Motor Boat & Yachting - July 2018

(C. Jardin) #1

FAIRLINE SQUADRON 78


OURBOATS BOAT MASTER

Even after fi ve seasons, John Wolf’s love affair with his Fairline Squadron 78 shows no sign of cooling


A Match made in heaven


Back in 2011, Boats.co.uk and Fairline
persuaded me to order a Squadron
78, which performed beautifully.
I loved Fairline’s semi-custom build
offer, and it became slightly addictive.
After cruising the new boat for just
one season, I knew what worked well
and what I should have done better,
so I ordered another one, intending
to push Fairline’s customisation
to a new high watermark. They agreed,
to the extent that they even changed
the hull mould to add more windows.
Match turned out so well that 2018
will be my sixth season cruising her.
Normally at five years I would change
the boat, but I am going to keep Match
until I find something I like better.

Current 24m boats have many great
features but lack some things that
matter to me. Examples are long-
range fuel tanks (Match has 7,300
litres), professionally equipped
galleys, stairs from fly helm to galley,
effective flybridge windscreens,
really good blackwater kit, swim
platforms with fixed and hi-lo parts,
and patio doors positioned for
a large aft cockpit, even at the
expense of a slightly smaller saloon.
So rather than buying a new boat,
I have tinkered with various upgrades
instead. When Garmin launched
firmware for their MFD screens to
operate two radars and their new
broadband Fantom series, I ordered

a second radar. It is a radome sitting
above the open array and it’s nice
to have the high power and fine
resolution of the latter, and the clever
features of broadband including
colour-coded targets to tell me
whether they are coming towards
or going away from me. And of course
losing radar at night would be a big
deal, so a backup is comforting.
Then I had to change Match’s
anchor. The Delta anchor supplied
with the boat never disappointed but
I bent it badly in a rocky seabed off
Corsica. Lots of new-style anchors
have emerged in recent years, so
I thought I should try one. I liked the
Ultra anchor on a boat I chartered

in Croatia, and it is certainly the most
beautiful of the latest generation, so
I fitted a 60kg Ultra. I’ve been pleased
with it, but I was with the Delta too.
Another upgrade was a new echo
sounder. The Med is deep: in the Solent
and English Channel, you almost
never see 100m but in the Med,
you pass that within a mile of leaving
port and standard echo sounders
stop working at around that depth.
So I fitted a Garmin GSD 26 CHIRP
sounder, 3kW with two enormous
transducers. I can now see 2,000m!
Not life changing, but a nice toy and
occasionally I think I can see whales,
though they might just be shadows.
The one failure on Match is the
silver wrap on the hardtop. It looked
great when new in 2015, but it cannot
cope with the sun. It went streaky
and dull within a couple of seasons
and now looks a mess. Grapefruit
Graphics, who fitted it, are working
out a proposal but I think it will peel
off to reveal the original white gelcoat
underneath and I’ll just rewrap
the sharkfins. Despite the great
look of new vinyl wrap, I wouldn’t
recommend it for a boat in the sun.
That’s small beer in the context
of running a boat like this. Match has
proved herself to be outstanding, and
while I’ll look at new 24m offerings at
boat shows, I somehow think I’ll hang
on to her for a bit longer. John Wolf

John’s new 60kg
Ultra anchor

Match’s custom
dashboard

Match looks right at home
berthed in Portoferraio, Elba
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