Fairline Flagship Holds Global Appeal

Now represented by Simpson Marine in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, British builder Fairline has announced that sales of its new Squadron 68 are already into double figures and spanning the globe, starting with orders from the USA, Asia and Europe.

- Risa Merl

When Fairline’s new Squadron 68 debuted at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2019, it received the exact response a yacht builder dreams about. A new client came along who just had to have the boat, and right away. There was only one problem – this particular hull had already been promised to another buyer.

“It was one of those one-in-a-million encounters,” says Miles Moorhouse, Head of Marketing for Fairline Yachts. “Somebody we’d never met before walked onto the stand. We showed him the boat, he was quite taken with it and he said he’d like to buy it.”

The builder explained that it wasn’t available, but the new client was insistent on having this particular boat. Fortunately, Fairline was able to come up with a solution that worked for everyone.

Although it was the first Squadron 68 to premiere, the boat was actually hull number three. The first two hulls of the flybridge motor yacht had been customised for their owners, in the USA and Asia, while number three, destined for Europe, had been built to standard dealer specifications.

Fairline went back to the original buyer and offered to start working on a customised version of the Squadron 68 right away, so he could have it in time for the next cruising season. Everyone walked away happy.

The ability to build a boat that suits each owner is one of the key selling points of Fairline’s new model. The British brand’s smaller models are production boats with less room for customisation beyond wood and material choices.

“On the smaller models, it’s more personalisation rather than customisation,” says Moorhouse. “With the 68, we can do nearly anything, except move bulkheads or upset the centre of gravity and weight balance of the boat.”