The Flagship of Crownline’s XSS ­series of sporty dayboats, the new 330 XSS stands out in a crowd, and its amenity-laden interior is sure to please.

Before diving into the creature comforts, just looking at the sculpted hull design will show you that the 330 XSS is meant for performance. It starts underneath the water with Crownline’s patented F.A.S.T. Tab hull design. Spelled out, that stands for Fin-Assisted Safe Turn. Crownline deploys vented chines about two-thirds of the way aft to provide ventilation to the running surface, decreasing drag and improving efficiency. Crownline also extended the outer lifting strakes along the running surface back to the transom along with a Delta pad, providing additional lift out of the hole while decreasing bow rise. Vortex generators help curb low-speed wander. All this combined with the 330 XSS’s steep 23 degrees of transom deadrise help it carve through the water safely and efficiently. Paired with the standard twin white Mercury 350 Verados, the 330 XSS is capable of speeds over 60 mph.

The 330 XSS has a spacious cockpit with doublewide seats for the helm and portside console. Aft, the rear-facing backrests allow crewmembers to kick back, while the padded gunwales create opposing lounges for more to sit and form a conversation pit. The versatile seating doesn’t stop there, with lounges with electrically adjustable backrests to both sides of the transom walk-through. The captain has a great view from the helm, which features twin flush-mounted 12-inch Garmin touchscreen multifunction displays. The standard joystick steering system comes in handy at the fuel dock or while navigating through crowded marinas.

The spacious bow features wraparound U seating with forward-facing backrests abutting the dual consoles. The portside console hides a head that features an electric-­flush toilet. The long list of standards includes a windlass, trim tabs, and a Wet Sounds stereo system with eight speakers. Fast, fun and versatile—the Crownline 330 XSS checks all the boxes you’d want in a large, luxurious dayboat.

High Points

• Crownline-patented Electric Assist swim platform with a stainless-steel grab handle makes for easy reboarding from the water or the dock.
• F.A.S.T. Tab hull design makes for safe and responsive handling at idle or planing speed, with improved overall efficiency.
• Aluminum hardtop hides an electric SureShade that keeps the cockpit crew protected on sunny days.
• Extensive options list lets you customize the boat to your liking.
• Power choices go from twin 300s all the way up to a pair of powerful Mercury 400R racing outboards.

Pricing and Specs

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Crownline has been building high-quality bowriders for decades, and the all-new outboard-powered 310 XSS takes that tradition to the next generation, providing a sporty and stable platform for a family or group of friends to ­enjoy a great day on the water.

With Crownline, everything starts with the builder’s patented F.A.S.T. Tab hull design. The “FAST” acronym stands for Fin-Assisted Safe Turn. This running surface combines a Delta pad at the transom with extended outer lifting strakes, vortex generators to quell the turbulence that leads to “stern wander” at idle speeds, and vented chines that provide ventilation to the running surface, reducing the friction caused by flowing water. The hull design helps the 310 XSS track straight while idling out, quickly hop on plane, and retain stability in hard turns at speed. The 310 comes standard with a pair of white Mercury 300 Verados, but can be equipped with twin 250s or even up to 350s. With the standard 600 hp on the transom, Crownline reports top speeds exceeding 60 mph.

At the dock, the 310 XSS flashes the looks to match its reported performance. The curved sheerline highlights the molded-­in accents that give the 310 a sports-car feel. The arched aluminum hardtop only adds to the curb appeal while providing shade for passengers in the cockpit. The cockpit’s layout invites lazy lounging or serious socializing. Twin doublewide benches with flip-up armrests and bolsters adorn the helm and the portside console. The helm holds two flush-mounted 12-inch Garmin multifunction displays. The aft sun lounges feature electrically actuated adjustable backrests. The bow lounge offers plenty more seating for socializing. All the seats hide storage compartments to hold all the gear you need for a day on the water. The standard head compartment is large enough to serve as a changing room and includes an electric-flush head plus a vanity with a marble countertop and sink.

