USED BOAT: FAIRLINE TARGA 38
IN BUILD 2006-2015 PRICE RANGE £120,000-£300,000
TESTED Everything you need to know about this fast, fun but also practical sportscruiser
When Fairline launched the Targa 33 in 1984, it was the first of the Targa line. And 1984 was a very different era – most boat companies were still run by the people who set them up. And those company owners simply built whatever they felt their customers would like to buy.
Fairline was run by Sam Newington. And the rationale behind the first Targa was simply his desire for a larger sportscruiser to park outside the waterside holiday home he and his wife Briony kept in Port Grimaud (at the time, Fairline’s largest sportscruiser was the 26ft Sunfury). And if they wanted one, he reasoned, surely others would too? History proved him correct. As well as selling 357 33s until production ceased in 1991, it spawned an entire range of sportscruisers that is still being added to today.
But most fascinating is just how closely the 2006 Targa 38 echoes its ancestor. Despite the nomenclature, the two boats are very evenly matched in size. The 33 dated from a time when the bathing platform was a ‘bolt on’ to the hull rather than integrated, so the designated length was typically measured just to the flat transom. Add the longer platforms of later boats, and with the boats rafted together and the transoms aligned, the stems of the bows are almost side by side. The beam is roughly similar too, the new boat having gained six inches.
Launched at a Fairline dealer conference in Bellagio on Lake Como in April 2006, the Targa 38 has the same two cabin layout split by the saloon that most earlier 33s had. In fact the very first Targa 33s had a single cabin aft and an open plan double berth in the forepeak, accessed by scrambling over the dinette. A later
Touring version moved the dinette to one
side, making space for a separate double cabin. Demand for the original dried up instantly and it was quietly dropped.
The Targa 38 features a central island bed in the fore cabin rather than the offset double of the original. The heads has moved forward too, allowing ‘Jack and Jill’ access from either the main saloon or ensuite to the forward cabin. Back aft, the mid cabin is ostensibly the same, but some clever thinking allows the double berth of the 38 to ‘scissor’ into two singles. There’s more headroom, a larger lobby area as you come in and more storage space.
Up in the cockpit, the 38 loses the twin double seats behind the windscreen of its forebear for a single helm seat with an L-shaped seat alongside (it’s the base of this that creates the larger lobby with standing headroom of the mid cabin). Further aft it’s grown a wet bar with room for an electric barbecue, and moving the dinette to one side has created space for a transom door that folds flush into the transom coaming when open. But perhaps my favourite feature of this area is the retractable cockpit table. Most boats have fixed tables or ones you have to demount and stow. In an arrangement still seen on some current Fairlines today, the 38 cockpit table simply folds in half, and then the leg pivots, allowing the whole thing to hinge and hide behind a cockpit backrest cushion. Very clever. In fact it was a £3,000 option when the boat was new, but most owners specified it.
It’s the cockpit arrangement that first attracted Kevin Bird, who keeps a Targa 38 in Torquay. “A decade ago I owned a Sea Ray 390 Express Cruiser, also kept in Torquay. As American boats often are, it was hugely wide with a massive cabin. Compared with that boat, the Targa 38 is relatively cramped inside, but the cockpit sold it to me. Some of the boats I looked at had tender garages, which I think is a waste of space on this size of boat. The Targa has a great cockpit.”
Where the Targa 38’s narrower hull scores, of course, is in the performance and handling. “I looked for two years before choosing this boat,” says Kevin. “I had a hankering for a triple engined Hunton 43, but my wife wanted something less extreme. The Targa 38 is a great compromise because it has the comfortable, well appointed cabin, but it goes and handles well too. We have the D6-370 engines, which I think are a must. We can cruise at 32 knots, or drop back to the low 20 knots for a very comfortable, quiet ride. We’ve only had one season with the boat, but we’ve been very impressed so far. The seakeeping is great and it’s very dry, pushing the spray out low and wide rather than over the boat.”
When the Targa 38 launched, engine options were all twin Volvo Penta. The D4-260 motors were 4 cylinder and 260hp, and Fairline quoted
33 knots with these engines. The twin D6 alternative was a larger, heavier six-cylinder motor producing 310hp. When MBY tested the boat with the latter we saw 35 knots.
When the D4-300 was launched a few years later, it effectively took over from the D6-310, the slight drop in power from the latter made up for by the lighter weight (Fairline quoted 37 knots with these engines). Instead, Fairline offered the D6-370hp, upping the top speed to 40 knots. In 2012 Volvo launched the D6-400, which also found its way onto the Targa 38 options list, making it the fastest Fairline ever at the time, with a top speed approaching 45 knots.
Serial Fairline owner Barry Knibbs had the smallest
D4-260 engines fitted to his Targa 38 and describes them as ‘perfect’. After a Targa 30 and two 34s, Barry defected to a Windy 32 Grand Tornado but found the cockpit seat squabs too narrow and the cabin too tight. He was originally looking for another Targa 34 when he came across the 38, a roomier and more modern boat that he kept for seven years.
“We found the engines suited the boat well, and would cruise at 28-30 knots without issue.” Like Kevin, Barry praises the seakeeping of the Bernard Olesinski hull, saying “it was a great sea boat. In fact the whole boat was an excellent family vessel, it always felt safe.” Barry feels that spec is important: “I prefer the look of the dark blue hull and the practicality of white vinyl upholstery in the cockpit.” The original hull colour choices of white as standard and dark blue as an option were joined by a more contemporary ‘gold’ tone (or perhaps more accurately, beige). Buyers could choose from light oak or cherry interiors in matt or high gloss.
FURTHER REFINEMENTS
In 2011 Fairline updated the boat with vertical hull windows for the mid cabin. Originally slightly oval-shaped with stainless steel frames, these were replaced a year later with frameless rectangular bonded windows. An option to swap the storage unit in the mid cabin for a settee that would make a small extra berth was also introduced. A hardtop version was launched at the same time. Open backed, it retained the cockpit layout rather than adding a deck saloon, instead offering more protection
and convenience to the existing set-up. Initially called the Targa 38 Gran Turismo, after a year the name was changed to Targa 38 Open. Andrew Carr bought a hard top version, upgrading from a Windy 33 Scirocco. “We live in Poole and keep the boat in Salterns Marina, using it mainly for day trips, so we weren’t especially looking for more cabins. But the Targa had a lot more cockpit space, allowing us to run with up to 12 people. Having the hard top meant a lot less canopy to deal with as the overhead section opens at the push of a button. I prefer to run with the boat open so really appreciated how quickly we could go from fully enclosed to fully open.” Andrew’s only slight criticism is a tendency for a vortex effect of the hard top to pull a faint salt mist into the aft section of the cockpit at speed.
The final updates came in 2015, when a MK2 version swapped the single helm seat for a double, moving the wheel toward the centre of the boat. Only a few of these were made as the Targa 38 bowed out the same year, but there was one very interesting swansong. At the end of 2014 Fairline launched a ‘teaser’ campaign for a new model called the Shadow, with a promise all would be revealed at the London Boat Show. When the curtain dropped, what we were treated to looked suspiciously like a Targa 38 with a paint job. Mostly because, that’s exactly what it was. The exterior was painted silver and black, the cockpit featured plenty of genuine carbon fibre, and it was dubbed
‘the fastest Fairline ever built’, which technically it was – it’s just that it wasn’t any faster than the standard Targa 38 fitted with the same D6-400 engines. It looked spectacular, but at a £50,000 premium over the standard boat, it was the only one ever built. Next month: Princess 43