Motor Boat & Yachting — August 2017

When the Princess 385 was launched

in 1985, it was the last of the yard’s

John Bennett designs. Bernard

Olesinski was brought in to design

the new 30DS in 1980 and has been

involved in every new Princess model

since. In fact, the 385 was really an

update of the Princess 38, the ‘5’

designating the GRP radar arch

instead of stainless steel, and porthole

windows in the cabin top rather than

letterbox style. It was replaced by the

conceptually similar but more modern

Olesinski-designed 388 in 1988.

INTERIOR

In the mid 1980s, designers hadn’t

really got to grips with the concept

of ‘layering’ the decks of boat

interiors, where guest cabins

extended back under the helm,

for example. As a result, headroom

throughout all of the lower deck

is very good. There are two cabins,

two heads and the galley is generous

and fitted with an eye-level oven

• remember those? A converting
  saloon takes the total number of
  berths to a crowd-pleasing seven.

EXTERIOR

Those high-level portholes date it

• all Olesinski Princess boats (bar
  the 30DS) put the portholes below
  the rubbing band. And this is the era
  before integral bathing platforms
  and flybridge stairs. But actually,
  this is still a great-looking boat,
  well proportioned and classy.

PERFORMANCE

All twin shaftdrive diesels, Cummins

were on the options list (6BTA at

250hp each) as were Volvo Penta

TAMD 41 at 200hp (fine for river but

a little light for offshore work). But the

engines to have (and most did) were

the good old TAMD 61 straight-6 turbo

diesels that seemed to find their way

into everything of this era of around

40ft. At 306hp each, they gave the

boat a top speed in the high 20s.

SEAKEEPING

No sportsboat the 385, but it is a solid

old dowager, capable of maintaining

a comfortable 20-knot cruise even

when it’s chopping up a bit.

DATA FILE

Length 38ft 9in (11.8m)

Beam 13ft 9in (4.0m)

Draught 3ft 0in (0.9m)

Displacement 8 tonnes

Fuel capacity

220 imp gal (1,000 litres)

Engines Twin Volvo Penta TAMD

61 306hp diesels

FOR SALE MS&P Yacht Brokers.

Web: http://www.michaelschmidt.co.uk

The master cabin

forward has good

headroom

The twin cabin

also has its own

bathroom

1988 £44,950

Princess 385

The saloon has

plenty of space and a

sociable galley down

★★★★

RATING

No spring chicken – it’s three

decades old next year

A huge amount of boat for

the money – great brand too

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