There is a specific buyer who has already made one decision before looking at a single brochure: two engines, non-negotiable. Maybe it is the run to the canyon. Maybe it is a spouse who asked one question about what happens if the motor quits. Either way, the search becomes short, because most builders make you climb to 30 feet before they will sell you twins. The Pursuit S 268 is 27 feet 4 inches, and it comes with two Yamahas or it does not come at all.
Twin F200s, and Only Twin F200s
The S 268 is offered with twin Yamaha F200 in-line fours. That is the whole engine menu. Pursuit rates the transom at 400 horsepower total and does not offer a single, a bigger twin, or anything in between.
Two things follow from that. The first is that you cannot value-engineer your way into this boat with one engine — redundancy is not an upgrade here, it is the baseline. The second is that 400 horsepower on 6,770 pounds of dry boat is a lot more relaxed than the number sounds, because in-line four F200s are light, and Pursuit did not have to build the transom and running surface around a worst case it never planned to sell.
Standard rigging is digital electric steering with Helm Master EX digital electronic control. Full joystick control with Set Point and autopilot is on the options sheet, and on a 27-footer that is a genuinely useful thing to have in a crosswind at a fuel dock.
The Numbers, From Pursuit's Own Sheet
Pursuit publishes a full performance bulletin for this hull — rpm by rpm, with mph, gph, mpg and range on the same line, and the test conditions printed at the bottom. That is rarer than it should be, and it is the single best reason to shop this brand with confidence.
Wide open at 5,975 rpm the S 268 runs 52.0 mph, burning 39.4 gph at 1.32 mpg.
Best cruise is at 3,500 rpm: 26.9 mph on 11.1 gph, 2.42 miles per gallon, and 300 miles of published range from the 139-gallon tank — a figure Pursuit computes on 90 percent of the test fuel load, not the full tank. Push to 4,000 rpm and you get 32.7 mph at 2.28 mpg and 283 miles — six more mph for seventeen fewer miles of range, which is usually a trade worth making when the weather is closing.
The number that surprises people is acceleration. Zero to 30 mph takes 8.5 seconds. That is not a fast boat's number by accident; it is what two propellers and four hundred horsepower do to a light hull. Twins buy you more than a spare engine.
Where the Second Engine Actually Shows Up
It is worth being precise about what twins deliver here, because it is not raw speed.
Compare the S 268 to the single-engine boat below it in the line. Both return almost exactly the same peak economy — 2.42 mpg here against 2.41 on the S 248. But the S 268 carries 139 gallons instead of 120, so its best-cruise range is 300 miles instead of 234. That is 66 extra miles and a spare engine, for three extra inches of beam and about 700 pounds.
The trade is cruise speed. The S 268's best economy arrives at 26.9 mph; the single-engine boat's arrives at 35.9. If your day is about covering distance fast, the small boat is genuinely quicker at its efficient setting. If your day is about getting somewhere and back with margin, the twins win.
The Cockpit Converts
Pursuit's argument for this boat is that it changes character in about two minutes, and the standard equipment supports the claim.
Fishing side: a lighted 28-gallon recirculating insulated livewell with an acrylic lid, fed by a 1,100 gph tournament-series pump. In-floor insulated fishboxes port and starboard, 28 gallons each, with diaphragm pumps and overboard discharge. Six stainless rod holders — four in the gunwales, two in the helm seat module — plus five vertical rod holders in the transom, four more under the hardtop, and under-gunwale rod storage for four rods a side with reel pads. Five dedicated tackle trays and two drawers live in the molded helm seat console alongside a cutting board and the 12-volt distribution panel.
Social side: the patented folding transom seat with a self-adjusting backrest, forward-facing seating for two on the front of the console with armrests, molded forward bow seating with insulated storage below, and an optional fiberglass bow and cockpit table with dedicated storage. Bow filler cushions and folding backrests turn the foredeck into a sun pad.
The Head Is the Grown-Up Part
Inside the console is an electric freshwater marine head with a 6-gallon holding tank, macerator discharge, a 316L stainless deck pump-out fitting and a bronze through-hull with seacock. Above it sits a vanity with a stainless steel sink and a freshwater faucet, with a switched 12-volt overhead light.
That is a proper marine head, not a portable unit in a locker, and on a 27-foot boat it is the feature that most extends how long people are willing to stay out. There is no berth and no galley — this is still a day boat — but it is a day boat nobody asks to go home from early.
Hardtop, Draft and the Trailer Question
The molded fiberglass hardtop carries powder-coated structural supports with grab rails, an overhead storage box, four rod holders, and dedicated locations for radar, outriggers, VHF and FM antennas. The hardtop windshield is tempered glass with a wiper and washer control. Clearance from the waterline is 8 feet 6 inches.
Beam is 8 feet 9 inches — three inches past the width most states treat as standard for towing, so check your own rules before you assume a trailer solves your storage. Draft is 1 foot 10 inches with the motors up, 2 feet 10 inches down, and transom deadrise is 21 degrees.
Who It Is For
This is the boat for the owner who decided on twins first and worked backwards, and who does not want to buy 32 feet of boat to get them. You fish seriously enough to want a real livewell and 28-gallon in-floor boxes. You run far enough out that a second engine is not a luxury. You still want the boat small enough to handle alone.
Where it will not satisfy you is if you want to sleep aboard, cook aboard, or run at 30-plus mph as your normal cruise. The first two mean a cabin boat. The third means more horsepower than 400.