Whether you want to go full throttle or leisurely cruise, the Crownline 310 is built to make for a fun day on the water.

High Points

• Standard joystick steering really provides 360-degree turning capability and helps take the stress out of docking and close-quarters handling.
• Extensive standard features list includes a Wet Sounds stereo system with eight speakers as well as a windlass, LED cockpit and underwater transom lighting.
• Crownline-patented Electric Assist swim platform with a stainless-steel grab handle helps swimmers and watersports enthusiasts quickly get back into the boat.
• Sporty aluminum hardtop provides shade for the cockpit on those sunny days.

Pricing and Specs

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Crownline is a premium runabout brand, and its models are built tough to take the knocks that big inland waters dish out, such as the Lake of the Ozarks. We ran the 280 CRX on the Caloosahatchee River near Cape ­Coral, Florida, and the solid hull easily mastered the tightly spaced chop. Its saltwater-friendly dual-outboard configuration accelerated nicely, ran swiftly and cornered well, all thanks to a high-performance hull with a 19-degree deadrise. Ours was equipped with joystick steering and a bow thruster, options that both take the sweaty-palm factor out of docking this large pocket cruiser. 

Its helm seat is doublewide and ready for a skipper and a companion. The wheel is comfortably reachable from a sitting or standing position, and the bolster flips up to accommodate the latter. Mercury engine data was displayed through Garmin chart plotters that gave the design a yachty glass-cockpit look.

The radar arch is electrically raised and lowered, easing minds at low bridges, low dock roofs or compact dry-stack spaces. The 280’s beam is a trailerable 8 feet, 6 inches, and we suspect many owners will keep their boat at home and haul their weekend fun to the water.

Crownline’s exclusive portside boarding terrace and four-step ladder slide out at the touch of a button, assisted by a boarding handle nested in the platform floor. An exterior button and emergency fail-safe mechanical bypass make them deployable from the water.

Steps to the bow on the sliding cabin door take you to the bow through the windshield door to sunbathe or ­access the anchor locker. The cabin’s cozy ­V-berth doubles as a dinette area with a cherry dining table. The galley features a microwave and a stove. A new large entry to the aft cabin accommodates the kids.

Crownline offers an electric reversible heater and AC unit, so keeping cool or warm is as easy as plugging into shore power.

A trailerable pocket cruiser offers wide vistas of boating adventure, and Crownline’s 280 CRX offers them to you in style. 

High Points

• Spacious cuddy, V-berth and midship berth.
• Private head compartment with a toilet, sink and pullout shower.
• Electrically actuated boarding platform with a ladder deploys at the touch of a button.

How We Tested

• Engine: Dual Mercury 225 hp
• Drive/Prop: Mercury 17″ Rev 4 stainless steel
• Gear Ratio: 1.75:1 Fuel Load: 35 gal. Water on Board: 0 gal. Crew Weight: 450 lb.

Pricing and Specs

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Crownline’s brand-new 310 CRX is a luxury performance cruiser with beautiful appointments onboard, great power (with optional dual Mercury 350 Verado outboards) and digital throttle and shift with joystick standard on this boat.

Learn more about Crownline Cruisers here.

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The brand-new Crownline 250 XSS is a sporty looking bowrider, 25 feet long and tested here with a Mercury 250hp V6 outboard. This boat is a great performer, making over 50mph but what is most impressive is at just 41mph, our test boat made 3 miles per gallon.

The XSS Series are loaded with incredible amenities, such as a battery charger, windlass, Garmin 7″ touchscreen Gen-2 dash, and fully appointed and spacious  head compartment. Updated hull and deck designs offer enhanced performance, relaxation, convenience, and tons of fun. Learn more about the XSS Series here.

