Fairline F//Line 33

In one of MBY’s most hotly anticipated tests yet, will Fairline’s latest star player live up to our expectations? Editor Hugo takes the helm...

- Hugo Andreae

I can honestly say this is the most excited I’ve been about testing a boat since I joined MBY 15 years ago. In that time I’ve driven everything from a 90ft Pershing to a 100-knot race boat and pretty much everything in between. But exhilarating as these experiences have been, they have never felt like the type of boat I could ever envisage owning – even when my Euromillions ship comes in.

The F//Line 33 is different. The minute I saw the first renderings in 2017, I was smitten. It wasn’t just the taut, muscular styling that did it for me, it was the size and price too. At a whisker under 33ft long it looked small enough to be fast, fun and manageable but large enough to cope with half a dozen guests during the day and a family of four at night. And the mooted starting price of £264,000 inc VAT, while still well beyond my league, at least seemed within dreaming range.

Time has done nothing to dilute those first impressions. Admittedly the starting price has crept up to £290,400 in the intervening months but everything else has survived the development phase intact. When hull No 1 was revealed at the end of August during a preview event in London, it looked every inch the modern British sportsbook we’d all been waiting for. Even at its global launch in Cannes a few weeks later, it more than held its own in the company of Rivas and Wallys costing several times as much.