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Yet the engine room is well insulated, including the outboard fuel tanks (so I couldn't tell if there were access plates, but there were definitely no sight gauges), it has an effective 24-volt fan system and 6'3' headroom, and its Racors and clear-top seawater strainers are clustered aft where you can quickly check them. So is the 27-kW Onan genset, right under the 24-volt breaker panel. It's just that the Cats are big. Standard 1,100-hp V-10 MANs are shorter, but also wider.
Anyway, while your mechanic's tending to business down there, you can launch your PWC from the garage (also available as a utility room), launch your 10-foot RIB from the bridge using the standard davit, or just hang off the two-foot-deep teak swim platform, which is part of the running bottom and so provides extra lift for better planing. Or maybe you'll want to lounge around the ten-foot-deep teak (standard) cockpit, which is covered by the very cantilevered bridge overhang that holds your RIB. If it's really nice, you could stroll up the well-bulkwarked, 13-inch-wide side decks (teak optional) and lay out on the standard foredeck sunpad. Don't worry if it's a little rough; it's surrounded by a beefy stainless steel rail. In fact, if anyone ever tells you to get a grip on this boat, you won't have to go far. There are grabrails everywhere, outside (including a big circular one outside the saloon-cockpit door) and in, and God bless Fairline for it.
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The inside grabrails—I counted seven—are especially nice because they're wrapped in dark leather with baseball stitching, a theme borrowed from the Squadron 74 that repeats throughout the boat, down to the master-stateroom reading lights. Even the galley and lower helm soles are leather. Combined with lots of beautiful dark cherry, it creates an effect somewhere between Park Avenue apartment and old-line yacht club—luxurious, comfortable, inviting. Adding to the feel are elegant light and plumbing fixtures, free-standing saloon furniture, and a single-level saloon. Unlike many builders, Fairline doesn't use valence air conditioning outlets. Cool air for the saloon enters through two large circular vents—effective, but a bit more air noise.
The port-side galley, forward and across from an elegant dining table for six, is screened from the saloon by a slatted cherry divider and is way cool. It has high-end appliances, Avonite countertops available in a staggering choice of colors, a panographic door leading to the port-side deck, and an inboard island that provides workspace and cabinets for stuff like the standard china, flatware, and crystal. But the outboard cabinet, which holds the deep two-compartment sink (the smaller for the standard disposer) and four-burner cooktop caught my eye. It has two bamboo chopping blocks that slide along metal rails to cover whatever you're not using or remove altogether. Talk about maximizing space.
Forward and up two steps is an L-shape shelf with two stools that provide a view out of the windshield and communication to the helmsman, who's screened from the dining area by another cherry divider. I wondered about having stools instead of a settee but was told that Fairline fitted them because they proved so popular on the 74.
The helm is also reminiscent of other Fairlines, and that's a compliment. There are excellent sightlines forward and a panel with good, clean, ergonomic design. Seating is on twin Recaros that adjusted more ways than my body could, and there's enough space between and behind them so that one occupant can come or go without disturbing the other—something missing on a lot of competitive boats. I also liked the VDO analog gauges that also display digital information in a small window and so supplement the electronic engine readouts.
The flying bridge, accessed from the cockpit, sports those same gauges (but no Cat displays), even better sightlines, and to the helmsman's left, a nifty double seat that folds flat to join a forward sunpad, creating what can only be described as a playpen that's sheltered by a big, effective windshield/wind deflector. Those occupying areas abaft the helm can avail themselves of expansive circular seating, a barbecue, 'fridge, and sink.
The one thing missing from our bridge was a bimini top, and fitting one could, in my opinion, be a problem, because it would almost certainly mar the 66's luscious lines. I admit, I liked the stares those lines generated as I returned the 66 to her slip. But I also took pleasure in what those admirers didn't know: This beauty is also a brute.
Fairline Boats North America
(954) 525-7430
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This article originally appeared in the June 2006
issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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