You want a center console that fishes properly, that your family will actually get on, and that you can hitch to the truck on a Friday afternoon without a permit and a pilot car. That is a narrow window, and most 25-footers miss it on one side or the other. The Pursuit S 248 is the smallest boat in the Sport line, and it is built almost entirely around that window.
One Engine, and Only One Engine
Say the awkward thing first. The S 248 is offered with a single Yamaha F350 and nothing else. There is no twin package, no bigger single, no step-up horsepower option. Pursuit rates the transom at 350 horsepower and builds the whole boat — weight, running surface, propeller, rigging — around that one engine.
That is unusual in a class where builders normally sell you three power choices and let the options sheet do the talking, and it is worth understanding before you shop. What you give up is redundancy. What you get back is a boat that was engineered for exactly the load it carries, and a decision you do not have to make.
The engine itself is a Yamaha Digital F350 V6 Offshore with integrated digital electric steering and Helm Master EX digital electronic control. Single-engine joystick control with Set Point and autopilot is available if you want a boat that holds station on its own at the fuel dock.
What the Test Sheet Says
Pursuit is one of the few builders that still publishes a real performance bulletin — every 500 rpm, with speed, gallons per hour, miles per gallon and range on the same line, and the test conditions printed at the bottom. On the S 248 sheet, the boat was run with three people aboard at a full test weight of 7,798 pounds.
Wide open at 6,000 rpm it runs 50.2 mph and burns 31.2 gph. That is the headline number and it is not the useful one.
The useful one is 4,500 rpm: 35.9 mph on 14.9 gph, 2.41 miles per gallon, and 234 miles of published range from the 120-gallon tank. Pursuit computes that range on 90 percent of the test fuel load rather than the full tank, which is why it is worth trusting. That is the best fuel economy anywhere on the sheet, and it happens at a genuinely quick cruise. A 25-footer that covers ground at nearly 36 mph while returning better than two and a third miles to the gallon is doing something right with its 21 degrees of transom deadrise.
Acceleration is the honest weak spot. Zero to 30 mph takes 14.2 seconds. That is not slow in any way that matters offshore, but it is a reminder that 350 horsepower is moving 6,050 pounds of dry boat plus fuel, ice and people.
The 3,500 RPM Problem
There is a quirk on this sheet worth explaining, because it changes how you read the boat.
At 3,500 rpm the S 248 is doing 16.3 mph at 1.54 mpg — the worst economy on the entire chart, worse than idle. At 4,000 rpm it jumps to 29.7 mph at 2.40 mpg. The boat is not on plane at 3,500. It is plowing, dragging a wall of water behind the transom and burning fuel to do it.
That matters practically. On most twin-engine boats, 3,500 rpm is the comfortable all-day cruise. On the S 248 it is the one rpm band to avoid. Get it up to 4,000 and it settles down; hold it at 4,500 and it is at its best. If you are used to a heavier boat with more power, that is a habit to unlearn.
Fishing the Boat
The fishing package is real, not decorative. In-floor insulated fishboxes sit port and starboard with a diaphragm discharge pump and diverter valve. Eight stainless rod holders come standard — four in the gunwales, four in the transom — with four more in the hardtop. Under-gunwale rod storage runs both sides and takes 9-foot-6 rods in the lower holders.
The fiberglass leaning post carries a tackle storage drawer and an integrated 45-quart cooler on a slide-out tray, which is the kind of detail that separates a boat somebody thought about from a boat somebody specified. A lighted recirculating livewell with a 1,100 gph tournament pump is on the options sheet rather than in the standard package, so add it to the build if the livewell is central to how you fish.
The transom seat folds away with a patented self-adjusting backrest, which is how a 25-foot cockpit turns into a fishing cockpit without anything being removed and stowed on the dock.
The Hardtop Is Most of the Argument
The oversized molded fiberglass hardtop with a full-height tempered glass windshield and side wings is the single feature that most changes how often the boat gets used. Clearance from the waterline is 8 feet 10 inches. Underneath there is an overhead storage box, four rod holders, two tri-color LED overhead lights and dedicated mounting locations for radar, outriggers, VHF and FM antennas.
A T-top keeps sun off the driver. This keeps weather off everybody, which is the difference between a boat that runs from May to September and a boat that runs in March.
The Console, and the Head Question
The port console compartment holds a SaniPottie head with a removable 5-gallon holding tank, a storage cabinet with hinged access doors and a switched 12-volt overhead light. If you order the freshwater system, that becomes an electric freshwater head with a 6-gallon holding tank.
There are no sleeping accommodations, and there is no pretending otherwise. This is a day boat with a head, and the head is what makes the day longer.
Trailering
At exactly 8 feet 6 inches of beam, the S 248 sits right at the width most states treat as standard for towing — check your own state's rules, but this is not the automatic permit tow that a 9-foot-6 hull is. Dry weight is 6,050 pounds with the engine. Draft is 1 foot 10 inches with the motor up and 3 feet 0 inches down.
Combined with 120 gallons of fuel and a 20-gallon freshwater tank, that is a boat you can keep at home, launch where you like, and take somewhere else for a week.
Who It Is For
This is the boat for the owner who has decided that one very good 25-footer beats a compromised 30-footer. You fish, but you are not running 60 miles offshore in a small-craft advisory. You want the family aboard and comfortable. You want the boat on a trailer, in a garage or on a lift, not costing you a slip twelve months a year.
Where the S 248 will frustrate you is if you need two engines for peace of mind, or if you want the boat to cruise all day at 3,500 rpm the way a twin does. Both of those point one model up the line.