buy a brand new Princess Yacht in the future...
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| The all new 2018 Princess 55 |
Disclaimer
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All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.
Comments are welcome. However, the blog owner reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice due to
- Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam
- Comments including profanity
- Comments containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive
- Comments containing hate speech, credible threats, or direct attacks on an individual or group
The blog owner is not responsible for the content in comments.
This policy is subject to change at anytime.
Terrible experience! A big compensation is mandatory here I believe. Although it cannot fix and help time wasted for all those issues :-(
ReplyDeleteGood Luck!
What the????? Is this how Princess deliver their new boats?? Seems to me you've been ripped off big time buddy. I'll be posting links to this blog on my facebook pages. Wow, that's simply unbelievable!!
ReplyDeleteThis is hard to believe! You won't find that much defekts in a five year old motor boat. Princess must take the boat back plus compensate the owner! Not everybody will take time and build detailed blog like this to inform others. Very well done. I hope this blog will make example for other princess owners. Wish you good luck.
ReplyDeleteJens Wagner
I was among the unlucky to purchase a Princess yacht a couple years ago, a V40. I could barely keep the boat for a season and then got rid of it.
ReplyDeleteNOTHING explained in this blog surprised me because I had very similar problems. What I can tell from my personal experience is that you'rre dealing with a car dealer that sells boats. Their only purpose is pushing as much boats as possible out of the shipyard within the shortest time frame. Whether their product is working or not is definitely none of their concern as long as these problems are skillfully contained between four walls. They have such a sales momentum that they literally don't care at all if you're happy with their product or will buy a Princess ever again or not. I'm sure you noticed as well that the boats they build are not designed for the Med. You'll have overheating issues in summer and have difficulty mooring your boat med style as they’re all designed and produced for alongside mooring.
I used to keep my boat in the Balearics. They claim they have an army of technicians on the islands. As far as I know, Princess even set up a "concierge" team to handle complaints. One should ask why PRINCESS needs to employ an army of engineers and technicians (50+ employees alone in the Balearics) whereas for instance SUNSEEKER only employs less than a dozen of techs. I am no advocate for Sunseeker or any other brand but this just an observation. I do have friends who currently own new Princess (Flybridge 52 and V48) boats and unfortunately they all had to go through the same hassle. I owned many second hand boats in the past and even the worst maintained one did not have half the problems I had with my brand new Princess. This shipyard seems to be determined to literally sell unfinished and defective boats, no testing no quality control, and let the owners deal with breakdowns at the expense of sacrificing from their boating time.
When I got my boat, none of my navigation screens or engine display where working, not even turning on and it took them more than 4 weeks to fix them meaning the boat had to sit in port during this time period. And if you push too hard, you’ll notice that they’ll start ignoring you!
As I said, think of it as a bunch of car dealers that got together to sell boats. Don’t blame ‘em if their world view couldn’t go beyond that!!
Your dredfull experience really changed my perception of Princess. I always thought htat due to their status as "mass producer" (compared to smaller shipyards) they could at least offer a "base quality". I start to believe that the whole industry has a problem - I_m sure you are familiar with the (shared) experience of a pissed off Sanlorenzo owner. Maybe Absoulute does a better job due to their modern production facilities (I heard that Mr. Gobbi was a bit of a pionier in this regard). If I'd be in the market, I'd probably go for an Absolute or Ferretti. But after reading your blog I just wouldn't take a closer look at Princess. Of course, they had trouble times, and now it looks a bit better for them, but that just does't legitamize them to throw any quality considerations over board. And that might be the point; selling the warranty to the dealer. Anywho, I'm not sure if you dealt with this situation correctly, nevertheless, I hope you'll be happy with your boat in the end... (I follow Princess via their instagramm account; I really have to laugh hard whenever they market with how much love & care they produce their boat; what a marketing bs)....
ReplyDeleteNone of these problems surprised me at all as I'm in the yacht brokerage industry for over a decade now and heard a lot of similar stories about Princess' poor quality products and unethical practices. Ever wondered why there are very few reviews about Princess yachts on the web?? Well, I know for a fact that they closely follow these public posts and deal with them via threats and intimidation. I have no doubt that they would have attempted to coerce this blog owner to shut down this blog as well but it looks like they have not succeeded so far! Keep up the good work guys and don't give up the fight!!! Michael R.
ReplyDeleteI paid £42,500 for a gorgeous, oak fitted , steel 60 ft 20 year old canalboat 5 years ago. Not had a single problem other than worn out batteries. Great summer afloat this year on English canals. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid !
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI’d really like to have a chat about the problems you have experienced and where you are at with it at this moment, if you have time please could you send me a email at support@irissocialmedia.co.uk
Thanks
Gosh, what an awful experience you’ve had!! I owned two new Sunseeker Manhattans in the past. All new boats have their issues, hence it's always a good idea to buy relatively new preowned boats, but the problems that I faced with Sunseeker weren't even a fraction of the ones described here + their aftersales seemed to be more efficient in solving problems. I see that some of your problems took the builder 300 or so days to solve, and some if not most of them are still pending. This is definitely UNACCEPTABLE and I truly respect your patience. I wish more people spent time preparing such detailed blogs.
ReplyDeleteI’m really curios if all the problems are solved by now.
ReplyDelete