Fairline Targa 58 GT Review and Used Buyer's Notes

Why the Fairline Targa 58 still turns heads

The Fairline Targa 58 Gran Turismo, usually shortened to Targa 58 GT, was revealed at the London Boat Show in January 2010 and won its class at the 2011 Motor Boat of the Year Awards. YachtBuyer lists production from 2009 to 2012, a short run that makes this one of the rarer big Targas. It was a technology statement as much as a yacht, with retracting glass, an inflatable sunroof seal, a hidden tender lift and a lower deck that ignored convention.

MBY opened its June 2010 test by remarking on the lengths some builders go to for attention, then concluded that the engineering had real purpose. Power and Motoryacht's Capt. Richard Thiel, a self-described single-engine lobsterboat man, ended his 2011 test convinced it would be the perfect boat for him if he had the $2.2 million his test boat cost.

Searches for the Fairline Targa 58 now also bring up two newer boats: the Targa 58 GTB announced in 2019, and the Targa 58 GTO that premiered at Cannes in September 2026. They are different designs, explained further down.

Glass that disappears, and a sunroof that does not rattle

Most hardtop sport cruisers offer a sunroof. The Targa 58 GT added a twist: a pneumatic collar inflates automatically to lock the roof in place, so it does not rattle even when partly open. Then the walls go. Both saloon side windows drop electrically, and at 9 feet 10 inches long Fairline called them the largest lowering windows on any production boat. An optional three-piece sliding cockpit door and a small electrically lowering glass panel to starboard open the aft bulkhead as well, so almost the whole saloon except the windshield can open to the air.

PMY likened the effect to the difference between a cozy living room and a gazebo. MBY's tester said no ostensibly closed hardtop put you more in touch with the elements, adding that if it felt great on a cold day in Harwich it would be heaven in Mallorca. Four overhead skylights add light when the solid roof is shut.

These systems are the boat's charm and its maintenance burden. Window motors, seals, the roof mechanism and the inflatable collar all need to work, and the heavy optional cockpit door was one of MBY's few complaints.

A lower deck turned around

Fairline did not put the master amidships. The forepeak holds a large head with an enclosed shower, and the owner's cabin sits just aft of it with the berth on the port side, set athwartships to use the wide forward sections of a 16-foot 6-inch beam. Two large guest cabins sit side by side amidships, each with big hull windows and its own en suite, and the twin berths in the starboard cabin slide together into a double. An optional crew cabin lives aft.

That means three en suite heads for six guests, which MBY judged the best three-cabin accommodation on any sports cruiser under 60 feet, praising the owner's bathroom, the storage and the lighting. PMY made the same point from a different angle: guests who come along on a 58 do not suffer for it.

Interiors were oak and ivory as standard; PMY's test boat had optional satin wenge with teak soles, which the tester found upscale but inviting, in a beach-house way.

The galley trade-off

The price of that lower deck is the galley. It sits on the main deck, aft of the helm to starboard, inside a stylish console with a bi-fold top. PMY described the equipment as basic: a two-burner Ceran cooktop, a standard microwave and a 4.5 cubic foot refrigerator on a boat that sleeps six. Extra cold storage could be ordered in the lower lobby and lazarette.

MBY noted that the galley-up arrangement costs about a sideboard's worth of saloon stowage. For owners who dine ashore most nights, as most buyers of this kind of boat do, it is a reasonable compromise. For those planning long stretches at anchor, check what refrigeration a particular boat has been given.

Olesinski's hull and the choice of shaft engines

Underneath is a Bernard Olesinski modified deep-V with 17 degrees of deadrise aft, driven by straight shafts rather than pods, with the engines just aft of amidships. PMY lists twin 800 hp Volvo Penta D12-800s as standard, with Volvo D13-900s or 1,200 hp MAN V8-1200s as options, and PMY's launch report also mentioned 865 hp Caterpillar C15 ACERTs. Fairline estimated 33 knots for the D13s. YachtBuyer's builder data lists about 30 knots for the D12s and up to 40 knots with the MANs.

MBY tested a MAN-powered boat at 28.1 tonnes light and 31 tonnes loaded and recorded 37.1 knots, calling the cruising range of 25 to 30 knots relaxed. Thiel drove a D13-900 boat off Florida and praised the throttle response and how a nearly 24-ton boat felt like a ski boat, while warning that it heels hard in fast turns and opens blind spots when the wheel is hard over.

The engine room has 5 feet 7 inches of headroom and two feet between the engines, generous for the type, though on Thiel's boat the port engine's filters were outboard and awkward to reach.

• Standard: 2 x Volvo Penta D12-800, about 30 knots (builder data)
• Option: 2 x Volvo Penta D13-900, about 33 knots (Fairline estimate)
• Option: 2 x Caterpillar C15 ACERT, 865 hp
• Option: 2 x MAN V8-1200, 37.1 knots tested by MBY

The hidden tender launch and a full-length hull

Instead of a conventional high-low bathing platform, the Targa 58 GT has an optional mechanized launch that rises out of the teak swim platform, lifts or lowers the tender, then disappears back into the deck. MBY explained the logic: dropping the hi-lo platform let Fairline carry the hull the full length of the boat and gain interior volume. A Besenzoni combined boarding ladder and passerelle completed the stern.

Standard equipment on PMY's test boat included a 21.5 kW Onan generator, a bow thruster, a hydraulic swim platform, Garmin navigation and a cockpit table that lowers electrically to form a sunpad. The options list ran to stern thruster, central vacuum, CCTV and tropical air conditioning.

Targa 58 GT, GTB and GTO are three different boats

In December 2019 Fairline announced a Targa 58 GTB, an Alberto Mancini designed 60-footer with fold-out beach club wings, due at Cannes in 2020 with engines from 900 to 1,300 hp. It did not appear in Fairline's model range in 2021, and we found no evidence it entered series production.

The 2026 Targa 58 GTO is real and new. Based on the latest Squadron 58 platform, it measures 58 feet 11 inches with a 16-foot 4-inch beam, carries 732 gallons of fuel, and runs twin Volvo Penta D13-900 or D13-1000 diesels on shafts, with Fairline estimating 30.5 and 32.5 knots. It has fold-down side balconies, patio glazing that lowers into the engine compartment, a galley-up plan, three staterooms with a full-beam master and a standing-height garage for a Williams 325 or 345 jet tender plus a SeaBob.

If you are shopping used, you are almost certainly looking at the 2009 to 2012 Gran Turismo. If a listing says 58 GTO, it is a brand-new boat at a very different price.

Buying a Targa 58 GT in 2026

Expect asking prices of roughly $550,000 to $850,000 in the US, with the best MAN-powered boats with every glazing option at the top. Because so few were built, be prepared to look in Europe and to import. Running costs are those of a 60-foot shaft yacht, around $70,000 to $140,000 a year with dockage, insurance, engine and generator service, and more if a part-time captain is involved.

The ideal boat has documented engine service, recently resealed windows and roof, a working tender launch, and refreshed electronics. Treat the drop-down windows and inflatable roof collar as items to test, not to assume.