Fairline Targa 44 Guide to the GT, Open and IPS Years

The Fairline Targa 44 bet everything on pods

In January 2007, fresh from Motor Boat of the Year success, Fairline's chairman told Motor Boats Monthly about a new IPS-only model, the Fairline Targa 44. Volvo Penta's pod drives were still new, and building a sports cruiser exclusively around them was a bold move for a yard best known for sterndrives and shafts.

Fairline's provisional 2006 spec sheet showed a 44-foot 11-inch boat with a 13-foot 3-inch beam, about 11,300 kg dry, 265 US gallons of fuel and twin IPS500 units with D6-370 engines for an estimated 34 knots. By the time MBY's Nick Burnham tested the Targa 44 GT in October 2007, the boat carried twin IPS600s with D6-435s, a second-generation automatic hardtop and joystick control as standard.

The Targa 44 is the bridge between the open Targa 43 of the late 1990s and the Targa 48 that arrived in the early 2010s, and it marks Fairline's first serious step into pod propulsion.

A hardtop designed to let the weather in

Fairline introduced Gran Turismo versions of its larger Targas in 2004, each with a powered retractable hardtop. On the 44 GT, MBY said, the second-generation roof was designed to let good weather in rather than simply keep bad weather out, so the cockpit is finished and furnished to saloon standards for use from morning to night.

The trade-off, MBY noted, was slightly compromised visibility from the helm with the roof closed. Later Fairline literature described a newly designed cockpit with a dining area that converts into a sun pad, and an optional cockpit bar with a barbecue griddle and icemaker.

IPS handling: neat rather than thrilling

On test the hull and IPS drives gripped the water well, giving responsive, clean handling without becoming exciting; MBY placed IPS feel somewhere between shafts and sterndrives. Top speed was 35 knots and the testers quoted a 25-knot cruise.

MBY scored the boat 80 percent and called it a masterpiece of sports cruiser design, so smooth and refined it felt distilled rather than constructed, while admitting they had expected more from the IPS. The standard joystick was the stand-out pro, and in 2026 it remains the main reason buyers choose an IPS Targa 44 over a sterndrive boat.

• Tested: 35 knots top, 25-knot cruise, twin Volvo IPS600 D6-435 (MBY, 2007)
• Provisional factory estimate: 34 knots with IPS500 D6-370
• Price as reviewed: 388,100 pounds

The quiet switch to sterndrives

By 2010 MBY was testing a Targa 44 Open, and by 2012 Fairline's website listed both the Targa 44 Open and Targa 44 Gran Turismo with Volvo Penta sterndrives, not pods. Fairline framed it as a running-cost decision: buyers could choose two Volvo sterndrive engines, each available with joystick and bow thruster options.

The quoted performance tells the story. The Open was listed at 28 knots with twin D4-300s, 30 knots with D6-330s and 34 knots with D6-370s; the heavier GT at 29 knots with D6-330s and 33 knots with D6-370s. YachtBuyer's records list IPS500 and IPS600 options and production years of 2007 to 2010, but Fairline's site still offered both versions into early 2013.

When you look at a listing, check the drive type first. It affects maintenance, handling and value more than the model name.

• Targa 44 Open: D4-300 28 knots, D6-330 30 knots, D6-370 34 knots (Fairline)
• Targa 44 GT: D6-330 29 knots, D6-370 33 knots (Fairline)
• IPS boats: IPS500 or IPS600 pods with joystick

Two cabins and two heads below

Like the Targa 43 before it, the 44 keeps the lower deck to two cabins: a master with its own en suite and a twin guest cabin using the second, day head. Fairline listed four to six berths, with the saloon seating converting for extra guests. MBY described the interior as luxuriously large with an abundance of entertainment equipment for the size.

Fresh water is 85 US gallons and fuel 263 US gallons, enough for comfortable weekend range at cruise. Owners who need three cabins in this size should look at Fairline's flybridge Phantom models of the same period.

The 13-foot 3-inch beam is what makes the two-cabin plan feel generous, and it is a full 10 inches wider than the 1997 Targa 43 that preceded it. Joystick-equipped IPS boats with this beam are notably easy to put into a tight Mediterranean-style berth stern first.

What MBY called a used boat bargain

As early as January 2012 MBY's Greg Copp featured the Targa 44 GT as a used boat bargain, and values still look reasonable against newer 45-footers. MBY noted in 2021 that Fairline's then entry model, the Targa 45, cost more than 700,000 pounds new, so a well-kept 2008 to 2010 Targa 44 at around $300,000 buys a similar size of boat for well under half the money.

The cost of ownership depends on the drives. IPS pods need periodic service of the pod seals, anodes and steering actuators, and EVC electronics should be on current software. Sterndrive boats have more familiar bellows and gimbal maintenance. Either way, budget around $24,000 to $45,000 a year in the US for a 45-foot slip, insurance, two engine services, drive work, bottom paint and the hardtop mechanism.

Retractable roofs of this period need regular care: clean tracks, check hydraulic rams or motors, and replace seals before they leak onto the cockpit upholstery.