Everybody solves the same problem on a big center console, and almost nobody solves it well: where do the people who are not driving actually sit? Behind the helm seats there is usually a mezzanine that faces backwards, which is fine at anchor and unpleasant at 40 mph. The Pursuit S 428 answers it with a mezzanine assembly that power-slides fore and aft and carries a second row of two forward-facing bridge seats — everyone under the full-beam hardtop, everyone facing the way the boat is going. Pursuit describes it as an industry first. Whether or not that holds up across every builder, it is the feature that most changes how this boat gets used.
Quad 450 XTOs
The S 428 runs four Yamaha 450 XTO outboards — 1,800 horsepower at the transom, the highest rating anywhere in Pursuit's current range, which is what the yard means when it calls this the most powerful boat it has ever built.
Pursuit publishes the full performance bulletin, and it is worth reading before the brochure. Tested at 32,107 pounds with four people aboard:
Wide open at 6,000 rpm the S 428 runs 60.7 mph, burning 154.5 gph at 0.39 mpg. Best cruise is 3,500 rpm — 32.0 mph on 48.2 gph, 0.66 mpg, and 315 miles of published range from the 518-gallon tank — computed, as Pursuit always does, on 90 percent of the test fuel load. At 4,000 rpm it does 38.9 mph at 0.61 mpg for 291 miles. Zero to 30 mph takes 8.6 seconds, which on a 26,519-pound dry boat is genuinely startling and is the clearest answer to what the fourth engine is for.
Here is the number that deserves your attention rather than the top speed. The S 428's cruise range is 315 miles. The smaller S 388, on triples and a 500-gallon tank, gets 352 miles at its cruise. The bigger boat is faster at cruise — 32.0 mph against 29.7 — and it is roomier, more stable and better equipped, but it does not go further. Quad 450s are a speed, weight and seating purchase. They are not a range purchase, and any sales conversation that implies otherwise is not reading the same sheet you are.
The Mezzanine, in Detail
The aft-facing molded mezzanine seat has armrests and dedicated storage below. Behind and above it sit two forward-facing bridge seats. The entire assembly slides fore and aft under power, which is how a boat gets a genuine second row without permanently spending the cockpit space that makes it a fishing boat.
At the helm are three custom captain's chairs with folding armrests, three articulating flip-up bolsters and lumbar support, the centre seat adjusting fore, aft and vertically. The helm itself is molded fiberglass, aft-tilting, with an instrumentation visor, an electronics mounting surface, a fold-out fiberglass footrest and a safety lanyard.
Over all of it is a full-beam molded fiberglass hardtop with a visor, sliding access and ventilation hatches port and starboard, ladder rungs integrated into the powder-coated supports for topside access, and dedicated radar, antenna and outrigger locations. The windshield is optically clear laminated glass with electrically actuated vents on both sides, tempered side glass and a pantograph wiper with a freshwater washer. Clearance from the waterline is 9 feet 2 inches.
Fishing 43 Feet
The fishing package is the most serious in the line. Three fishboxes total 134 gallons: a 68-gallon insulated transom box that is a refrigerator/freezer with a digitally controlled thermostat and overboard drain, a 42-gallon insulated in-floor box to port, and a 24-gallon in-floor box to starboard that can be ordered refrigerated.
Two lighted recirculating insulated livewells sit in the transom, 36 gallons each, port and starboard, with fiberglass lids and acrylic windows, each on its own cyclone pump through a bronze sea strainer. Twelve stainless rod holders split four in the gunwales, four in the transom and four in the bow. Rod storage is lockable under the port gunwale for three with an embroidered reel protector pad, two under each bow gunwale, two under the hardtop and four locked in the cabin. Cockpit tackle centres port and starboard each hold four trays plus a drawer.
An electrically actuated side boarding platform swings outward to starboard with a swim and dive ladder receiver — the detail that lets a boat this size be a swim platform as easily as a fishing platform.
The Cabin
Down the steps, past a custom handrail and wood treads, the console cabin carries a forward berth on 5-inch foam cushions with a filler, solid wood veneers on the cabinetry, a solid wood table on a fixed stainless leg, a 32-inch LED television in custom cabinetry, an overhead skylight with an upholstered accent, and 8,000 BTU air conditioning with reverse-cycle heat. Four rods stow in the cabin, two at the head bulkhead and two to starboard.
The private head is to starboard: Corian countertop with a sink and hot/cold faucet, storage below, a vacuum-flush elongated marine head with a 22-gallon holding tank and macerator discharge, a shower on a hot/cold mixing valve with a wand, and a sump box with an automatic discharge pump.
It is one berth and one head on a 43-foot 9-inch boat. That is the right call for a center console — the deck space is the point — but it is worth naming, because there are boats this length in Pursuit's own range that sleep considerably more people.
Entertaining and Systems
The molded cockpit entertainment centre has Corian accents, a molded sink with a hot/cold mixing faucet, an electric grill, an 11-gallon top-load refrigerator/freezer with a digital thermostat, a sliding storage tray, hinged fiberglass lids, a cutting board, storage drawers and a GFCI-protected 120-volt outlet.
Forward, bow seating has electrically actuating hinged forward-facing backrests port and starboard with clear passage forward, insulated storage below, fiberglass bow tables with synthetic teak on removable bases, and a sun pad chaise for two with adjustable backrests, armrests and drink holders, with two more forward-facing seats ahead of it.
Two systems on the standard list deserve a mention because they usually are not standard. A Seakeeper 6 gyro stabiliser is included, with structural integration and factory-certified installation. So is a 9 kW diesel generator with a sound enclosure, service slide and underwater exhaust, on its own 24-gallon tank. A 5.4 horsepower bow thruster with joystick control, an eight-battery system and a 240-volt 50-amp dockside connection with an isolation transformer and a retractable 50-foot cord round it out.
The gyro is the one that changes the day. On a 13-foot beam at anchor in a beam sea, the difference between rolling and not rolling decides whether anybody wants to eat lunch.
Who It Is For
This is the flagship of the Sport line and it behaves like one. Forty-three feet nine inches with the platform, 42 feet without, 13 feet of beam, 22 degrees of deadrise, 26,519 pounds dry, and enough seating under shade that nobody has to volunteer for the bow.
Be clear-eyed about what that costs you in practicality. One hundred and fifty-four gallons an hour at wide open throttle. Three hundred and fifteen miles at cruise, which is less reach than the smaller boat below it. A single berth and a single head. A slip, a lift and a haul-out all sized for nearly thirteen and a half tons. If overnight accommodation for more than two is the requirement, the Offshore cabin boats at this length are the honest answer, and the S 428 is not trying to be one.