Luxury Runabout
The SLX 260 OB was designed to be a luxury platform for entertaining, watersports and just cruising on the water, as well as extending those days well into the evening.
SLX lineup is the luxury sportboat segment from Sea Ray and the new SLX 260 is the first in that lineup that has the design language — both in the exterior and interior — that we first saw in the 370 Sundancer. We’re told that this boat was completely designed by women, a first for Sea Ray, and there is clear evidence of that all over the boat. For example, carry-on coolers are smaller; upholstery work and colour options are upmarket.
The Sea Ray SLX 260 OB was designed to be a luxury platform for entertaining, watersports and just cruising on the water, as well as extending those days well into the evening. Further, its mission is to enter the ranks of the premium bowriders in its size range and to set a new benchmark for Sea Ray.
The SLX 260 OB is powered by the single 300-hp Mercury Verado. It’s offered in black or white. With the 300-hp Verado turning a 14.6 x 19 Revolution 4 propeller and run up to 6000 rpm, our speed topped out at 41.9 knot. Best cruise came in at 4000 rpm and 23.3 knots. At that speed, the 21.4 lph fuel burn translated into a range of 143.7 nm, all while holding back a 10% reserve of the boat’s 283.91 L total fuel capacity.
With the throttle pinned, we reached planing speed in 3.9 seconds, accelerated to 20 mph in 7.5 and to 30 in 12.3. Dropping the speed showed her remaining on plane right on down to 17.6 mph.
She comes up on plane in an almost level attitude, which means from the seated position there’s no loss of sight of the horizon. Once on plane, she’ll have a little bit of a list to the port side probably due to the prop torque, but after a couple of seconds the auto trim takes over and levels it up. She’s not aggressive in the turn and remains docile no matter how hard or how fast the turn is entered.
UPMARKET FINISH
The cockpit is the heart of the entertaining onboard and the space is very welcoming on the Sea Ray SLX 260 OB. The L-seat occupies the port side and across the stern. There’s storage under all the seats and the single-seat to starboard has storage underneath for two soft-sided coolers.
Storage continues under the aft seating that lifts on an electric actuator. Underneath is a large storage caddy that’s removable for access to the mechanical components underneath. The caddy keeps dry goods here away from the batteries and other gear that
might be dirty.
The Sea Ray SLX 260 OB fit and finish is clearly upmarket, befitting the luxury positioning of the SLX series. The seats have diamond-patterned work, the storage underneath is guttered to channel water away from the interior and there’s open space between the seatbacks and bases, so water does not get trapped.
The seatbacks have well-padded lumbar supports and the seat bases are slightly angled to facilitate sitting in the seat rather than on them. In the aft corner, there are four drink holders and these are the first of 17 on this boat. All are draining, lit and mounted to Corian.
The portside observer seat on the SLX 260 OB swivels, slides and has a flip-up bolster. A big improvement is that the seat controls are right along the side so no fumbling underneath for them. The upscale finish continues to the side bulwarks. The speakers are hidden, there’s a comfortable armrest and a grab handle just ahead. There’s connectivity
and the storage abaft the armrest has been left open with a padded surface making it an ideal place to drop the cellphone.
The new Sea Ray SLX 260 OB has a huge in-deck storage compartment. It makes up part of the upgraded storage on this boat, which is .68 cu m increase over its predecessor. The hatch is finished on the underside, supported by two gas struts, it’s gasketed all the way around and there’s a channel going around the perimeter leading to an overboard drain.
SIMRAD HELM
The helm has twin Simrad displays that are fully integrated with the boat’s switching. They’re also multifunction displays so they provide navigation and bottom graphing. A flat panel below is recessed and padded. Since it makes an ideal place for the cellphone, Sea Ray included an inductive charger. There’s also a slotted area for holding the phone and tablet. There are physical switches in addition to the digital switches on our multifunction display. The captain sits in a bucket seat with quality upholstery and a single flip-up bolster.
As with the observer’s seat, this one swivels and slides with controls on the side. This is a major improvement from what we see on many bowriders, but there is something equally as important: both the captain and companion seats are mounted to a raised fiberglass seat base.
Overhead is the second-generation Power Tower with opening T-top sections and it lowers from a control on the starboard bulwark or at the panel at the helm. With it all the way down, the boat can still be operated making it convenient to get under a low bridge. Plus, when it’s raining it can be lowered to the top of the windshield to keep everyone dry. It’s also an ideal feature for boats stored in a rack room.
An aft shade can be manually slid out from the trailing edge. A Mediterranean Sunshade can be installed to the forward edge and that will put the whole boat, bow to stern, under shade.
The head compartment door is held open by a magnetic catch. Inside there’s a Vacu-flush toilet, plus headroom is 1.27 m, which leaves 2’9” .84 m of sitting headroom.
SOCIAL BOW
The walkthrough to the bow is 48.26 cm wide, with a single door. Under the starboard console, there’s a door leading to a trash receptacle. In the bow, the comfort and premium treatments of the Sea Ray SLX 260 Outboard continue. Safety is enhanced with high upholstered bulwarks with hidden speakers and plenty of drink holders. There’s a flip-out armrest to both port and starboard. The port and starboard handholds are wrapped to give the boat — when combined with the diamond stitching and available wood tables — an upscale look.
At the other end of the Sea Ray SLX 260S is a very impressive stern area. At the walkthrough to the swim platform, there’s in-deck storage and a flip-up step to help us disembark. To the starboard side, there’s a four-step reboarding ladder with a grab handle to ease the reboarding process. There’s a huge sunpad as well.
Underneath there’s insulated storage that’s self-draining so go ahead and fill that up with ice. To port, there’s a deep storage compartment that runs all the way under the cockpit seating, so it’s ideal for longer items like skis and wakeboards.
OBSERVATIONS
The Sea Ray SLX 260 is about as big as a bowrider can be without needing twin engines. While this boat will also come in a sterndrive version, our guess is that the outboard model will be much more popular, even though it’s a little more expensive.
Obviously, boaties opting for all of the optional bundles will drive the cost up, but the only ones that are really necessary are the Anchor Bundle and the power tower for sun and rain protection. We think the 300-hp outboard is a good choice.
The Sea Ray SLX 260 OB has a five-year factory warranty “bow-to-stern” that’s something to consider. This is made even stronger because one company — Brunswick Corp., not only owns Sea Ray and Mercury but also Simrad, Lenco and others.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Model Sea Ray SLX 260
- Year Built 2022
- Priced from NZD $436,651
- Type Bowrider
- Construction GRP
- LOA 8.71m
- Deadrise 21 deg
- LOH 7.75m
- Beam 2.59m
- Overall Height 2.88m
- Std Power Mercury 300 Verado
- Propeller 19 Revolution 4
- Max Speed 42 knots
- Power options Outboards or Sterndrive
- Fuel capacity 284 litres
- Water Capacity 53 litres
- Contact Sports Marine.
