The modern version of the runabout comes in so many styles and different power choices that you'll find plenty to light a fire under your aspirations if you're looking to buy one today. Take a look at some of the best runabouts today's boatbuilders have to offer and pick the one that, ahem, floats your boat.
SEA-DOO EXPLORER PRO 170
Personal watercraft buyers increasingly put their craft to more uses, riding longer and longer distances, planning and completing multiday rides, exploring new waterways, and even using their PWC to camp along shorelines en route. The Sea-Doo Explorer Pro targets those same adventurous consumers with amenities borrowed from touring motorcycles and snowmobiles, as well as vastly increased storage potential.
The obvious addition to help serve this mission is the Explorer Pro's industry-first windshield. Designed to reduce wind and noise-pressure fatigue by funneling air up and over the rider, it also offers protection from a driving rain or an early- or late-season chill. A vent provides fresh air when needed. In the unlikely event a rider contacts the windshield in a fall, it drops forward to prevent injury. The Explorer's game-changing addition, however, is storage. An aft deck extension adds almost a foot to the craft's overall length. An adjoining platform has also been added between that extension and the saddle.
Both feature six sets of Sea-Doo's recessed LinQ mounts, pop-up cleats that anchor a variety of accessories. Fill them with a combination of cooler, gear and fuel caddies to max out the provisions. Or clear the deck, load up to five fuel caddies, and double the craft's range, easing concerns about that next fuel stop.
Denne historien er fra Boat Buyers Guide 2023-utgaven av Boating.
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Denne historien er fra Boat Buyers Guide 2023-utgaven av Boating.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
AFFORDABLE SATCOM
Communications devices using satellite technology are more abundant today than any time in the past. What's more, many are portable, ultra-compact, affordable relatively and designed for boating, dispelling any perceptions that you need a big, expensive dome antenna aloft to access satellite communications.
IN THE BEGINNING
REPOWERING FOUNTAIN HULL NO.1
NAVICO GROUP FATHOM 2.0
Engine charging at 48 volts could be a game-changer.
PROPS FOR INNOVATION
Sharrow MX3 propellers live up to most of the company's performance-improvement claims.
MERCURY RACING 500R
Supercharged power for a variety of boats.
FLIPPING THE SWITCH
Much reporting focuses on reasons why one might choose electric marine power. The issues of range, speed, noise levels, winterizing and ethanol challenges, lake restrictions, environmental concerns and more all must be resolved on an individual basis. Little gets said about how a boater choosing to repower with electric actually gets that accomplished. Is it DIY? And if not, how does it get done?
TOW-VEHICLE TECH
If it's been a while since you bought new tow vehicle, you might be surprised by the many built-in advancements in trailering technology. New tow tech ranges from integrated weight scales and adaptive suspensions to systems that automatically back up your truck to hitch up your trailer. Here are a few examples to look for. -Jim Hendricks
MONUMENTAL TIPS FOR BACKING A TRAILER
Three Boating greats offer advice for a perennial reader query.
STICKING POINTS - Anchoring alternatives, and why you will always need a traditional anchor.
My brother-in-law likes to fish offshore reefs, and the process once entailed navigating to a mark, dropping a float, and idling upwind or up-current to drop the anchor in hopes the set would drop us back to the float.
FOR WANT OF A CLAMP
When 100 miles from shore, home and help, this boater’s preparedness prevented potential catastrophe.