From the Editor: May 2002

Save £40,000! Not just an easy way to get your attention...

Save ‘40,000! Not just an easy way to get your attention, it’s also an absolutely excellent line to try on any of your nearest and dearest who might need persuading that the best way to start the new boating season is with a new boat. The bizarrely named Gobbi 425SC is a great way to get afloat in a stylish Italian sportscruiser that’s so keenly priced compared with some of its flashier British rivals that with the money you save you could buy dinner for two at a Harvester of your choice and still have change for a Porsche Boxster. How have they done it? Well, that’s pretty obvious as David Marsh can explain on p90, but the fact is there’s not a lot wrong with it and it’s got an unbeatable aft cabin. Give it a look.

There’s something about the name, though; Gobbi. New owners Azimut are addressing that by bringing out a new upmarket line called Atlantis based on the same hull, but those will have Azimut-class interiors too, so there goes the Boxster. Gobbi is the collective noun for a group of Juventus supporters, as well as being the Italian for hunchback. Somehow the fact that it’s also the family name of the chap who founded the boatyard makes it no less strange.

And what about our cover star, the Targa 52? Fairline knew they had a hard act to follow in the Targa 48, and although their failure with the aft-cabin 43ac is but a distant memory to most of the present management, that traumatic episode must always prey on the corporate mind as a new model takes shape. Industry analysts estimate that it costs upwards of ‘500,000 to develop a new model of this size. Have they got it right this time?

 

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