1 Fairline Yacht for Sale

Updated 28 April 2026 · By Hulls.io Editorial

About Fairline

Fairline's story begins in 1963, when Jack Newington purchased a cluster of disused gravel pits beside the River Nene in Oundle, Northamptonshire. He flooded the pits, cut a channel through to the river, and created Oundle Marina — complete with workshops, a chandlery, and a slipway. By 1967 the first Fairline had launched: a 19-foot handcrafted GRP river cruiser, modest in scale but marking the start of what would become one of Britain's most enduring motor yacht brands. Under Jack's son Sam, who took over in 1971, the company expanded rapidly. Early models designed by John Bennett gave way to progressively larger craft — the Phantom 32 arrived in 1974, the Fairline 40 (then the largest production motor yacht in Britain) in 1977, and the Fury 26 in 1978. By the end of the decade, Fairline had moved from inland cruisers to serious coastal motor yachts.

The design legacy that defines modern Fairline begins with Bernard Olesinski, whose collaboration with the company started in the late 1970s with the Fury 26. Olesinski's pioneering medium-vee hull forms became Fairline's signature — balancing offshore capability with the kind of ride comfort that distinguishes a well-engineered cruiser from a merely fast one. He shaped the brand's most iconic models across roughly 35 years, including the Turbo 36 (produced 1982–1993), the Targa 48, and the Squadron 68. When new ownership arrived in 2016, Fairline pivoted to a new design partnership: Italian designer Alberto Mancini took on exterior styling, while Dutch naval architecture firm Vripack assumed hull engineering responsibilities. Olesinski subsequently signed an exclusive arrangement with Princess Yachts. The first fruit of the Mancini-Vripack era was the Targa 63 GTO, unveiled at the 2017 Cannes Yachting Festival — Fairline's 50th anniversary — and named Best Exterior Design in the 50–80ft category at the World Yachts Trophies. Subsequent Mancini-designed models include the Squadron 68, the F//Line 33 (launched 2021), and the Phantom 65. In-house, Christian Gott — who progressed from boatbuilder apprentice to Lead Concept Designer over fourteen years — won Designer of the Year at the 2023 Boat Builder Awards for his work on the Targa 40 and Squadron 58 interiors.

Four ranges define the brand. The Targa line, dating back to 1985, is the sport cruiser family — sleek, express-style boats with no flybridge, built for pace and open-air cruising. The Squadron name, introduced in 1991, represents the flybridge motor yacht range: expansive deck saloons, full standing headroom below, and the kind of interior volume that has always been a Fairline strength relative to competitors at equivalent length. The Phantom 65, launched in 2022, opened a new category for the brand — a triple-deck sportsbridge yacht that blends flybridge accommodation with sportscruiser dynamics. It won Motorboat of the Year in 2023. And the F//Line 33, Fairline's first sub-12-metre sport boat, targets a younger buyer profile with a deep-V hull, 22-degree transom deadrise, and a cockpit galley with integrated barbecue. The Targa 48 is worth particular mention: produced from 2013 to 2020 across two generations, it was offered as two concurrent variants sharing the same hull platform — the Open, with a retractable fabric roof and traditional sportscruiser cockpit, and the GT, with an electric hardtop and sliding glass sunroof. The depreciation data shown on this page reflects the Open variant, which had greater listing volume in our dataset.

Fairline's ownership history has been turbulent. Sam Newington sold to South African businessman Graham Beck's Renwick Group in 1996, which also owned Princess Yachts at the time. A management buyout backed by 3i followed in 2005, valued at £40 million. Better Capital and RBS acquired the business in 2011, clearing the buyout-era debt. In September 2015, Better Capital sold to Wessex Bristol, but the company entered administration just two months later in December 2015 — halting production and cutting the workforce from 466 to roughly 100. Russian-born UK businessmen Alexander Volov and Igor Glyanenko purchased the assets out of administration in January 2016, forming a new entity and commencing the Mancini-Vripack design reset. RiverRock European Opportunities Fund acquired a majority stake in 2020, then sold to Hanover Investors in June 2021. In December 2024, Arrowbolt Propulsion Systems — a company formed just two days prior — acquired Fairline, only for the business to enter administration again in January 2025. In April 2025, Bronzewood Capital, the private equity arm of turnaround specialist Buchler Phillips, purchased the brand out of administration. Production continues at Oundle with approximately 240 employees, and the order book is reported as filled through 2026 with bookings growing into 2027.

