We have been aboard both Antares and Privilege. I agree with 12BCruzn, the cherry
wood and finishing of the Antares are stunning and higher quality than the Privilege wood. Also, aren't the Privilege floors
marine plywood only while the Antares has genuine wood floors that both look and feel extremely good.
Look at this Antares owner blog:
s/v Field Trip There's a great example somewhere there showing the dad repairing a small ding on the steps caused by one of his kid's toys, teaching them to care for the fine wood.
I think both Antares & Privilege are well designed for liveaboarding, are luxurious, have cockpits and helms that can be enclosed, and are very
seaworthy (both have circumnavigated).
The Antares seems more expensive until you look at what is included. They've thought of everything and constantly improve and upgrade their features (such as recent change to
Simrad, Vesper
Marine, etc).
One big plus for Antares - it has shaft drives not sail drives. These are much more expensive for the
builder to supply, but less expensive and more reliable for the owner to enjoy.
Headroom is an interesting point. Are you looking at the owner version
single forward
cabin on the Privilege? This has lower headroom at the actual
bed area (it's high headroom at the
gangway, but you climb up some steps and the
bed has much lower headroom - can't stand up at bed). The Antares has plenty of headroom in the master cabin, but the bed is against one wall, and there's a part of the hull to the right that prevents the person on the inside from easily exiting the bed and standing up without climbing over the person on the outside.
The
single master berth that spans the beam is a big plus on the Privilege, especially given how the master berth on the Antares is one that landlocks one person against the inside of the bed. This is a big point of difference between the two boats.
Galleys - I personally prefer the Antares'
galley to the Privilege 445- at least Privilege's galley up. Antares has a wonderful spacious functional attractive galley in the 44i that is down, but it's still very open to the
saloon because there is no ceiling above the galley - it's open to the wide
saloon roof, and there's an opening in the banquette so you can look from the galley into the saloon. The Privilege 45 galley up takes a lot of space in the saloon. It does leave more room down below on the Privilege, and lets you have more heads, or one mid-ship - if you want that, or bigger cabins.
The Antares banquette is large enough for two adults to each lie on it at the same time (each taking one part of the "L") - we tested it! The Privilege's rounded banquette, and one side being smaller, doesn't
work as well for us because we want to both be able to recline to read a book, watch tv or nap - at the same time.
The cockpits of the two boats are quite different in configuration. The Antares has the unique feature of two high back seats next to the
davits. We really like them, and the give much-needed extra seating, and good visibility in the 45' length. Also, the Antares offers an extra
cockpit seat as an option that is on the opposite side from the helm. Once you try this seat, it becomes your favorite spot and I haven't seen it offered on any other boat.