- Founded
- 1976
- Headquarters
- Industrivägen 8, 66100 Malax, Finland
- Shipyard location
- Malax (T32–T46) and Nykarleby (T23.1–T30.1), Finland
- Official website
- https://www.targa.fi/
Brand Overview
Finnish builder of the original offshore pilothouse motorboat — eleven models from the 7.7-metre Targa 23.1 to the 15-metre Targa 46, built by hand by Oy Botnia Marin Ab at Malax and Nykarleby on the Gulf of Bothnia since 1976.
Overview written fromtarga.firead 9/18/2026
YachtCodex Analysis
AI-generatedAn independent reading of this builder written by AI. Unlike the specifications and descriptions elsewhere on this page, it is interpretation rather than a sourced fact — treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
What this builder is
Oy Botnia Marin Ab was founded in 1976 by Johan and Britt-Marie Carpelan at Malax, south of Vasa on Finland's west coast; production began in 1977 with ten people and the H-boat, the Targa 25 rights were bought from Targa Yachts in 1984, and the Targa 27 launched at Hamburg in 1991 made the name. The family-owned yard, now with the second generation of Carpelans on board and more than 200 boat builders, does lamination, carpentry, technical planning, installation and testing in-house: the Targa 23.1, 25.1, 27.2 and 30.1 at the former Sunwind yard in Nykarleby, the 32, 37, 41 and 46 at Malax. The range is a single idea at eleven sizes — a deep-V hull under a walk-around pilothouse with side doors — in the standard and the TF (T-Top/Flybridge) versions of the 25.1, 27.2 and 32, all on Volvo Penta diesels with sterndrive, shaft or IPS pod installations, and every page prints length overall and hull length, beam, draught, approximate weight, tanks, the engine alternatives, top and cruising speed and, on most, the CE category. Awards include Motor Boat of the Year for the Targa 31, 44 and 32.
Who sails them
Targa owners are all-weather boaters — Nordic, British and Mediterranean families, expedition charterers, police and pilot services — who want a pilothouse that stays warm and dry at 40 knots in a Baltic autumn, who value a walk-around deck and side doors for short-handed mooring, and who plan on cruising far along an exposed coast rather than on lounging in a marina.
Signature models
The Targa 27 launched at Hamburg in 1991, and its 27.2 successor, define the brand; the Targa 32 (Motor Boat of the Year 2012) is the best-known midsize pilothouse cruiser in Europe, and the 15-metre Targa 46 of 2017 is the largest and most powerful Targa to date.
Strengths
Targa is known for offshore-proven deep-V hulls, hand-built vacuum-infused construction in Finland, walk-around pilothouse decks with side doors, a wide choice of Volvo Penta sterndrive, shaft and IPS installations, the Comfort Fore Cabin, ISO 9001 and 14001 certification, and a Motor Boat of the Year record.
Considerations
Weights are stated as approximate, the TF pages repeat the base model's hull figures with their own speeds, the 25.1 TF, 27.2 TF, 32 TF, 37 and 41 pages print no CE category, engine counts are mixed (single and twin alternatives on the same page) so an engine count is stored only where every alternative agrees, the Targa 37's fuel consumption is marked 'Data not yet available', and the 32 TF page offers only rendered transforms of its photographs.
Analysis generated 9/17/2026
Part of
Where they build
The building sites this yard publishes, in its own order.
Malax
Malax, Finland
T32–T46
Nykarleby
Nykarleby, Finland
T23.1–T30.1
Fleet at a Glance
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
- Models in catalog
- 11
- Length range
- 7.66–15.11 m
- Hull forms
- Motor Monohull 11
- Cabins
- 1–3
Models by this brand
11 models
Targa8
History
Botnia Marin was founded in 1976 by Johan Carpelan and his wife Britt-Marie at Malax, south of Vasa in Finland; production began in 1977 with a staff of ten, the H-boat as the main product and the Botnia 23, of which 650 were built by 1991. The production rights for the Targa 25 were bought from Targa Yachts in 1984, and the range grew with the Targa 29 in 1989, the celebrated Targa 27 launched in Hamburg in 1991, the 23, the 33 'Absolut Targa' of 1995, the 30/31 of 1997 -- the year the Metropolitan Police bought its first Targa patrol boat and the Sunwind yard in Nykarleby was acquired -- and the flagship 37 of 1998. The company passed 100 employees in 2000 and 1,000 Targas in 2003, laminated the Targa 42 by vacuum infusion in 2004, the first full-scale use in Finland, and reached 200 employees in 2007 when the 44 IPS was released; the Targa 44 and the Targa 32 were each named Motor Boat of the Year, in 2009 and 2012. The Targa 46, the largest and most powerful, arrived in 2017, and the boats are still built by hand in Malax and Nykarleby by a family firm with the second generation of Carpelans on board.
History written fromtarga.fi/the-pioneerread 9/22/2026