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Mercury’s 6.2-liter 350-horsepower sterndrive and Crownline’s 280 SS make an outstanding team. The deep-V hull coupled with Mercury power steering and digital throttle and shift make driving the 280 SS a dream. It accelerated quickly, reaching an exciting top speed in excess of 50 miles per hour with such smooth, confident control, your grandmother would be happy skippering it.

That was our first impression as we slid the throttle forward on the water in -Tampa Bay. Our second impression was how solidly the boat is built. On the best days, Tampa Bay is a choppy mess with plenty of rec boats stirring it up, commercial ships making it worse, and relentless wind ensuring all that turbulence is as bad as possible. But the 280 slid through it like a hot knife through butter.

The dash is laid out like a luxury car with a Garmin GPSMap for a head-up display reporting every bit of engine data the V-8 block makes available. Then, analog gauges on either side of it complete a fighter-pilot-cockpit look, and a coaming bolster by the throttle makes skippering it an armchair affair.

The radar arch is electric and retractable, and an integrated Bimini provides shade over the spacious cockpit seating.

The aft lounge can form a forward–facing couch or you can lay down the -seatback to create a sun lounge wide enough for at least two people. A jump seat behind the helm bucket has a backrest on top and a cooler pocket underneath. Added refreshment comes from a drop-in cooler in the cockpit sole.

A passenger bucket seat behind the portside console swivels like the -captain’s chair to join the aft seating in a -circular conversation pit interrupted only by a transom walk-through. We liked the tough foam-mat surface on the walk-through and large swim platform for its comfort and good looks. Ahead of the passenger bucket seat, the console opens like a James Bond bookcase and reveals a large changing room—our tester was equipped with a flushing head and freshwater sink, and was ventilated and lit by a port light.

Power, comfort and luxury come together perfectly on the Crownline 280 SS.

High Points

⋅Battery switches are easy to access and ensure batteries are isolated during storage.

⋅Optional refrigerator keeps drinks cold.

⋅Generous use of stainless-steel cleats, rub rails, grab handles and cup holders ensure durable good looks.

Specs

LOA: 27′10″

Beam: 8′6″

Draft (max): 3′1″ (drives down)”

Dry Weight: 6,100 lb.

Seat/Weight Capacity: 11/2,230 lb.

Fuel Capacity: 75 gal.

Price: $133,838

How We Tested

Engine: Mercury 6.2L 350 hp

Drive/Prop: Sterndrive/B3

Gear Ratio: 2.2:1

Fuel Load: 30 gal.

Crew Weight: 250 lb.

More Information

Crownline Boats – West Frankfort, Illinois; crownline.com

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With the new Crownline E 285 XS, you get a spacious and sporty dayboat that you can still trailer to your local lake. This NMMA yacht-certified vessel has deck-boat-like bow seating and an even roomier cockpit, thanks to the outboard power on the transom, so there’s plenty of space to lounge, entertain, or bring a group of friends out for a long cruise. It’s also a boat that, when you hit the throttles, has the ability to get up and go.

The creature comforts start at the helm, with a comfy bucket seat with a flip-up bolster and a well-done inset dash where you can find the standard ­flush-mounted Raymarine 7-inch touchscreen multifunction display. Whether sitting or standing, I experienced no loss of sight from the helm while climbing onto plane or banking into turns. (Much of that can be attributed to the Crownline’s running surface, which I’ll cover in a bit.) A matching bucket seat is set in front of the port console, which houses a head that features an electric flush toilet and a freshwater sink with a shower nozzle. The raised glass bowl looks stylish on the real granite counter, and a vented port ­allows natural light to illuminate and air to circulate belowdecks.

Moving aft, a J-shaped lounge wraps along the portside inwale and the transom. The electronically actuated transom backrest is especially noteworthy because it can be adjusted so passengers can face forward underway or aft while at rest, or it can even fully recline to create a sun pad. Access to the swim platform is through a gated walkway to the starboard-side. While the outboard motorwell cuts into the platform space — a trade-off to ditching ­sterndrive power — the starboard swim ladder is angled away from the props, and the platform is still walkable from starboard to port.

