BUYING A USED...FAIRLINE PHANTOM 42

Fairline first introduced its Phantom range half a century ago with the Phantom 32.

IN BUILD 1997 - 1999

CURRENT PRICE RANGE £95,000 - £ 1 6 0,00 0

It would be the first in a long line of popular family cruisers which endures to this day. But while the Phantom name has become synonymous with flybridges, it wasn't always that way. One of the earliest 32s was a hard-topped cabin cruiser, designed specifically for use on the inland waterways and over the years, the growth of the Phantom range has seen plenty of variety too. It has progressed through a staggering number of variants, including the 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48 and 50 - all the way up to today's flagship 65-footer.

Interspersed with Phantoms since 1991 has been another popular Fairline flybridge product, the Squadron. While there has been some overlap in terms of length (the current Squadron range, for example, runs from 50 to 68ft), its higher levels of spec, styling and sophistication continues to differentiate the Squadron as the more upmarket of the two.

Although the multitude of 'year versus length' permutations that exist between Squadrons and Phantoms makes for some interesting comparisons on the used market today, that's not something that affects the subject of this review. That's because every one of the 116 Phantom 42s that Fairline built were constructed between 1997 and 1999, more than a decade before the Squadron 42 was even introduced.

The Phantom 42 was the final iteration of the first generation of Phantom 40s (in build from 1994 to 1999 and not to be confused with the second 40ft incarnation which was launched in 2002). As such, it shares many of its features with the Phantom 40 - and when MBY tested one back in 1995 on a delivery run to Jersey, our writer shared his concern regarding restricted visibility from the lower helm.