About Fairline shipyard
The story of Fairline started back in 1963 with the construction of a marina on the River Nene in the town of Oundle (ceremonial county of Northamptonshire in the East Midlands of England) – far from the sea. On the site of disused gravel pits there appeared a boat dock, a slipway and workshops. The place grew more and more popular and a few years later its owner, Jack Newington, started thinking of building his own boats. The first one was a 5-metre river cruiser, Fairline 19, made of fiberglass, which was a new material at the time. In 1970s his son extended the production facilities and the model range dramatically and started exporting yachts. The shipyard made Phantom flybridge models, and later Targa, which laid the foundation for the segment of sport yachts with a hardtop. By the end of the 20th century Fairline became one of the world’s most famous shipyards with an extensive dealer network in different countries. They even got the Queen’s award for Export Achievement. The financial crisis of 2008 caused Fairline serious problems, and they ended up in a bankruptcy a few years later. However, the shipyard was rescued with the help of its Russian dealer. Thanks to the investments its production got reformed and a new model range created together with Italian designer Alberto Mancini and renowned Dutch Vripack studio was launched. New Fairline boats got quite a few prestigious international awards. However, the shipyard’s inland location didn’t allow it to build larger yachts due to the difficulty of transportation by land. To get rid of these limitations the shipyard bought a new production site on the shore, not far from Southampton, which started working just a year later. So far it hasn’t led to an increase in the size of the boats they build, but it has made the delivery and maintenance so much easier. In 2021 Fairline Yachts became the property of a private investment company called Hanover Investors.
Highlights
Fairline Yachts builds planing yachts with fiberglass hulls that have superb performance characteristics. Today Fairline Yachts model range includes Phantom sportbridge cruisers, Squadron flybridges, sporty Targa models with a hardtop and open F//Line boats with cabins on the lower deck.
Achievements
In 2004 Fairline Yachts launched a revolutionary Targa Gran Turismo range – the first ever sports boat equipped with a really large electrically powered hardtop. Today, when sports yachts with a hardtop are made by numerous shipyards, this superstructure configuration seems ordinary, but at that time it required unprecedented firmness of the hull and the superstructure that Fairline was the first to provide.