Looking to host a full crew? The entertainment center behind the helm comes standard with both an electric grill and a small pocket refrigerator. It also features a genuine granite countertop, a freshwater sink, twin cup holders, a storage drawer and cabinet, and a beefy stainless-steel grab handle that any passenger will appreciate when the seas kick up.

Up in the bow, Crownline employs what it calls hot-tub seating, spacious and deep with plenty of legroom for people to sit in circular conversation. The builder brings the beam forward to achieve this, with a flattened bow swim platform reminiscent of a deck boat’s, rather than a pointy stem. The high freeboard and extended stainless-steel grab rails enhance the bow seating’s safety. Forward-facing backrests with flip-down armrests on the front of each console amp up the relaxation factor. Add in the standard Kicker KMC 10 stereo along with the eight WetSounds speakers and you’ve got the ingredients for a fun day on the water.

All of these standard features are great but don’t really matter if the boat has subpar performance. Not an issue aboard the E 285 XS. Our test model featured a 350 hp Mercury Verado that pushed the boat onto plane in just 3.3 seconds en route to reaching 30 mph in just 7.4 seconds. With full fuel and a crew of three, we reached a top speed of 52.5 mph at 6,000 rpm. ­Under different test conditions, Mercury’s technicians reached a top speed of 54 mph at 6,290 rpm. The E 285 XS displayed minimal bow rise out of the hole and kept a level running attitude while on plane. We were also able to make sharp hard-over turns at 30 mph without blowing out the prop or slipping.

Crownline attributes performance of the E 285 XS to its F.A.S.T. Tab hull design. The aft Delta pad provides lift out of the hole, and the vented chines and vortex generators help reduce drag, thus increasing stability and efficiency. Molded-in fins on the running surface help keep the boat on track while carving or executing turns, hence the F.A.S.T. acronym, which stands for “fin-­assisted safe turn.”

Many builders known for runabouts powered by sterndrives have bolstered their lineups with outboard-powered choices. While the list is extensive, competitors include the Sea Ray SDX 270 OB, which also has a wide and deep bow cockpit, and starts at $115,824 with a Mercury 350 Verado. Monterey Boats offers its smaller M-65 for $94,731 with a Mercury 300 Verado, but as of press time had a discounted starting price of $72,166.

One factor to note about the Crownline E 285 XS is that a lot of equipment found as options on other boats, from the pump-out head, to the grill and refrigerator, to the electrically folding sport arch, come standard.

High Points

• Electronically adjustable backrest on the transom bench reclines all the way to a full sun pad.
• Three-battery bank system with inverter ensures there’s always one dedicated to starting the engine, whether the grill or the stereo is running.
• Deep, spacious bow cockpit is comfortable and secure.

Low Points

• Portside net stowage bin on our test model was poorly installed. Make sure it’s done right on the production models.
• Why don’t builders install fiddle rails on their countertops anymore?

Price: $129,369 (with test power)

Available Power: Outboard

How We Tested
Engines: 350 hp Mercury 350 Verado outboard
Prop: Enertia 15 1/4″ x 18″ 3-blade stainless steel
Gear Ratio: 1.75:1
Fuel Load: 75 gal.
Crew Weight: 480 lb.

Crownline Boats – West Frankfort, Illinois; 618-937-6426; crownline.com

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It’s not easy to put the quantity of seating you’d usually only find on a pontoon into a svelte 20-foot deck boat, and then give it the exciting speed and agility you’d usually only find in a performance runabout. But Crownline partnered up with Suzuki in the E 205 XS to do just that.

Top speed, acceleration, low bow rise and enough torque to power through turns without falling off plane are the most noteworthy characteristics of this combination. Stability and good idle-speed tracking are also tops, as we experienced in our tests. The latter trait comes thanks to what Crownline calls “power chines,” a term to describe hard reverse chines or proud chines, which enhance lift and improve hookup in turns. The Suzuki power was plenty to enjoy watersports using the standard tow pylon.

