The hardest sell in a 40-foot center console is not the fishing. It is the eleventh hour of the day, when the cockpit is hot, the cooler is soup, and the person who agreed to come along has run out of reasons to be glad they did. Most builders answer that with more upholstery. Pursuit answered it on the S 388 by putting a real galley down inside the console, below deck, with two refrigerator drawers and air conditioning — and that single decision explains more about this boat than its top speed does.
The Galley Is the Argument
Down the cabin steps, with solid wood treads and a handrail, is a mini galley built on a Corian countertop: a 120-volt microwave, two 12-volt drawer-style adjustable refrigerator/freezers, a slide-out pantry cabinet, storage compartments and a stainless drink holder.
Two refrigerator drawers matters more than it reads. One is for drinks and it gets opened forty times a day. The other holds food that has to stay cold and gets opened twice. On most center consoles that is one insulated box doing both jobs badly, warming every time somebody wants a soda.
The rest of the console cabin is built to the same brief. Opposing settees with filler cushions convert to a berth; the aft filler doubles as a side table with a built-in caddy. Hinged backrests hide outboard storage compartments and there is more storage under the centre and starboard cushions. A solid wood interior table stows its leg under the starboard settee. Cabin air conditioning with reverse-cycle heat is standard at 6,000 BTU. Six rods stow inside — four in the floor, two behind the starboard backrest — because a cabin that cannot hold tackle is a cabin that gets used for shoes.
Forward and to starboard is a private head compartment: Corian vanity with a designer sink and hot and cold faucet, a Vacu-Flush elongated porcelain marine head with a 22-gallon holding tank, a proper shower on a hot/cold mixing valve with a curtain and track, and a sump box with an automatic discharge pump.
Triple 450s, and What They Cost
Standard power is triple Yamaha 450 XTO outboards — 1,350 horsepower, digital electric steering, Helm Master EX and Yamaha joystick control with Set Point and autopilot included, plus a manual engine flushing system.
Pursuit publishes the performance bulletin, rpm by rpm, and it is the most useful document in the whole brochure stack. Tested at a full weight of 25,727 pounds with two aboard:
Wide open at 6,000 rpm the S 388 runs 59.0 mph on 112.9 gph. Best cruise is 3,500 rpm — 29.7 mph on 36.9 gph, 0.80 mpg, and 352 miles of published range from the 500-gallon tank — Pursuit computes range on 90 percent of the test fuel load, not the full tank. Step up to 4,000 rpm and you get 36.9 mph at 0.75 mpg for 330 miles. Zero to 30 mph takes 11.1 seconds.
Three points are worth pulling out of that. First, 352 miles at a 30 mph cruise is real offshore capability, not a marketing figure. Second, 36.9 gallons an hour is what three 450s cost to run at that cruise, and no amount of hull efficiency makes it less. Third, the sheet is honest about the middle of the range — at 2,500 rpm the boat is doing 11.0 mph at 0.50 mpg, deep in the hole, so like most heavy outboard boats it wants to be either idling or planing and not much in between.
Fishing It
The cockpit is laid out by somebody who has cleaned one at the end of a day. A triple-wide aft-facing mezzanine seat sits above the transom with a built-in armrest, extra-deep drink holders and a lined storage tub below. Its three backrests fold down independently to reveal a tackle centre with open storage, leader spool holders, knife and plier racks and recessed work surfaces — so the seat is a seat when you are running and a rigging station when you are fishing.
A lighted recirculating insulated livewell with a fiberglass lid and an acrylic window is fed by a cyclone pump through a bronze sea strainer. Insulated fishboxes sit port and starboard with dedicated diaphragm evacuation pumps and overboard discharge. There are twelve stainless rod holders — six in the gunwales, two in the transom, four in the bow — plus three lockable under the port gunwale with an embroidered reel pad, four under the hardtop and six in the cabin. A built-in transom cooler with molded foam sits under a fiberglass lid, and a refrigerated transom box with adjustable temperature control is available.
A custom molded side boarding door to starboard takes a dive-style four-step telescoping ladder, which stows on the underside of the mechanical space hatch. That door is the difference between a fishing boat and a fishing boat people will also swim off.
Living On It
The entertainment centre in the cockpit carries an electric grill, a sink with a prep-area divider and sliding cover board, a fold-away hot/cold mixing faucet, a built-in cutting board, a 120-volt GFCI outlet, storage drawers with movable dividers, a slide-out trash receptacle, a slide-out spice and bottle rack and a charcuterie board with its own stowage.
The leaning post has a 12-volt slide-out refrigerator/freezer of its own, stainless handrails, a drawer compartment and midship fresh and raw water outlets.
Forward, bow seating has electrically actuated forward-facing backrests port and starboard, insulated storage below, a removable jump seat, eight drink holders, 12-volt outlets and USB-A and USB-C charging. A sun pad chaise for two has tilt-up leg rests, adjustable backrests and armrests, with two more forward-facing seats ahead of it over an insulated cooler.
The Systems That Make It Work
A 9.0 kW diesel generator with a sound shield, service slide and underwater exhaust is standard, fed by its own 24-gallon diesel tank — that is what runs the air conditioning at anchor without leaning on the house bank. A 3.0 horsepower bow thruster with joystick control at the helm is standard too, and on a 12-foot beam in a crosswind it earns its keep. Six batteries, a 40-amp charger for house, electronics and thruster, a 20-amp for the engines, and a 240-volt 50-amp dockside connection with an isolation transformer and an electrically retractable 50-foot cord.
Cockpit air conditioning with a windshield defogger vent at 16,000 BTU is available, as is a gyro stabiliser.
The full-beam molded hardtop has a large sliding access and ventilation hatch, integral grab rails topside and on the windshield B-pillars, and an overhead electronics mounting surface. The windshield is optically clear laminated glass in a powder-coated frame with an electrically actuated centre vent and a pantographic wiper with freshwater washer. Clearance from the waterline is 9 feet 6 inches.
Who It Is For
The S 388 is for the owner who fishes hard enough to need 12 rod holders and a rigging station, and who is done apologising to the people who come along. Forty-one feet, 12-foot beam, 22 degrees of deadrise, air conditioning below and a shower in the head.
It is not a trailer boat and it is not a modest one: 21,700 pounds dry needs a real lift or a real slip, 9 feet 6 inches of clearance rules out some storage buildings and some bridges, and 45 gallons of fresh water is thin for a boat with a shower and two people sleeping aboard. If you want a second row of seating under the hardtop and a proper forward berth rather than a convertible settee, the next boat up the line is where to look.