The boat you actually use is the boat you can get to the water without filing paperwork. That is the quiet argument for the Pursuit D 246 Denali, and it comes down to a single dimension: eight feet six inches of beam. Every other boat in the Denali line is wider than that, which means a permit and a plan every time you tow it. This one hitches up and goes home with you.
At 25 feet 8 inches overall, 21 degrees of transom deadrise and 6,138 pounds of average dry weight, the D 246 is the smallest hull Pursuit builds around the walk-through dual console layout and the molded fiberglass windshield frame that define the line. A single Yamaha F350 hangs on the transom. What that combination buys you is a boat the whole family will board in March, and a fuel bill that looks nothing like the rest of the range.
Who It's For
This is a first Pursuit. It is aimed squarely at the buyer who has decided a center console is too much boat and not enough shelter — the one who wants a windshield in front of the helm, a bow everybody can sit in, and a head compartment that closes. It suits bay and near-coastal work: Peconic, Barnegat, Tampa, the Gulf on a settled day, the Great Lakes when the forecast cooperates.
It also suits the owner who does not want a second engine to maintain. One F350 means one set of services, one prop, one lower unit, one winterization. On a boat this size, that is a real quality-of-life decision rather than a compromise.
Draft is 21 inches with the motor up and 35 inches down, so skinny water and sandbars are on the menu. And with 118 gallons of fuel and 18 gallons of fresh water aboard, the tankage is sized for full days rather than half ones.
What Pursuit Actually Publishes
Most builders quote a top speed and stop. Pursuit publishes a full performance bulletin for every hull it sells — every 500 rpm from idle to wide open, with mph, gallons per hour, miles per gallon and calculated range. The D 246's sheet was recorded on 8/13/2024 with three people aboard, 116 gallons of fuel, a full water tank and all optional equipment fitted — 7,759 pounds of real boat, not a stripped test mule.
The numbers that matter:
- Wide open, 6,000 rpm: 49.6 mph at 31.4 gph — 1.58 mpg, 165 miles
- Best cruise, 4,500 rpm: 34.1 mph at 14.8 gph — 2.31 mpg, 241 miles
- Economy cruise, 4,000 rpm: 26.0 mph at 12.4 gph — 2.11 mpg, 220 miles
Range figures are Pursuit's own, calculated on 90 percent of test-condition fuel capacity — roughly 106 usable gallons out of 118, which is the honest way to do it.
The line that should decide your buying is 4,500 rpm. Thirty-four miles an hour on 14.8 gallons an hour is a genuinely cheap way to move a 25-footer, and 241 miles of range at that speed turns a run down the coast into a planning exercise rather than a gamble. Back off to 4,000 rpm and you are still doing 26 mph on 12.4 gph.
The Layout: Walk Through, Not Around
The walk-through is the whole point of a dual console. A center walkway with a stainless center door in the windshield lets you move bow to stern without climbing a gunwale, which matters most with kids, coolers and people who are not as steady as they used to be. The tempered glass sits in a molded fiberglass frame rather than an aluminum one — Pursuit's signature detail, and the reason a Denali looks like a small yacht rather than a bowrider with a windshield bolted on.
Forward, the bow is a wraparound social zone with seating that reconfigures. Aft, the cockpit on this generation is considerably larger and more usable than the boat it replaced. There is a molded transom walkthrough with a hinged door, integrated platform extensions outboard of the engine, and a three-step telescopic boarding ladder in the platform.
The port console holds the accommodation, and it is worth being precise about what that means: a portable five-gallon head with a 316L stainless pump-out fitting, a molded sink with a pull-out freshwater shower, a vanity mirror and a two-piece fiberglass door. It is a place to change and to not have to go home. It is not a cabin.
Fishing the D 246
Pursuit does not build a dual console that cannot fish. Standard equipment includes four stainless gunwale rod holders, a 15-gallon livewell and a 31-gallon insulated fiberglass fish box in the transom with an overboard drain. There is a dedicated transducer location, raw and fresh water washdown provisions, and a molded hull-side boarding door with a removable ladder.
That is a serious inshore and near-shore fishing package. It is not a tournament cockpit, and Pursuit does not pretend otherwise — for that you want the S line center consoles, where the whole deck is given over to the job.
What It Isn't
Three honest limits.
First, acceleration. Zero to 30 mph takes 12.9 seconds on the published sheet. That is the slowest figure on any Denali bulletin, and it is the arithmetic of hanging one 350-horsepower outboard on 6,138 pounds instead of two smaller motors on the same hull. In practice it matters when you are getting a load of people up on plane, not when you are running.
Second, there is no berth. The console head is the accommodation. This is a day boat with somewhere private to change, in the same way the D 286 is — and Pursuit's own owners say that plainly.
Third, the hardtop is an option on this hull, not standard equipment. On the D 266 and up it comes with the boat. Here you tick the box for the fiberglass hardtop, and if you want year-round protection you also want the front, side and aft curtains. Clearance with the hardtop fitted is 7 feet 2 inches, which is worth knowing before you measure your garage or your first bridge.
The Cross-Shops
The obvious comparisons are the Grady-White Freedom 255, the Boston Whaler 240 Vantage, the Cobia 240 DC and the Sailfish 245 DC. All four are credible boats. Where the D 246 separates itself is finish quality — the hand-laminated vinyl ester hull, the five-ply resin-infused composite transom, the 316L stainless hardware throughout — and the published test data, which almost nobody else in the class puts in front of you before you sign.
The Bottom Line
The D 246 is the least expensive way into a brand people tend to stay in. It gives up outright pace and any pretense of overnighting, and it asks you to tick the hardtop box. In exchange you get 2.31 miles to the gallon at a 34 mph cruise, 241 miles of range, a walk-through layout that makes a small boat feel generous, and the only Denali you can tow at legal width. For a lot of families, that is the correct trade.