Jenneau Prestige 32 motor cruisers

[harbourman]

Hello and thank you for having me on this wonderful forum, I have in the past owned and ran various commercial boats for dive / sightseeing and filming, and with that all the time and money involved in keeping them ship shape and coded, time now for myself and my wife to switch to leisure and retirement on our next voyage together, we are looking to purchase an exceptional boat that will accommodate the two of us in comfort with very occasional visitors on cruises, question is I see a lot of second hand boats that seem to have had several owners with not many hours of use on the clocks, can readers give me the good and the bad regarding these boats? what should I look out for, for the correct boat it would be my intention to employ a reputable surveyor however I need to research about them before we get to that, I realise the various engine choices but we are certainly looking for economy rather that flat out speed, we are happy to potter around at 10 knots any advice? appreciated & many thanks    

[allan]

Hi
My wife and I went through the same process after we decided to sell our sailing catamaran and buy a power boat.
Its normally just the two of us and we decided we didnt want to be confined inside so a fly bridge was essential.
Handling ability based on the two of us was a serious consideration.
We looked at many options and eventually settled on the Prestige 32 as meeting our needs.
Yes, we had a full marine survey and 5 years on still refer to it for information- worth its weight in gold. What we and you are buying is essentially a pair of very expensive engines so a full service history is a must. I strongly suggest also having a Volvo Penta agent carry out a full engine survey and including s9n oil test to be sure no problems in the engines are present.
We love the master cabin and the double transverse guest cabin is great for bags etc when on our own.
The only accomodation negative is the size of the heads but its fine for us.
The flybridge is super comfortable and feels very secure with lots of relaxing space.
You asked about speed and fuel. Ours has the 235hp engines and cruising at around 10 knts is fine with excellent consumption. At max. of 20knts + she does drink fuel and I reckon its about 60 litres an hour but at least you get there quickly!!
We have had her for 5 years now and still enjoy her and have no plans to change.
Hope this helps-any questions do come back to me.

[harbourman]

Hello and many thanks for taking time to respond so many questions on such a big investment for us anyway, like you we have been sailing now for many years & Croatia has been our destination since 2013 we have decided to draw a line under that next June and make that our last trip hence the new “Voyage” and again like you it’s just the two of us and handling and managing the boat are a big consideration for us, the Jeanneau P32 looks like it will suit us perfectly with the large island bed and occasional visitor berth, my wife likes the separate galley rather than like some boats a cooker and sink behind the helm, it is also within our budget range both purchase and Marina fee’s it is our intention to base ourselves at Largs Marina and explore from there, fuel consumption is important as well and I read another contributors analysis with interest that splitting the cruising speed between 7.5knts and 18knts giving an average of 12knots and 16ltrs per hour over the years cruising which makes perfect sense, I will certainly have an engine survey done and oil sampling to give piece of mind and also get an understanding of any underlying mechanical issue that may not be immediately apparent.

I favour shafts over sterndrives and V drive systems they are straight forward by comparison? Have you any had engine or transmission issues how many hrs does your P32 have on the clock ?

Hopefully by this time next year the world will be a better place and we might just have our P32 as well

Many thanks again & best wishes for Xmas and new year

[allan]

Hi and pleased you found the reply helpful.
All P32s have shafts and we certainly didn't want to look at other boats with outdrives etc.

Ours is late 2004 and when we purchased her in 2015 she had just under 500 hrs with a full service history. The owner told us that in the past few years he had added very little time on the engines as he had a new young family.

We have had no major engine or gearbox problems apart from a supercharger that failed on the starboard engine. As I have said before, we take no short cuts in having the engines serviced and checked over each year.

Hope all goes well for you and come back to me with any more questions.