Fairline Targa 45 GT and Open Review, Specs and Used Prices

What the Fairline Targa 45 actually is

Search for the Fairline Targa 45 and you will find two boats wearing one number. The Targa 45 Open came first, launched in 2019 as a development of the Alberto Mancini styled Targa 43 Open, and the Targa 45 GT followed with its public debut at the Düsseldorf show in January 2020. Both share one hull, one engine bay and essentially one lower deck. What separates them is the main deck: the Open keeps a canvas-roofed cockpit with a sunpad over the tender garage, while the GT closes the forward half into a glazed saloon with a sliding sunroof, leaving an outdoor dinette and sunpad aft.

Fairline built the pair in Oundle, England, for about five years. Motor Boat and Yachting reported that nearly 100 Targa 45s were sold before the yard replaced them in 2026 with the Targa 47 Open and GT. That run is big enough that dealers and surveyors know the boat, yet small enough that a clean example still draws attention.

The size label undersells it. The hull is 43 feet 3 inches long, but with pulpit and submersible platform the boat measures 47 feet 6 inches overall on a 14-foot 2-inch beam. Budget for a 50-foot slip.

GT or Open, the decision that shapes every day aboard

Fairline aimed the GT at owners who boat in shoulder seasons and northern waters. Its saloon has opening side windows, a one-piece windshield and a sunroof BoatTEST measured at 5 feet 9 inches by 9 feet 7 inches. Options included tropical air conditioning and diesel-fired hydronic heating with demisting. MBY's test GT was about to be shipped to a new owner on the Great Lakes.

The Open is the sunnier boat, with a larger canvas roof, an open-backed cockpit and the sunpad directly over the garage. The clever part of the GT is that it keeps the garage too; most enclosed sport cruisers this size give up the tender bay to find room for the saloon.

Choose by climate. For a Florida summer at anchor, the Open's outdoor living wins. For April and November cruising from New England, the Chesapeake or Seattle, the GT's sealed, heated saloon is the reason the model exists.

• GT: glazed saloon with sunroof, aft dinette and sunpad, garage kept
• Open: canvas-roofed hardtop, open cockpit, sunpad over the garage
• Both: same hull, IPS choices and lower deck

Helm ergonomics and the GT saloon in detail

The helm sits to starboard with the wheel inboard and a companion seat outboard, so the passenger must stand to let the driver out. BoatTEST's boat had a 7-inch Volvo display and a 12-inch plotter, with joystick and controls right of the wheel. MBY liked the drop-down footrest that lets a standing skipper see over the frame with the roof open.

Opposite, a J-shaped settee wraps a gloss walnut table, and a starboard unit hides a television on an electric lift. Saloon headroom reaches 6 feet 8 inches. The aft deck has J-shaped seating around a teak table, a Corian-topped wet bar with an optional grill, and teak decking.

Two criticisms recur. The big windshield mists up, and BoatTEST wanted demister vents as standard; and the low roofline creates blind spots when the hull heels into a turn. Check both on a sea trial.

Two cabins, or three if the family needs them

Below, an atrium-style companionway drops light into a lower lounge. The standard plan has the galley to port with an induction cooktop, a microwave and Corian counters, an L-shaped dinette to starboard, a full-beam master aft and a VIP stateroom forward, each with an en suite head and separate shower. The aft master has 6 feet 7 inches of headroom, a transverse berth, hull windows on both sides and a choice of storage credenza or sofa to port. The forward cabin's island berth can be specified as scissor singles.

Owners can swap roles, making the forward cabin the master and fitting the aft one as a twin. The three-cabin option replaces the lower dinette with a small cabin with high and low berths, a modest loss on the GT, which already has a saloon table.

Finish is the main selling point: gloss walnut with leather inserts, soft-close drawers, gasketed doors that do not rattle, and four decor schemes named Amalfi, Hamptons, Capri and St. Tropez.

IPS600 or IPS650, and what the numbers show

Every Targa 45 runs on Volvo Penta IPS pods. Standard power is twin IPS600 drives with D6 diesels rated at 440 hp, and the option is twin IPS650 at 480 hp. Fairline quoted 32 knots for the 600s and 34 knots for the 650s, and its US launch material put the IPS600 boat at a comfortable 26-knot cruise.

BoatTEST ran the first North American GT on Lake Washington with IPS600s and four aboard. It reached 30.1 knots at 3,740 rpm on 45 gph, planed in 6.6 seconds and cruised best at 3,400 rpm, 25.5 knots and 36 gph. The hull likes to be trimmed down once on plane and showed the wide turning circle typical of pod boats.

Read the range figures with care. Fairline lists 286 imperial gallons, which is 343 US gallons. BoatTEST computed range from 286 gallons, so a full tank goes further: about 220 nautical miles at 36 gph with a 10 percent reserve, matching what Yachting reported for the related Targa 47.

Engine access, garage and onboard systems

There are two ways into the machinery space. A hatch on the port side of the aft sunpad gives quick access for daily checks, but with the garage occupying the middle of the boat it only reaches the outboard side of the port engine. For real work, the garage floor lifts on an electrically actuated strut and exposes the whole bay. The IPS pods bolt directly to the engines, so there is no jackshaft to align.

The garage takes a Williams 280 Mini Jet, and the hydraulic platform extends 39 inches from the transom with a 30-inch submersible section rated for 880 pounds. A 10 kW generator is fitted, and BoatTEST priced the optional Seakeeper 3 at $48,807. Later boats often have Volvo Penta Assisted Docking, which takes much of the stress out of berthing in a crosswind.

What a Targa 45 costs to keep in the United States

Plan on roughly $45,000 to $85,000 a year excluding depreciation. Slip location, a captain and engine hours drive the spread, and a 50-foot slip in South Florida or Southern New England can cost more than all the maintenance combined.

IPS ownership has a known rhythm: annual engine and pod service, bellows and anodes at haul-out, and attention to steering actuators and joystick electronics. At 36 gph, a 100-hour season mostly at cruise uses on the order of 3,000 gallons. Otherwise the boat is simple by yacht standards and needs no crew.

Buying a used Targa 45, and how the Targa 47 changes the math

Fairline replaced the 45 with the Targa 47 Open in January 2026 and the Targa 47 GT, which premiered at the Palm Beach show in March 2026. Yachting found the 47 keeps the same basic layout with an angled aft-cabin bulkhead, a reshaped forward en suite, a bigger platform and IPS650 power. A new model usually softens prices of the old one, which makes a three or four year old 45 an attractive alternative.

Most used Targa 45s are in Europe, so a US buyer should budget for transport, duty where it applies and electrical conversion. Expect GTs to cost more than Opens of the same year, and hours to matter: a 2022 GT under 500 hours with a gyro is a different proposition from a hard-used charter boat.