Fairline Boats

Fairline Boats is a British manufacturer of luxury motor yachts. Started in 1963 by Jack Newington, in 2016 the assets were acquired from administration by Russian businessmen Alexander Volov and Igor Glyanenko into new company Fairline Yachts Ltd. The company builds motor yachts in Oundle, Northamptonshire.

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 19 feet (5.8 m) handcrafted glass-reinforced plastic river cruiser. When Newington's son Sam, a former Royal Air Force pilot and Columbia University MBA graduate, took over in 1971, the company employed fourteen 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 turned over £5 million, with production expanded by the success of 1977's Fairline 40 model.

The company expanded in the 1980s developing lines of high speed cruising yachts. When Sam retired in 1996, the company expanded further by establishing Fairline Boats of North America Inc., creating a network of 35 dealers. In 2002 the 10,000th Fairline was completed, together with new production facilities at the original Oundle site. By 2010, the 12,000th Fairline was completed, a Squadron 55 shipped to a client in Italy. The Fairline Owners Club was founded in 2003,.

In 2006 the company was purchased by 3i. The company launched the Fairline Targa 38 in 2006, which won the European Powerboat of the Year in the 30 ft (9.1 m) to 40 ft (12 m) category in 2007. Fairline Boats was purchased by Better Capital and RBS in July 2011. In September 2015, Fairline Boats was bought by luxury brand group Wessex Bristol.

Having suffered a series of trading difficulties since post the 2008 Global recession, in November 2015 the company directors proposed a company voluntary arrangement to its creditors. However in December 2015 Fairline Boats entered administration.

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