Fairline Squadron 68 Buyer's Guide, Specs and Generations

Where the Fairline Squadron 68 sits in the Oundle story

The Fairline Squadron 68 is the boat that put a new-generation Fairline at the top of the flybridge range. When the covers came off at the 2019 Cannes Yachting Festival it took over the flagship slot long held by the Squadron 78, and it replaced the Squadron 65 in the lineup. Fairline's own history page records that it won Best Interior Design at the World Yachts Trophies on that debut, and it was a finalist in the 2020 Motor Boat Awards flybridge category for boats over 60 feet.

The project started life as the Squadron 64 and was renamed before launch. Fairline promised 12 percent more lower-deck space and 10 percent more flybridge than the Squadron 65, and the first hulls were built at Fairline's Hythe facility near Southampton rather than in Oundle.

This guide covers that 2019 design and its 2022 update. A completely different Squadron 68 existed in the mid-2000s, and we explain how to tell them apart further down.

A Vripack hull that stays quiet at anchor

Fairline's post-2016 management commissioned the Dutch studio Vripack to engineer the hull, and Alberto Mancini to style the boat with Andrew Pope's in-house team. The running surface and main deck are shared with the Targa GTO sports cruisers (MBY tied it to the Targa 63 GTO, Power & Motoryacht to the next-generation Targa 65), so the Squadron is essentially a GTO with an enclosed wheelhouse and a flybridge on top.

The detail that testers keep mentioning is the waterline. Vripack placed the chines and spray rails below the static waterline, so small ripples at anchor slap against smooth gelcoat instead of a rail edge. That cures the plip-plop noise that keeps owners awake in quiet anchorages on a lot of planing yachts.

Deadrise is 19 degrees amidships, easing only to 17 degrees at the transom, and a fixed stern interceptor handles running trim. Dark vinyl around the windscreen and hardtop struts visually lowers the profile, while GRP spears in the salon glass nod to older Squadrons.

The flybridge is the reason to buy one

The top deck is split into three areas: a pair of low L-shaped loungers with coffee tables aft, a central dinette served by wet bars, and seating or sunpads beside the two-person helm. MBY's Jack Haines called it a fabulous area that feels huge for a boat nudging 70 feet. Buyers can delete the aft loungers in favor of open deck for sunbeds, and a glass and wood windbreak wraps the after end.

Early boats used a hardtop with rotating slats, which looked striking but did not open the sky the way a fabric roof does. The 2022 update fixed that with a sliding canvas sunroof that opens fully over the helm and companion seating, and integrated the hardtop more neatly into the flybridge molding. The foredeck carries its own U-shaped dinette and an adjustable sunpad, and the cockpit has a fixed table with U-shaped seating.

Aft, a swim platform extension of about 2.5 feet carries a personal watercraft, and the updated boat's 500 kg high-low platform takes a Williams 345 tender.

One level from cockpit to helm, and a galley that stays aft

Unlike the Targa GTO it is based on, the Squadron 68 never offered a galley-down option. The galley sits aft on the main deck next to the cockpit, and the salon runs forward on a single level with no steps. Large side windows, low furniture and individual helm seats make the space feel bigger than the numbers suggest.

Harper's test boat, the third hull, carried a custom galley with counters facing fore and aft that an American owner had requested, and Fairline later made it standard. The 2022 update reworked the galley again, swapping full-height refrigeration for four waist-height fridge-freezer drawers, and added a window that lifts to create a bar to the cockpit. Opposite sits an L-shaped settee with an extending table.

The other key 2022 change was a starboard helm door, which MBY had missed on the original boat; it helps ventilation and lets the skipper reach the side deck quickly.

Four ways to arrange the lower deck

Fairline offered four belowdecks plans. The standard three-stateroom layout has a full-beam master amidships, a VIP forward, a twin cabin to starboard and a day head to port. One alternative extends the VIP into the port side for a bigger cabin and head; another turns that space into a utility room with a standing fridge-freezer and ironing board; the fourth adds a bunk cabin to port in place of the day head.

