Fairline boats

[Seastoke]

What are the risks of ordering a new boat from them . Will they be at Southampton.

 

[rafiki_]

What are the risks of ordering a new boat from them . Will they be at Southampton.

Best thing is to talk to James Barke at Boats, or David at Approved. They are Fairline main dealers. You would purchase through them, and they hold your £ in a client account. They release to Fairline in agreed stage payments, so you, as the end client will own the boat in stages. This is normal in buying new boats.
Will they be at SIBS? Check with Boats. Fairline had several models at the BMYS at Swanwick in May.

 

[PaulRainbow]

They are still busy finishing boats here at Ipswich.

 

[Boat2016]

They are still busy finishing boats here at Ipswich.

Wasn’t much activity there a couple of weeks ago when I was there, guy I spoke to said they were just finishing off a few boats then waiting for more orders, at current prices they aren’t selling much but then no one else is either.

 

[jbweston]

Best thing is to talk to James Barke at Boats, or David at Approved. They are Fairline main dealers. You would purchase through them, and they hold your £ in a client account. They release to Fairline in agreed stage payments, so you, as the end client will own the boat in stages. This is normal in buying new boats.
Will they be at SIBS? Check with Boats. Fairline had several models at the BMYS at Swanwick in May.

When making stage payments on a boat (to any builder) you have a degree of comfort because if they stop building it you stop paying. The problem is if they stop half way through and go bust, you've paid for about half a boat - and there isn't much you can do with half a boat. Not ideal.

Obviously you can get round that problem by buying a new boat already completed (if one exists and its spec suits you) or a nearly new secondhand boat. But that isn't a new boat built just for you exactly as you want it. If the risk of making stage payments and being left with a negotiation with a receiver or administrator about who owns the half boat and how to get it finished worries you then I imagine you can arrange some sort of performance bond through a financial institution but it will cost you.

The risk of having made stage payments for a part-completed boat is real - see Former Sweden Yachts head jailed for fraud - where people made stage payments but the yachts weren't completed (although that's a case of dishonesty on top of business failure).

I bought a new boat back in 2009. I was going to have it built to order and I was concerned about the risk of stage payments to a yard in Sweden. Before I had investigated a performance bond I was offered a new boat just completed by the yard for use in the UK as a demonstrator and it was to the spec I wanted, so the stage payment risk went away. I paid for a completed boat that I'd been on board in Sweden when it was delivered to the UK.

In practice many/most builders take the stage payments and do their part by building the boat. It's if the builder gets into financial difficulty that the music stops and someone is left without a chair to sit on.

I don't know what is the state of Fairline's finances. That's certainly something I'd want to check out in depth before entering into a stage payment arrangement with any boatbuilder.

The other consideration if they have been quiet and not producing many boats is if their skilled labour has got fed up and left to get a more secure job elsewhere. There's a difference between on the one hand having a skilled and practised team in regular production and on the other being able to rustle up a few blokes from retirement or who are still with you because they haven't got the skills to get a job elsewhere.