Review of Princess 38

Basic specs.

The Princess 38 is a large motorboat designed by the British maritime architect John A. Bennet in the early eighties. The Princess 38 is built by the British yard Marine Projects.

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Hull

Both the hull and the deck is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Interior

The interior is like most other boats made of teak.
The boat is equipped with 8 berths, a galley and toilet facility.

Engine

The boat is typically equipped with dual inboard Ford Mermaid engines at 120.0 hp (89 kW).

The fuel tank which is made of stainless steel has a capacity of 1091.0 liters (288 US gallons, 239 imperial gallons).

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Princess 38 is about 349 kg/cm, alternatively 1959 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 349 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1959 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Princess 38 is 2.93.

Compared with other similar motor boats it is more spacy than 76% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Curiosities

Powerboat?

In Denmark, you are required to have achieved a 'powerboat driving license' in order to sail a powerboat.
In this context a boat is considered a powerboat if:

Danish definition of a powerboat

According to this definition this boat is not categorized as a Powerboat.
Though, if you install a motor of 137 kW (184 hp), then the boat will become a powerboat, and you will need a Danish 'powerboat driving license'

Maintenance

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

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Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Princess 38 (1980) it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.