Fairline Targa 48 Buyer's Guide, Open and GT from 2013 to 2020

The Fairline Targa 48 and the boat that rebooted Fairline

The Fairline Targa 48 arrived at a delicate moment for the Oundle builder. After the recession, Fairline had cut its production lines from eight to three, and at the January 2013 London Boat Show CEO Alistair Schofield presented the new 48 as the model to lead the company's recovery, available in Open, GT and Squadron flybridge layouts on one shared hull. MBY later put the development spend at almost £3 million and called it the first all-new Fairline in two years. The company, in its words, was betting the farm.

Fairline launched the Targa 48 Open in an unusual place, the Goodwood Festival of Speed car event in July 2013, then showed it at Southampton and Cannes that September. The Targa 48 GT, with an enclosed saloon behind the windshield, followed on the same platform, as did the Squadron 48 flybridge. YachtBuyer dates the first generation Open from 2013 to 2017 and the GT from 2013 to 2016, with an updated second generation of both built from 2017 to 2020.

Do not confuse it with an older Fairline Targa 48 from the 1990s that still appears in European listings. That is an earlier, unrelated design; American searches for a Targa 48 almost always mean the 2013 to 2020 boat.

A Slovenian hull and the resin-infusion gamble

Fairline had relied for years on Bernard Olesinski in Cowes for its hull shapes. For the 48 it went instead to J&J Design, part of the Seaway group in Slovenia, which drew the hull and engineered its construction. Power and Motoryacht's Alan Harper described it as the first Fairline designed specifically around Volvo Penta IPS drives and the first built with resin-infusion lamination, with deck and superstructure moldings carrying their own internal monocoque structure. Even the hull windows are acrylic rather than glass, and the boat is built on load cells so weight can be tracked during construction. Fairline claimed the result was about 25 percent lighter than conventional construction would have produced.

The common-hull approach had a cost. Yachting reported that the hull was given wider chines and a broader beam so that the taller Squadron would stay stable, and the Open ended up about 2,000 pounds lighter than its flybridge sister. The visible upshot is a beam of 14 feet 2 inches, more than a foot wider than Fairline's own Targa 47 of the previous decade, which shows up as volume below.

Jackshafts, pods and a genuinely full-beam master

Most IPS boats bolt the engine straight onto the pod at the transom. Fairline did not. Chief designer Andrew Pope told Yachting the team decoupled the drives, moved the engines forward and fitted roughly 3-foot shafts between engine and pod. That shifts the center of gravity forward, so the boat drives more like a shaft boat while keeping joystick docking and pod efficiency.

It also explains the cabin that sells this boat. With the engines further forward but compact, Fairline could fit a full-beam midships master with 6 feet 7 inches of headroom, opposing banks of hull windows Pope said were three times larger than on earlier models, long dressers on both sides and an en suite with a big shower. For a boat under 50 feet in 2013, it was a striking owner's cabin.

Open cockpit or GT saloon

The Open's hardtop covers the cockpit but is open at the back, and about 70 percent of the roof is a retractable Sunbrella panel. Yachting measured the U-shaped lounge at about 7 feet 6 inches by 7 feet 9 inches, enough for six at the teak table, which folds into the sofa on a single leg. Aft, a three-person sunpad over the garage is more than 6 feet each way. The helm uses a pair of Recaro bucket seats built to Fairline's specification, with the skipper on the left-hand seat.

The GT closes the forward half of the main deck with saloon doors and an electrically opening hard roof with glazed panels. MBY's Nick Burnham described it as a seagoing coupe cabriolet that can be sealed and climate controlled, while the Open relies on canvas covers that are never quite as weatherproof. The trade is space: the GT gives up the Open's big sunpad over the garage, using J-shaped cockpit seating and a table that converts to a sunbed instead.

Two cabins, a lower lounge and a galley you can cook in

The standard lower deck puts the master amidships, an en suite VIP forward with scissor berths that convert between double and twin, and a lower saloon with an L-shaped settee between them. The galley sits to port with a full-height fridge freezer. PMY measured headroom of at least 6 feet 4 inches throughout, even in the showers.

Owners who need a third cabin can swap the lower saloon for a small twin, though the galley stays. PMY noted that Fairline expected most Open buyers to keep the two-cabin plan, while the three-cabin version was aimed at GT and Squadron owners. Joinery was walnut or white oak with several sole choices, and Yachting's tester heard a rival builder say it was aiming for Fairline standards of finish.

Test speeds and fuel burn from Cannes

Both American magazines tested early Opens off Cannes with twin 435 hp IPS600s, and both came in below Fairline's claims. PMY recorded 30.4 knots at 3,400 rpm burning 38.9 gph, with a fast cruise of 26.7 knots at 3,250 rpm and 36.5 gph. Yachting averaged 29.5 knots at 3,350 rpm with an 880-pound Williams 285 in the garage. Fairline's own figure was 33.6 knots at 3,622 rpm with different propellers.

PMY's Fairline hosts blamed the shortfall partly on the heavy tender aft and an empty water tank amidships, which upset the designed trim, and noted the trim tabs could add up to a knot. The lesson for an owner is simple: keep the water tank topped up when you want speed.

Handling earned praise in both tests. PMY found the helm lively without being skittish and the foam-cored bottom quiet when punching into chop. Yachting's boat turned 180 degrees in about three boat lengths and planed in roughly 15 seconds.

What changed with the 2017 update

The second-generation Targa 48 Open and GT, built from 2017 to 2020, kept the J&J hull and layout concept but picked up new Alberto Mancini designed hull windows that sweep along the topsides, the same styling language Fairline used on its later Targa models. Builder data published on YachtBuyer shows the GT gaining a galley-up option on the main deck, an IPS650 alternative and a 550 hp Volvo D8 with IPS700 at the top of the range, with listed top speeds of 33.4 knots on IPS600 and 34 knots on IPS700.

Overall length grew on paper, to 50 feet 8 inches for the Open and 51 feet 5 inches for the GT including pulpit, against 48 feet 4 inches for an early Open. Listed fuel is about 346 US gallons and water 127 gallons on the later boats. When shopping, check the build year and the window shape; the Mancini glazing is the quickest visual tell for a later boat.

Living with a ten-year-old Targa 48

These boats are now 6 to 13 years old, which puts many at their first major round of maintenance: IPS bellows and seals, generator overhauls, canvas, teak and 2013-era electronics. Keeping one in the United States typically runs $50,000 to $90,000 a year, more in a premium Florida or Northeast slip.

Most hulls were sold in Europe, so US buyers will often be importing. Look for boats with the generator, tropical air conditioning and appliance package, which PMY listed as a $75,520 option in 2013, because retrofitting air conditioning to a European-spec boat is expensive. A hydraulic platform and fitted jet tender, also costly options when new, add real value.