Despite the ownership volatility, Fairline's market position has remained consistent. Within the British premium tier, the brand sits alongside Sunseeker and Princess as one of the "Big Three" — though at significantly smaller scale. Where Sunseeker has moved into superyacht territory and Princess builds vessels exceeding 35 metres, Fairline has stayed focused on the 33–68ft segment, only recently stretching to 65 feet with the Phantom. Production is centred at Oundle, with a second facility — Fairline Marine Park at Hythe, Southampton, covering over 200,000 square feet — opened in 2019 as part of a £30 million investment for boats over 60ft and customer commissioning. With a workforce of around 240 against Sunseeker and Princess at 2,000–3,000 each, Fairline operates at boutique scale — a characteristic that appeals to buyers who value a less industrial, more hands-on build culture.

Why Buyers Choose Fairline

Fairline has long held a reputation for interior accommodation that punches above its length — a trait traceable to the Squadron range, where Olesinski's hull forms maximised interior volume without sacrificing seakeeping. The Mancini-era redesign added a contemporary visual identity to that space efficiency, giving the brand a sharper showroom presence than it carried through the early 2000s. Build quality is rooted in six decades of GRP construction at the same Northamptonshire site, with resin-infusion technology now standard across the range. The secondary market reflects this: our dataset tracks 654 historical Fairline listings across three models with sufficient data, and the Squadron 68 alone accounts for 340 of those — a depth of secondary-market liquidity that signals strong broker and buyer confidence. Fairline's after-sales network, while smaller than Sunseeker's or Princess's, benefits from the brand's loyal owner community and a concentration of specialist brokers across the UK and Mediterranean. For buyers weighing British craftsmanship against Italian design flair, Fairline's current formula — Mancini styling, Vripack engineering, Oundle construction — offers a distinctive blend that neither of its British rivals attempts.

Fairline vs Sunseeker, Princess and Azimut

The natural comparison for any Fairline buyer is Sunseeker and Princess — the other two pillars of British motor yacht building — and increasingly Azimut, the Italian volume-luxury producer that competes directly in the 40–70ft flybridge and sport cruiser segments.

Sunseeker positions itself on performance, lifestyle branding, and sheer visual impact. Its dealer network is the broadest of the three British builders, and it commands a price premium at equivalent length — particularly in the Mediterranean market, where the Sunseeker name carries strong resale cachet. Buyers who prioritise brand recognition and bold styling tend to gravitate here. Princess, by contrast, has built its reputation on engineering rigour and build consistency. With Olesinski as its exclusive hull designer and a vertically integrated Plymouth shipyard, Princess offers the kind of industrial-scale quality control that appeals to repeat buyers and charter operators. Its range extends well above Fairline's ceiling, reaching into the 30-metre-plus bracket.

Fairline's advantage lies in a different territory. The Mancini-Vripack partnership gives it a design identity that is neither fully British nor fully Italian — a deliberate positioning that resonates with buyers who find Sunseeker too extroverted and Princess too conservative. Interior space relative to overall length remains a consistent Fairline strength, particularly in the Targa GT and Squadron lines. And the brand's smaller production volume, while a commercial vulnerability, translates into shorter build queues and a more personal ownership experience than the larger yards can offer.

Against Azimut — which produces over 200 boats per year across a vast range from 34 to 78 feet — Fairline trades on craftsmanship over volume. Azimut's advantage is breadth: more models, more layout options, a deeper dealer network across Southern Europe and the Americas. Fairline's advantage is focus: fewer models, each with more design attention per unit, and a British build provenance that carries weight in the UK, Northern European, and Australasian markets where Italian marques are less dominant. Buyers cross-shopping these brands are typically weighing the tangible fit-and-finish of a Fairline walkthrough against the broader configurability and stronger resale liquidity that Azimut's volume provides.

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