Measured on test, the master bed was 6 feet 8 inches by 5 feet 2 inches, with a dresser, a two-seat settee and a head with a large shower across the aft bulkhead. The twin cabin's berths were 25 inches wide and 6 feet 4 inches long on the first boats; Fairline says the 2022 version widened that cabin and lets the twins slide together into a double. A crew cabin with two berths sits abaft the engine room as an option.

Four decor schemes were offered, from gloss walnut to lighter oak.

• Standard: 3 cabins, 3 en suites plus day head
• Option A: extended forward VIP with larger head
• Option B: utility room with laundry and freezer storage
• Option C: 4 cabins with a bunk room to port

Caterpillar or MAN power, and what the boat actually does

Standard power has always been twin 1,150 hp Caterpillar C18 ACERT diesels on shafts. Early boats offered twin MAN V8-1200s as the alternative; by the 2022 update Fairline was quoting twin 1,622 hp Caterpillar C32s instead. Fairline originally claimed 32 knots with the 1,150 to 1,200 hp engines, and MBY warned before launch that the figure looked ambitious given the weight of the flybridge.

On Power & Motoryacht's sea trial off La Napoule, the C18-powered test boat averaged 28.5 knots two ways, and the hull felt happy cruising anywhere from about 18 knots upward, with 24 knots the quiet, economical sweet spot. Yachting later reported top speeds of 31 knots with the C18s and 33 knots with the C32s for the updated boat. YachtBuyer lists a maximum range of 879 nautical miles at 9.6 knots from the 1,236-gallon tanks.

Harper found the boat poised and precise, though the turning circle was tighter than needed and scrubbed off speed; Fairline was considering smaller rudders, so ask which set a given hull carries.

• Tested: 28.5 knots two-way average, twin Cat C18 1,150 hp (Power & Motoryacht)
• Reported: 31 knots (C18) and 33 knots (C32 1,622 hp) for the 2022 update (Yachting)

The other Squadron 68, from the mid-2000s

Fairline's website was already listing a Squadron 68 in October 2006, and YachtBuyer files that boat as generation one with production years of 2007 to 2009. It is an entirely separate Bernard Olesinski-era design: 69 feet 6 inches overall, 17 feet 9 inches of beam, a 4-foot 8-inch draft, about 36,500 kg dry, 1,068 US gallons of fuel and 9 to 10 berths.

Fairline quoted 31 to 35 knots depending on Caterpillar C18, MAN 1,360 hp or Caterpillar C32 power. These boats trade at roughly half the price of the Mancini boat; a 2007 example was listed in Dubai at 1.1 million euros in 2026.

Telling them apart is easy: the older boat has a stepped salon, curved glazing, no Mancini spears and a 2006 to 2009 build year. Never compare their prices directly.

Running a 69-footer without full-time crew

The Squadron 68 was designed for owner-operators, and the shaft-drive layout with thrusters, side door and optional crew cabin supports that, though many US owners still hire a delivery skipper for long passages.

Options matter more than usual. Harper reported that a fifth of the test boat's UK price was in its options list, including a Seakeeper gyro and a six-figure hardtop. On the used market, a boat without stabilization or with the slatted early roof is worth noticeably less than a well-specified 2022 or later hull.

Expect roughly $180,000 to $340,000 a year before depreciation, covering a 70-foot slip, insurance, Caterpillar and generator servicing, stabilizer maintenance, bottom work and part-time crew, plus fuel.

Squadron 68 prices and availability in 2026

Fairline's 2026 website lists only the Squadron 50 and Squadron 58 in the flybridge range, and its brochure request form no longer names the 68, so treat the model as finished even though YachtBuyer still showed unsold 2026 stock hulls with Caterpillar power. That makes the used market the realistic route for most US buyers.

Supply is thin. Yachting featured a 2020 boat, Blind Date, offered in Destin, Florida at just under $2.6 million with C18s and a Bahamas-friendly 5-foot 1-inch draft, while YachtBuyer showed a 2020 hull in Mallorca at about $2.4 million, VAT unpaid.

So few were sold in America that survey history and dealer support matter as much as price; check whether a European boat has been converted to US electrical systems.