Princess or Sunseeker?

Both brands have their issues. However, Sunseeker has definitely better overall quality and certainly better performance and seakeeping ability from what I've seen. I run both brands, however, mostly in the 60-80' range.

I would take a Princess over a Sunseeker in a heartbeat just on build quality. Aftermarket backup confirms this too.

I'm dealing with a brand new 2018 Princess right now. The quality is a DEFINATE step below Sunseeker. Some things just never change with them. Ceiling panels simply glued on the underneath of the fiberglass hardtop with blobs of cheap silicone, no fasteners at all. One by one they keep falling down. Cheap exterior light fixtures. Wiring for crew shower sump bundled up on a shelf in the bilge with push together- non heat shrink/waterproof connecters that evertime you clean the a/c strainer water pours directly all over the wiring connections. When running in very moderate seas various cabin doors unlatch depending on sea direction because the entire hull and interior walls are flexing so much, they flex away from the door and unlatch and on and on. The engine room exterior vent is shimmed with visible popsicle sticks that you can see while it's tied to a floating dock. Windshield venture on flybridge is paper thin plexiglass without enough support and it flexes, flops back and forth 1-2" while you're running. Crappy cheap mattresses compared to Sunseeker. Some of the stuff is beyond belief. The ONLY place I see a better quality is the gelcoat and this is not by much.

No, they've always been this way. From the late 90's to now.

This is just not true. I can't comment on the new models as I haven't spent much time on recent builds. But my late 90s 50 ft Viking princess has nicely done salon interior panels held on by fasteners that never come loose. My flybridge windshield is thick, does not move or flex in any seas and is original and still in nice shape The wiring is in fact very nicely done and reliable

Most importantly my boat handles rough seas very well. There is no flexing as stated above. The doors never open unexpectedly and there are no noises associated with flexing. In fact I have had the boat in 4-6 ft seas countless times and have hit bad weather a few times with steeper 8 to 10 ft seas that bury the bow. The deep vee performs well in rough seas. In fact when we bought ours ten years ago the sunseekers of that age had similar deadrise. The thing that makes the Viking princesses handle rough seas and not flex are the substantial stringers and numerous bulk heads Again these comments are wrt late 90s Viking sport cruiser princesses

Well they are not the same now and haven't been for a while. I dealt with a late 90's 61' Princess and the electrical components weren't great. Owner kept burning/melting the shorepower breaker on the main row of breakers because the breakers they used never tripped at the right amps. Engine room access was near impossible and you had to tear out the entire salon carpet and floor panels to do anything on them. Other than that the boat was ok .

One of our customers was an ex-commercial ship's engineer. When Princess were building his 72, he redesigned the complete engineroom to his own spec.

Full standing headroom, all quality kit and everything serviceable. One of the best small boat enginerooms I've every seen. Why they can't make 'em all this way, I'll never know.

I'm looking at a 48' Fly from the early 90's and it's built like a tank. It looks like it's hardly been used, except the engine hours and duff gearboxes tell the true story.

In that size I would go for a Sanlorenzo or a Ferretti. Both are better build and engineered to a Sunseeker or Princess.

Also Sanlorenzo and Ferretti are designed to Mach Y1 and Cross of Malta, and if you desire can be build to class as well.

Except, to my knowledge, Ferretti doesn't offer anything in that range. Now other members of their group do.

The OP did limit to Princess and Sunseeker and I find both of their offerings in that range to be weak. Sunseeker's 116' has an 8' draft which I find insane and Princess is 7'2" in that size range, which I also find excessive.

It's tough when someone comes in and posts only two choices and doesn't say anything about their intended use, location, or how they arrived at those two. Quality I'd choose Sunseeker over Princess, but neither would be my first choice in that size range either.

Yes correct. Though Ferretti Customline is like a big Ferretti build in Ancona. At some point it was 85 feet plus and now it is 100 plus.

So yes Ferretti Customline build in Ancona in this case, which is even better considering that the workforce there has been building big yachts since the seventies and the important people come from CRN.

New Customline 106 looks in that size is beautiful and will distinct itself more from Ferretti Yachts since will be designed by Paszkowski.

In that size, I'd go with the Hatteras 100' which they're releasing a 105' soon. Build quality is better, draft is better, storage and range are better, layout, etc. etc.

I dont think, that it is a good idea to buy princess.
Because, I also wanted to buy it, but then I found this information.
Admin Edit: Link Removed
I was in shock, and I think you need to read it before take a decision.

We've already been through that guy's blog and I would not dismiss buying a Princess based on his opinion or based on any one person's experience. We offered advice which he ignored and refused to take. Nor would I refuse based on your coming in here to make a single post regarding Princess, just signing up to refer to his blog. I'm not a fan of Princess but far less a fan of those crusading just to hurt a company or seek revenge. I assume you're the other persons girlfriend or something. You contribute nothing of use.

OB's instincts are always spot-on, but in this case Anfisa has a Ukraine based IP. I cross checked YF member "Mikolebi", who originally posted these problems with Princess, but his IP addresses is coming from the Med; specifically Spain.

Edit: Mikolebi hasn't been on YF since July, but he logged in on Monday so OB might be right. It seems coincidental that Anfisa joined and a few days after Miko's return, so quite possible a friend in the Ukraine posting on his behalf.

Some girl from the Ukraine who likely knows nothing about boating didn't just happen to come here to point us to his blog. Her one and only post on the day she joined. There are coincidences in the world, but this is not one of them.