Fariline Corniche

tony345

tony345

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I'm currently looking at a Fairline Corniche as the next boat

Its a 1987 model with 230hp kad 42's on sterndrives. I've heard the discussions on shafts v drives... but I'm more interested in knowing a little about the history of the boat, and what to look out for.

Did they make 31' and 34' versions ?

What are the cabin options - I've heard about tri-cabin, which is what I think I'm looking at, are their other variants ?

I'ts billed as a 6 berth, but I can only find 5 - 2 in the front cabin, 2 in the dinette conversion opposite the kitchen, and one on at the rear, just inside the sliding door ?

What are the seakeeping qualities like - I'm thinking cross channel and channel islands area ?

Also - any views on KAD 42's - this boat has had 10 yr old reconditioned ones fitted a couple of years ago

Anything else to look out for - all thoughts appreciated
 
From memory the versions were;

Tri-cab with either 2 singles or one small offset double in the bow cabin. This version also had a dinette opposite the galley.

or

Twin-cab with a central double berth cabin in the bow but sacrificed the dinette.

The twin-cab is a 4 berth boat and the tri-cab is a 6 berth boat. I thought the sofa in the saloon converted to a double berth. The saloon had the choice of two sofa opposite each other or one sofa and a sideboard - this might explain the loss of a berth on the boats you have looked at?

I recall some owners complaining about getting the Corniche onto the plain - this might have been an engine size issue or a shaft v outdrive issue (can't remember).

The hull is very sound - Bernard Olezinski design - very capable for channel crossings.

Hope this helps!
 
We had a Corniche before buying our current boat

Ours was shaft driven on 160HP engines which was a little underpowered, she could get on the plane but max speed was about 18 knots. The 200HP would be a better buy for Channel crossings, you should get 25 - 27knots so any bigger engines are probably a waste. That being said we took ours from Chichester to Cherbourg and St Vaast with no problems.

Corniches tend to run in a bow high mode, even on shafts, I guess this would be worse on an out drive version.

There were a number of versions, ours was the dinnette, in some the table seating area was replaced by a cabin. Ours had 2 singles in the bow cabin some others had a double, which is right I guess depend on who you are going boating with.

I think that the Corniche is a great boat for weekends and the odd longer period, we sold our due to the smaller engines and with a 15 year old it was too small for the fortnights holiday.
 
I had a Corniche 31 of this vintage on shafts not outdrives. Seakeeping was good and the boat was easy to berth (on shafts). Did a number of trips from the Solent to the West Country and had no problems. I always felt there was more of a 'flare' on the bow than on many other Fairlines, which gave good forward buoyancy in a following sea. Mine was a twin cab version, and the forward cabin was really comfortable. Early versions had a radar arch made out of stainless steel tubing, whereas later models had a GRP radar arch. The boat certainly started out as a '31' , but I seem to recall that Fairline had a re-badging of their boat sizes around this time, and started calling 36 a 38/39, and a 38 a 39 etc. Sometimes this coincided with adding a bigger bathing platform, but I can't remember if this was the case for the Corniches.

I also had a Targa 38 on KAD42 outdrives. I found they were prone to leaking a lot of coolant owing to faulty cylinder head gaskets - expensive to repair, so best to check beforehand (I subsequently found this was also reported by some other KAD42 owners, though Volvo denied there was any problem at the time! Once this was sorted the engines were fine. and gave good performance. BTW there is a conversion kit to upgrade KAD42s to KAD43s which makes them a bit quieter.
 
Posts above pretty much cover it.

Three layouts:

Tri cab with a dinette, Tri cab with a second cabin (with bunk beds), twin cab with large central double bed in much bigger fore cabin, bigger heads and galley. Saloon same in all although they did two versions, one with a sideboard on one side, the other with seating on both. Tri-cab had either two decent sized singles in fore cabin (different heights so they overlapped at the foot) or a very small offset double.

Seating in saloon converts to double (they usually had the seating as two cushions folded on top of each other so you just unfolded them out to make into double berth).

Good quality build and finish. Nice boat, but I'd really really want shafts if it were me...

Length was 31ft hull, plus bathing platform. Anyone quoting 34ft is just including the bathing platform (which was a bolt on one, not part of hull).

Boat very full in the bow to accomodate the large accomodation for a 31ft boat which meant it drove very bow up indeed. I can only think a sterndrive version with all that weight right aft would be worse.

I'd want a shaft drive one personally, for that reason and for increased simplicity and for much easier handling. would need to be very cheap to tempt me to sterndrives, if at all.
 
Shaft boats command a higher price but have faults

The cornich is too small really for shafts, the engine access is poor, in particular to the port engine.
If you are some one who does an engine check before/after each cruise and with a boat of this age you should be then the engine access will drive you crazy.

It is for this reason why many port engine have problems.

Outdrives are the better ride and dont ride bow up as there is such a lot of spare power.
your 230 will also eliminate that problem.

Outdrives are tricky to berth as the bow at rest is indeed very high and any side gentle breeze will push it around.

There is a huge amount of space for a 30 ft boat as the bow is bulbous allowing a large fore cabin, this can cost in terms of a little slam into a F5 and above head sea.

The cornich was called a cornich 31 in 1987/88 but no changes were made .

My preference would be for a cornich on 200hp outdrives but if you have found a good one with new 230s on shafts I would be very tempted............but take the trouble to do the engine checks !
 
[ QUOTE ]
Outdrives are the better ride and dont ride bow up as there is such a lot of spare power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Surely the Corniche rides bow high due to hull shape (very full in the bow), not lack of power? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

The Princess 35 doesn't ride bow up with the same twin shaft 200hp TAMD 41 and that in theory is even more underpowered.

You are right about engine access though, you have to shift all the saloon furniture to open the hatches. Fuel tanks corrode too and they're a pain to get out.
 
In my opinion

The cornich ride bow up from 9 to 18 knots.

Once at 20 knots she comes down.
certainly the 200 hp outdrives comes down at 20 and continues to drop until 22 when a little + on the tilt increases speed.

the 200hp on ods will cruise at 24knts and can cruise at 26knts on a really calm day with ods raised from -4 to -1

max speed 31knts.

on 200 shafts the max cruise is 20knts and flat calm perhaps 22knts.
only on a flat calm day will the engines give enough power to settle the bow down into position.

twin 230s on shafts should allow this to happen.


(speeds log )
 
Does this help:

corniche_layouts.jpg
 
Hi is it the one at Hamble point up with sea ventures? I looked at it last weekend, not to buy just out of interest as I sold my shaftdrive 200hp tricab this year and am still looking for a boat.

Watch out for rusty tanks though the sterndrive model has a central tank so maybe no need to worry, I have read all posts so not much to add other than if you go for a shaft version with 200 41 b series the back will be covered in black soot but you get less smoke on start up, now mine had the 41 a version, loads of smoke on startup but the back as clean as you want all the time, best speed in a reasonable sea is 22/24 knots keep the engines about 3200rpm as the turbos are in and it keeps the smoke away from the boat is a following wind or sea, expect an average of about 1.7 mpg at that speed.

There a great boat for the money and I did loads of mods to mine while the engines were out for new tanks to give better acess to the engines and other things.

The only reason I sold was the layout, tricab with double bed off to stb side didnt work, I think the dinette is a waste of time as it felt you were in a dungeon down there, better to have a table and eat in the saloon or cockpit.

The one I really wanted was the twincab as it has a big double, good toilet/shower etc.

Pm me if you need anymore info.
 
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