Feedback on Prestige Yachts

Update on the Prestige 680: Son in law (SiL) was able to set his feet on a privately owned Prestige 680 Flybridge IPS located in the Med without alerting the complete Prestige dealer world. Boat was equipped with gyro stabi and hardtop. SiL was even given a short demo ride. The owner said, the hardtop made the boat top heavy and it needed the Gyro. Ride was basically ok (remember SiL is only a leisure boater), performance because of the full list of built in options and full fuel, lower than advertised (topspeed 28 Kts). Quality lower than SiL expected (French boat ) but
acceptable. The biggest contra from the owner of this boat was, the yard had been flexible with him like a brigg, means not at all. He could not even change a light bulb and nothing else other then making tick marks on the option list, inking the contract, making a down payment and wait patiently for delivery. And he was French !!!! Its like buying a washing machine! Pretty strange attitude of that yard for such an expensive boat.

No decision jet, Sunseeker 630 next. Update will follow.

I really like the new 65' Sunseeker. Having run both Sunseekers and Prestige. The Sunseeker is both a better sea boat and faster and built more solid than the Prestiges. Olderboater just took delivery of a 65' and will perhaps chime in, but they love it. The 63' is almost the same boat as the 63' but with a totally different interior layout (galley down). It's also a touch narrower and shorter I believe.

No, the 63 and 65 Manhattan were identical hulls, just galley up vs down. Note that I said was. They are no longer showing the 63 on their website. Predator now jumps from 57 to 68. I haven't seen the 68 Predator, but looking at their information, they've really gained some speed on it, with a WOT of 42 knots. I'd like to see that. We're very happy with our boat. The one criticism I've made of Sunseeker is lack of speed compared to similar sized Riva. But sounds like the 68 has it.

They are down to three Manhattan's and three Predator's. Really pushing their business toward larger boats with their Yacht and Sports Yacht models.

How do you like the 65's speed, handling and overall quality?

The Sunseeker 650 Manhattan with twin IPS 1200 should be very similar in performance with the Prestige 680. The Sunseeker Sportsyacht 680 is beyond the scope of my son in law. Twin 1550 HP with shaft or even Arneson drives on the Weser River what an idea !! Will wait and see, when he gets an appointment with the yard in England to see and drive a 650 IPS. From the brochure, it does look like a nice boat. But so does the Prestige 680. Any idea about the delivery time of a Sunseeker Mahattan 650. For the Prestige 680 it would be around 6 to 8 month.

Love it. So glad we got the 1200 MAN's over the 1000. WOT is 32 knots, Cruising is 26 to 28 knots. The only quality issues we've faced have been minor things like light bulbs we didn't like or somewhere the wiring could have been run a little better. We do anticipate the spidering you've encountered on Sunseeker's Gelcoat. Maybe we won't have it. If we do, then it gets painted with Awlgrip or Alexseal. We've put about 116 hours on it so far. We will put that many more on in May and June.

Sunseeker is a better boat to a Prestige in all regards, from finishing to quality and solidity.
The Beneteau Group boat which could challenge a Sunseeker 65 Manhattan in that regard would be the Montecarlo Yacht MCY 65.

Prestige could pull it in hull design, as they are building from a blank canvas, but most of there boats are just powered to achieve 30 knots empty. Decrease by at least two on a loaded boat.
So a tad under-powered and on the lighter side of things as far as seen.
Prestige have used Micheal Peters on some of the smaller designs in the past, the 380 and 420 if I am remembering well.

There is a lot of boats in this size narrowing it to just two at this stage is taking away the fun IMO.
For example for an IPS powered boat I would put Absolute 64 Fly on the top of the list, as in my experience they perform the best with IPS pod drives.

And don't overlook Riva or if you want speed, Pershing.

Riva has no Flybridge in that size,

Pershing 62 has surface drives, nothing for a speed limited river and for my son in law. After one week with this boat, my son in law would have no more boating license and my daughter a husband in jail .

The Montecarlo Yacht MCY 65 is not bad looking but has MANs with shaft and wheel. Could be an alternative, if no IPS boat will be found.

But I gave him a heads up on the Absolute 64 Fly, thanks Liam.

Could somebody get the french yards to build high quality boats, please !!!!

No Riva doesn't which is why we bought a Sunseeker on our most recent purchase. The Sportriva at 56' is just too small, especially the bridge. Then you jump to the 75' Venere which is a great boat but was too big for our use. Also, the Venere's performance isn't what I'd expect from Riva.

I really like the Sunseeker 65' Manhattan and it's layout. Would prefer to see the Flybridge hardtop span the entire bridge, but seems everyone is going that way. A 60' Hatteras MY is another boat that would cover your sons needs in all regards. (No IPS though). The 60' MY has a beautiful interior.

I run a 50' Prestige FB and it's a REAL slouch. 20-21 knot cruise is all it does,it also gets to be wet when it gets low on fuel, top speed is like 27 knots or something.

If have seen videos of tests with the Prestige 680. They were showing 31 Kts speed at MSC on a very calm sea and a light boat. Is loosing more than 3 to 4 Kts normal with a loaded boat? On my oldest sons quad IPS boat, the max difference is may be 1.5 Kts if at all.

Volvo Penta is recommending no spray rails with IPS. But all Med boats with IPS I see, have them.

Different brands lose different amounts but a very lightly equipped Prestige with a light load would lose 2-4 knots probably, especially when a bit underpowered to start with. If you have the boat well powered or even what many would consider slightly overpowered, then you won't lose as much. Quad IPS is certainly going to lose less than twins.

I'm a big fan of this MY. If close-quarters maneuvering is what's driving the idea of having a pod-driven boat I will say that the 60's manners around the docks are excellent on its own but particularly impressive with the hydraulic bow thruster and JMS joystick. The precision surprised me. Of course there is no lower helm which could be a non-starter for some. I agree about the interior, very clean and contemporary in a timeless way although I do find the forward VIP to be a bit bland.

Holding my hand up as one of that some. They did offer a lower helm in their brochures but to my knowledge never built the current model with one and don't even show it offered now.

Yes, but differing from the Euro Motoryachts. Almost all of the Hatteras 60 are built with fiberglass hardtop and are completely enclosed on all 4 sides with strataglass and have air conditioning and heat. I see a very RARE circumstance where you would really want a lower helm on that boat.

As for most yachts losing speed between light and fully loaded, usually 1-2 knots is all you see. There are some rare circumstances where you lose more. But the Prestiges being so light, you might see a larger difference...... On the 50' it's less than a knot. I can tell you this much, the Prestiges are a very high exterior maintanence boat with all their windows, stainless, cushions everywhere, and teak....

Very RARE for you, but we like a lower helm very much. Right there beside the galley.

That is exactly what the owner of the Prestige 680 said. With the addition of the hardtop and some flybridge options, the boat became top heavy and needed the gyro for stabilization. The boat rocked in calmest water, when on anker, as soon as somebody walked around on the boat. With the gyro on speed, the boat was ok.

As far as the interior built quality is concerned, my son in law, being spoiled by the scandinavian built quality of his present boat, was not impressed. But this is French attitude. Have a look into the interior of a Dassault Falcon Jet, it is not any better. My two sons and I will try to talk my SiL out of the Prestige yacht .

I don't think the Prestige interiors are choppy, well I guess they are with steps here and there. But they pack a lot of staterooms and space into them for their size.

I agree I'd take a Sunseeker over a Prestige any day. But you're comparing apples to oranges when you look at the price difference.

To the OP, just take your son on one of the new 65' Manhattans. Also the Sunseekers perform like a Ferrari, they're a lot of fun to run and handle very well.