Fairline Boats Ltd^[1] are a English motor yacht builder, currently owned by 3i. Started in 1963 by Jack Newington, the company presently builds motor yachts in both its original Oundle base as well as Corby, Northamptonshire

[edit] History

Fairline Squadron Yachts outside Fairline's Ipswich testing facility

The company started when Newington bought a series of gravel pits on the River Nene and built the Oundle Marina. In 1967 he launched the first Fairline boat, a 19foot handcrafted glass-reinforced plastic river cruiser.^[2] When Newington's son Sam, a former Royal Air Force pilot and Columbia University MBA graduate, took over in 1971, the company employed 14 people. Sam expanded the companies sales network overseas to take advantage of the expanding Mediterranean market place - by 1979 the company employed 140 people and tuned over £5million, with production expanded by the success of 1977's Fairline 40 model.^[2]

With expansion fueled by the Margaret Thatcher led 1980s, the company expanded quickly developing lines of high speed cruising yachts. When Sam retired in 1996, CEO Derek Carter expanded the company further by establishing Fairline Boats of North America Inc., creating a network of 35 dealers.^[2]

In 2002 the 10,000th Fairline was completed, together with new production facilities at the original Oundle site. The Fairline Owners Club was founded in 2003,^[3] and in 2006 company was purchased by its existing management, funded by 3i.^[2] In Sept 2008 Fairline embarked on a redundancy programme shedding 95 jobs in Dec 08 and a further 250+ jobs in March 09.

[edit] Range

The range presently includes the following models:

• Phantom - first launched in 1974 with the Phantom32, the boat gave its name to a range of "family" cruising boats
• Squadron - first launched in 1991 with the Squadron62, a "large yacht" range
• Targa - first launched in 1985, a series of sports style boats. The range is topped by the Gran Turismo models, first launched in 2003

[edit] See also

• Princess Yachts
• Sunseeker

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Fairline company website
• Fairline Owners Club