ELIZABETH is a 22.5 metre Princess Y72, a British-built motor yacht dressed in exterior lines by the Italian design house Pininfarina, delivered in 2022. She brings the light, modern feel and clever charter layout of Princess’s flagship sports range to a size that stays easy to run and easy to place, and she has a genuine turn of speed to match her looks. For a couple or a family who want to cover ground between islands and still anchor somewhere quiet by early afternoon, with eight guests across four staterooms, she is a well judged and good looking yacht.
Her point of difference is the sense of light and space she achieves for her length. On the main deck the windows wrap right around the salon, keeping the sea close on every side and filling the room with daylight, and the pale timber floors and soft neutral decor carry that airy feel through the yacht. The result is a boat that feels larger inside than her measurements suggest, calm and current rather than heavy or formal, and one that lives as well at anchor as she runs between bays.
She is also built to move. A quick planing hull driven by an upgraded engineering package lets her cruise comfortably and reach a top speed of thirty-four knots when asked, yet she stays level and quiet enough for the group to talk on the flybridge underway. That pace turns a long run between anchorages into a short one, so a week aboard can take in more of the coast without ever feeling rushed, with time to swim before lunch and reach the next island before the light goes.
Accommodation is for eight guests across four staterooms, all with their own bathrooms. The full-beam master sits low in the hull and runs the width of the yacht, a light and private room with hull windows on both sides, a desk and a marble bathroom of its own. The further cabins, a pair of doubles and a twin, carry the same pale modern palette and careful joinery, a layout that suits two couples with children, or four friends sharing, with the master giving the lead couple real space of their own.
Outside is laid out for the long Mediterranean day. The flybridge is the social top of the yacht, a teak dining table and sun pads set around the helm and completed by a bar, a grill and a fridge for meals in the open air. The foredeck opens into a large sunbathing area away from the group, the aft deck gives shaded dining a step from the sea, and a tender and a spread of water toys come with her for the hours spent swimming and playing off the yacht.
Her cruising ground is the Adriatic, and she is well matched to it. From the walled towns and pine-clad islands of the Dalmatian coast to the clear anchorages that lie between them, the distances are short, the water is a deep, clean blue and the harbours come alive after dark for dinner ashore, while her speed makes the runs between islands easy. With her light modern interior, her Pininfarina lines and a quick, capable hull, ELIZABETH offers a stylish and practical way to cruise one of the finest coastlines in the Mediterranean.
