FAIRLINE SQUADRON 58

Is Fairline's lavishly featured new 58-footer really as good as it looks? We head for Southampton to find out

- Alex Smith

When you first set eyes on the new Squadron 58, it feels impressively restrained. While competitor models from Sunseeker, Galeon and Absolute adopt all kinds of dramatic angles, curves and cutaways, there’s a simple purity to the Squadron 58 that feels perfect for a brand whose success has been built more squarely on demonstrable seagoing substance than on tricks of the eye. Huge unbroken glazing sections dominate the superstructure and hull sides. The raked aft struts of the optional flybridge T-Top mirror the angle of the hull windows, and there’s a stark, fuss-free contrast between the black and white that feels very forthright and confident.

That’s not to say that the new 58 is without its own share of stylistic spice though, because however you feel about the relative absence of fanfare, there’s plenty of fun to be had in the LED detailing. It’s sandwiched between the flybridge steps, it floods the deck spaces from low level and it picks out the contours at the aft end of the three decorative steel fins that have been a trademark of the Squadron line since the 90s. But what really excited the show visitors at this boat’s Southampton debut was not so much the aesthetic as the leisure potential of the deck arrangements and that all starts with the 58’s stupendous back end.

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