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S pace is so often at a premium in boats – especially mid-sized ones – that engines tend to end up shoehorned into areas that take a contortionist to get into and, as many will attest to, Houdini to get out of. But to every rule there is an exception and this month we uncover a vessel where the space provided for its propulsion units is nothing short of cavernous. Accessed via a deck hatch and a five-step ladder, the engine room of the Princess V45 is a supersize void extending a third of the way along the hull. Peer aft-wards from the foot of the ladder and a pair of Volvo Penta D6s can be seen cowering in the distance up against the transom’s inner wall. In fact, there is so much room down here that a second pair of engines could be fitted in line with the first.
The reason for all this space is that when Princess set about designing the V45, the intention had been to offer the option of IPS drives, which would have seen the engines mounted considerably further forward. However, the programme stalled when a prototype revealed a new hull would need to be developed specifically for IPS pod drives as the deadrise angle of the hull was too acute for them to work well. Ultimately, the outcome was that the prototype appears to have been the only IPS example built, so every one of the other 123 V45s made ended up with outdrives and a king-size engine room.
In practice, this means V45s have more available below-decks storage space than the average 45-footer of their era. The engine room of our review boat had a Seakeeper Gyro at the forward end and a sizeable Whisper generator to one side, but there was still bags of room in which to move around unhindered. It’s a safe space for stowage, too, as Princess has included a checker plate barrier to guard against items sliding into the engines.
IN BUILD: 2007 – 2013 PRICE RANGE: £250,000 – £320,000
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ENGINE ROOM
One V45 owner we spoke to, Peter Lewis, who purchased his 2011 example five years ago and keeps it in Denia, Spain, says that space is a key advantage: “Many newer boats – V48s for example – have much less engine room space,” he says. “This would be a major issue for us as in addi
