The Princess X80 is the flagship of the yard's X Class, the enclosed-flybridge concept that has become Princess's defining idea. At 25.18 metres it sits below the superyacht threshold, yet almost everything about its layout borrows from boats half as long again: a full-beam enclosed skylounge, a main-deck forward cabin with its own private bow access, and interior volume that won it the Motor Boat & Yachting Motor Boat Award in the Custom Yachts category.
The layout
The X Class trick is the enclosed upper deck. Instead of an open flybridge, the X80 carries a proper skylounge with full headroom and panoramic glazing, which turns the upper deck into year-round living space rather than fair-weather seating. Below it, the main deck runs in one long, light volume from the aft cockpit to the forward cabin, and that forward cabin gets something almost unheard of at 82 feet: its own private access to the bow, so the owners can take breakfast on the foredeck without crossing the working deck.
Eight guests sleep in four cabins, each with a private ensuite, and two to three crew are accommodated separately. For a yacht of this length, four proper ensuite cabins with a main-deck day head is generous planning.
Specifications
| Builder | Princess Yachts, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Length overall | 25.18 m (82 ft 7 in) |
| Beam | 6.06 m (19 ft 11 in) |
| Hull | Composite deep-V planing hull |
| Engines | Twin MAN V12, 1,650, 1,900, or 2,000 hp |
| Top speed | 31 knots (1,900 hp, as tested) |
| Cruise | 24 knots |
| Range | Approx 325 nm at cruise |
| Guests | 8 in 4 cabins |
| Crew | 2 to 3 |
| Design | Princess Design Studio with Bernard Olesinski (exterior) |
On the water
Motor Boat & Yachting's sea trial of the 1,900 hp MAN V12 installation recorded 31 knots flat out and, more impressively, 60 dB(A) in the wheelhouse at 20 knots. That is library-quiet for a planing yacht and speaks to the quality of the engineering and insulation. The deep-V hull is a proven Princess/Olesinski shape, and the helm reports from the press trials describe a yacht that feels smaller and more wieldy than its volume suggests.
Range is the honest compromise: roughly 325 nautical miles at cruise from 7,000 litres of fuel (8,800 with extended tanks). This is a coastal and island-hopping yacht, not a passage-maker, and it is specified accordingly.
The verdict
The X80 makes its case on volume per foot and refinement. If the brief is maximum yacht for a sub-24-metre-LOA berth or a sub-superyacht budget, with genuine all-weather living space, there is little at 82 feet that matches it. The boat Motor Boat & Yachting tested was priced at GBP 7,800,000 ex. VAT, which is serious money, but the engineering integrity on show in that 60-decibel wheelhouse goes a long way to justifying it.
What we have and have not done
This review is based on published specifications and Motor Boat & Yachting's instrumented sea trial. Yacht & Ocean has not sea-trialled this yacht.
The X Class idea
The X80 is the flagship of Princess's X Class, the enclosed-flybridge concept that puts a full-beam skylounge on the main deck and treats the 82-foot platform like a much larger yacht. The exterior is by the Princess Design Studio, the deep-V planing hull by Bernard Olesinski, and the interiors by Princess Yachts International. Engine options run from twin 1,650 hp MAN V12s to twin 2,000 hp versions, with the 1,900 hp boat recording 31 knots in independent testing.
The volume figures tell the story: 99 gross tonnes on 25.18 metres, eight guests in four cabins each with a private ensuite, and two to three crew. A used 2022 hull was broker-listed at GBP 4,500,000, against the GBP 7,800,000 excluding VAT of the tested boat, which is the kind of depreciation curve that makes the brokerage X80 one of the more interesting buys in the segment.
Photography: Ecuapromo via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Representative image, not the reviewed yacht.