The E 205 XS we tested was set up as a luxury runabout ideal for trailering to your favorite waters with a midsize SUV, and it wasn’t too thirsty on gas. There’s a Fish Upgrade Package available too, which adds rod holders, trolling-motor panel and mount, three-bank battery charger, rod storage and more, giving boaters additional versatility.

Both packages feature the same deck plan. The walk-through design has wraparound seating on the starboard side, divided by the helm station. Forward benches are well-cushioned and nicely upholstered in Crownline’s own shop, ensuring that every E 205 XS off the line will have the same kind of custom look and fit we experienced.

Forward seating is divided by a step to the bow platform, under which there’s an anchor locker that shares space with a boarding ladder. The transom platform, accessible by a starboard walk-through, can be secured with a stainless-steel frame door. Impressive for an outboard, the platform offered easy passage from starboard to port.

The Crownline E 205 XS also comes with a standard Bimini top, which can be equipped with a curtained changing room that secures to the deck with snaps and zippers — creating an ideal compartment to deploy at the sandbar for all-day convenience.

High Points

• The fishing package includes a Raymarine chart plotter.
• The E 205 XS is easy to trailer.
• Outboard power flushes quickly and trims easily for shallow-water egress.

Price: $46,503 (as tested)

How We Tested
Engine: Suzuki 150
Drive/Prop: Outboard/19″ 3-blade stainless steel
Gear Ratio: 2.0:1
Fuel Load: 12 gal.
Crew Weight: 400 lb.

Crownline Boats – West Frankfort, Illinois; crownline.com

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There’s a new wave coming from Crownline’s latest surf boat powered by Volvo Penta’s revolutionary dual-prop Forward Drive propulsion system. The boat has an edge in luxury cruising and boasts the handling benefits of trimmable sterndrive power, but it uses wave-building forward-facing propellers.

With a crew of five and full ballast tanks, the E 255 put up a wake you would have expected to see behind a V-drive. Riders liked the push and length of it. The Forward Drive doesn’t just excel at making waves though. In high-speed turns, the hull and drive system work together to provide race-ready tracking and steady handling.

The E 255 has a glass cockpit instrument touchscreen that reports all engine functions, temps and diagnostic codes, and it gives complete control of the ballast system and wake-shaping Wakesetter surf tabs. The system also remembers rider profiles for easy speed management.

As a luxury runabout, the E 255 proves Crownline hasn’t forgotten its runabout roots just to make a superior wave machine. Seating abounds, and it’s a comfortable blend of firm and resilient, meaning riders in the bow won’t punch through the seat cushions in rough water. Throughout the boat passengers get comfortable relaxing accommodations. Aft seating includes an L-shaped lounge that runs from behind the passenger seat around the transom to the walkway that accesses the spacious platform. A jump seat behind the generous captain’s chair completes the circle of conversation.

For convenience and comfort, the transom seat back rocks fore or aft with electric motors — it can be laid forward forming a sun pad or stopped anywhere from fore to aft creating back-to-back rumble seats that overlook the swim platform. Also easily manipulated, the wakeboard tower can be raised and lowered almost at the touch of a fingertip thanks to its powerful concealed lift mechanism.

The E 255’s surf wave is real, its comfort and handling unassailable, and the great styling means your friends and neighbors will see you coming … and yearn for a turn behind the transom.

High Points

• The E 235 and E 275 models offer additional cruising options with comparable features.
• Fold-down armrests in the bow seating enhance comfort and ride security.
• Bow boarding ladder allows easy access to the beach or sandbar.

Price: $95,995 (as tested)

How We Tested
Engine: Volvo Penta 350 hp Forward Drive
Props: K5 stainless-steel propset
Gear Ratio: 2.32:1
Fuel Load: 55 gal.
Crew Weight: 400 lb.

Crownline Boats – West Frankfort, Illinois; crownline.com

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