Water Ski - July 01, 2018

64 | BOATINGMAG.COM | JULY/AUGUST 2018

PHOTO: FOREST JOHNSON

Sometimes I feel guilty about the way we test powerboats. We warm them up, firewall the throttles,

spin the helm for some hard-over turns, and once we’ve made a few, we steer back over the

doubled-up wakes to see if the boat can handle the rollers without rattling the screws and fasten-

ers. It’s not so much “rode hard and put away wet” as it is put away panting.

But the 385SE barely noticed our abusive handling, and when we finished, it was like a horse

still too frisky to walk to the paddock.

It’s cause to pause when a boat like this can jump up on plane (in about 4.5 seconds) and hit a top

S speed of over 57 mph, but that’s what the three Yamaha F300 outboards did to this sleek day cruiser.

SCAN ME

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