Princess F65 Price, Specs and Ownership Review

How the Princess F65 outgrew the F62 by three feet

Princess revealed the F65 at the Southampton International Boat Show in September 2022 as the replacement for the F62, a well regarded boat that had been in the range for about five years. On paper the change looks modest: the new hull is a little over three feet longer and about three inches wider. In practice, the Princess F65 is a different class of boat, because those extra inches were spent where owners actually live, in a fourth cabin, a bigger owner's suite and more usable flybridge space.

The F65 also introduced a new design language for the F Class. The hull carries a long, knife-edge window that runs aft from the bow, and the superstructure has more sculpted surfaces and longer feature lines than the slab-sided Princesses of a decade ago. The lines come from Olesinski, with the Princess Design Studio responsible for the interior and Italian design house Pininfarina contributing to the look. The F65 stands at the top of an F Class range that now runs from the F45 and F50 through the F55 and the 2025 F58 to this boat.

The fourth cabin and why it changes resale

The headline improvement over the F62 is accommodation. The F65 sleeps eight guests in four cabins: a full-beam owner's suite amidships, a VIP in the bow and a double or twin cabin, all three with en suite heads, plus a fourth cabin with bunk beds that shares a head with the third cabin. An optional aft cabin with its own en suite can replace the lazarette, for occasional guests or up to two crew, well separated from guest areas.

The owner's stateroom borrows from the bigger Y Class boats. It has a walk-in wardrobe and a bathroom that runs nearly the full width of the hull, which is rare below 70 feet. For American families that is the room that sells the boat. For brokers it is the fourth cabin that matters: grandchildren, a nanny or a second family can come along without forcing anyone to sleep on the saloon sofa, and four cabin 65-footers are easier to resell than three cabin boats.

• Owner's suite amidships with walk-in wardrobe and near full-beam bathroom
• VIP forward and a third guest cabin, both en suite
• Bunk cabin for children sharing a head
• Optional aft cabin with en suite in place of the lazarette, for guests or up to two crew

Aft galley, glass and the inside helm

Princess puts the galley aft on the main deck of the F65, next to the cockpit, with a dinette alongside. That arrangement suits the way most Americans use a flybridge: food goes out to the cockpit table or up the stairs to the bridge without crossing the saloon carpet. Forward, a U-shaped sofa and companion seating face a lot of glass, and the lower helm sits to starboard with direct side deck access so a solo skipper can step out to handle lines.

The cockpit is sheltered by the flybridge overhang and has its own settee and table. A hydraulic swim platform lowers for swimming or for launching a tender, and Barche Magazine's tester noted that the boat effectively offers duplicate living areas on two decks: two dining spaces, two lounges, two sunbathing areas and two helms. On a boat this size that gives guests a choice of where to be, which is exactly what you pay for when you step up from 55 feet.

A flybridge built for entertaining

Up top, the helm is to port with seating for two, and the rest of the deck is given over to a dining area, a wet bar with grill, sink and cooler, an aft sunbed and L-shaped companion seating. Most US buyers specify a hardtop or a large bimini, which you will want for Florida and Bahamas use; check exactly what is fitted on any used boat because it changes the price and the air draft for bridges on the Intracoastal Waterway.

The foredeck has its own lounge and sunpad, reached by protected side decks. Visibility from the upper helm is good, and Princess's dual-helm joystick system makes docking straightforward for an experienced owner, though at 66 feet and over 82,000 pounds light, most F65 owners keep at least a part-time captain.

MAN V8 performance and fuel burn at real speeds

The F65 is powered by twin 1,200 hp MAN V8 diesels on conventional shafts, with some markets listing 1,300 hp versions. Princess quotes 31 to 33 knots depending on load and power.

Motor Boat and Yachting's test boat with the 1,200s reached 32 knots and cruised at 21 knots burning about 274 liters per hour, or roughly 72 gallons per hour combined, for a cruising range of about 252 nautical miles. Barche Magazine recorded 31.6 knots flat out, a planing time under ten seconds, just over 300 liters per hour (about 80 gph) at 25 knots and around 400 liters per hour (106 gph) at 30 knots. With 1,083 gallons aboard, that gives a realistic range of roughly 250 to 300 miles at planing speeds.

The practical takeaway: the F65 is happiest at 22 to 25 knots, where the hull is efficient and quiet. Pushing to 30 knots costs about a third more fuel for a modest time saving, and on a run from Palm Beach to Bimini the difference is barely 15 minutes.

What a 66-foot Princess costs each year

Budget roughly $230,000 to $380,000 a year in the US, excluding depreciation. The range depends mostly on crew. A part-time captain and an owner who handles day trips sit at the lower end; a full-time captain plus a mate for the season sits at the top. Insurance for a $3.5 million boat typically runs $35,000 to $55,000 a year depending on cruising area and hurricane plan, and a 70-foot slip in South Florida or the Northeast in summer is a $40,000 to $80,000 line item.

MAN V8 servicing is not cheap but the engines are well supported in Florida. Budget for annual services, the generators, gyro maintenance and a haul-out every 12 to 18 months for bottom paint and running gear. Fuel at 72 to 80 gph at cruise means a 200-hour season can easily cost $55,000 to $70,000 in diesel.

Buying new versus a two-year-old Princess F65

Because the model is still current, the decision most buyers face is whether to order a new boat or pick up one of the first hulls. A 2023 boat listed in Rhode Island at just under $3 million, while 2024 hulls in Europe were advertised around $2.85 million to $3 million. A new boat specified for US use will cost well over $3.5 million and take months to build.

That gap of half a million dollars or more is the depreciation you avoid by buying used. The trade-off is specification: an early boat may lack the options you want, and adding a hardtop or gyro after delivery is expensive. Our advice is to shortlist used boats already built to US standards, with 60 Hz power, American air conditioning capacity and a hardtop or full bimini, and only order new if none fits.

Who the F65 suits and who it does not

The F65 suits a family that cruises the East Coast and Bahamas for several weeks a year, wants four cabins, and values British build quality and a strong dealer network over Italian flair. It does not suit someone looking for an owner-operator boat with low running costs; at this size and weight, crew is part of the plan. Buyers who want a beach-club aft deck or a hull garage for a jet tender should also look at larger rivals, because the F65 relies on a hydraulic platform for its toys.