“A pocket cruiser!”
Credits: Nick Burnham
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
This is a Sea Ray 265 Sundancer, now people often refer to these as pocket cruisers because it gives you a little proper sports cruiser boat from a very compact shape and surprisingly it’s about 26 foot long but it actually got pretty good accommodation.
EXTERIOR
Let’s start from the outside first of all. What they’ve done and how they get good accommodation is you’ll see there’s no side decks on it at all. They’ve brought the cabin and the cockpit right out to the edge, so if you want to get up here on the foredeck, that centre section of windscreen opens. You’ll see the canopy as well splits on both sides and that [top middle windscreen] rolls up, and that’s how you get up on the bow. You’ve got an electric anchor winch up here [bow] as well and the anchor. And very smart as well with this grey hull on the front that looks really good.
There’s a Radar Arch on this one, that’s that fella there [top], and then the canopies just slide into it. So you can see these grooves here [on the windscreens], what they call left grooves, so the canopy just slides in through there, clip it on around, and that’s in place. So that works well, and what you can do with this is you can take these side pieces out, leave the top on, and that gives you a Bimini top then for a bit of shade if you want it.
“That centre section of windscreen opens to access the foredeck.”
If we come right on around the back, there’s a couple of neat features on here. The one I particularly like actually is the fact that almost all boats have got a boarding ladder. This doesn’t. This has what they call a swim step, so what you’ve got is rather than just a thin metal ladder, this whole section here [swim platform] opens up like that, drops over into the water, and that creates a step under the water. to step right in or out of the water, I think that’s a great idea. It’s just a lot more comfortable and easier to use. I’ve not actually seen that before, and I’m surprised it’s not more common.There’s a deck shower, and that is tucked away in there [near the access door] when you come out from swimming.
And then we’ve got the cockpit just here. So this is what I’m talking about with the canopy. All these sections can come out, and then you can just leave the top up or you can zip it then close this whole cockpit area. So it just depends on how you’re using the boat and what the weather’s doing, of course.
You’ve got this nice area here [starboard] for dining or just relaxing. That [table] will fold out to double the size, so if you are eating, you’ve got a lot more space. But it’s actually very adaptable because there’s a few things you can do here. The first is this little lever down here [beside the seat], If I pull that and give that [backrest] a bit of a push, that [backrest] drops down flat to make sunbathing. But in actual fact, what you can do with this is then open that table out and drop that [leg] one down as well. It’s on a telescopic leg, and you see those little bars there [below the seats], that [table] then rests on those [little bars]. You can put a cushion on there, and that makes sunbathing right the way across. So you’ve got really good full-length sunbathing. That’d be a great place to relax.
You can sit back here [sunbathing area], you could have your head up against here [backrest], look back out across the water. That’d be fantastic.
The transom door is here [port side], so this closes off. You just have to lift it then turn it. Then things like battery switches that are easy to reach are inside here [storage area behind the backrest]. Some of the circuit breakers are there as well.
So that’s the Radar Arch on the inside, and again it’s got the same system with these canopies just sliding into these left grooves. It does make life a lot easier.
We’ve got this seat here [port side]. That’s a lovely place to relax because you can sit with your back against there [backrest] and your feet out. But what this also does, is it gives you a bit more headroom into the mid-cabin, which we’ll see in a moment when we look inside.
“This boat features a swim step, which opens up and creates a step under the water for easy access.”
And then a double Helm station here [starboard side]. There are lift bolsters on these [helm seats], so you can sit or you can stand, depending on your preference. And then across here is the steering, of course, the Fusion Stereo and the engine throttle control. We’ve got trim tabs on this one. We’ve got the Windlass buttons, bilge pump, wipers, lighting, anchor lights, courtesy lights, running lights, all that kind of stuff. Twin Simrad screens on this one, which is nice. And there’s a bow thruster on here as well, which is very, very helpful.
This is the door [on the windscreens] that I was mentioning. You can see these little clips here, so you can unclip those and zip the canopy up to actually get up there. Then this door here [companion door], will slide across to give you easy steps up and out through the windscreen. Very good!
INTERIOR
So that is the cockpit. Let’s go and have a little look inside. Down here is the interior. Now, the first thing to mention is that the headroom at this end is pretty good. I’m just over six foot, and I’ve got easy standing headroom here.
Now, it does drop as you go forward because you can obviously imagine that the roof slopes down. But also, the hull is a V hull, it’s coming up like this, so you don’t have the standing headroom here [forward]. But neither do you need it because you’ve got seating all the way around here. That’s really a seating space, not a standing and chatting space.
This table will drop down, and that then makes into an infill, and there are cushions that go on there, and that makes into a double bed. But it’s not the only sleeping area on the boat.
We’ve got skylights in the ceiling up here [overhead]. We’ve also got an opening hatch, but the sunbathing cushions that we saw on the foredeck there at the minute, so there’s no light coming through there. We do have the side windows as well. There’s one here [starboard] and another one here [port].
“The galley features electric cooking, a sink, and a microwave.”
Back here is the galley. It’s electric cooking on this one. There’s no gas. There’s a sink, and there’s a microwave. The switch panels are here as well, so your 12-volt switching and your 220-volt switching. So, 220-voltage are things like the microwave, the water heater and the battery chargers. That’s when you’re plugged into shore power.
The 12 volts is your ship stuff. So, the stuff that runs off the batteries, the cabin lights, the fresh water pump, stereo system, and the refrigerator. And you’re going to say, “Well, hang on, didn’t we have a refrigerator a minute ago?” And we did. The reason for that is it’s dual voltage. You can run it or off it, either. What they do is when you’re plugged into the shore power, you run it off the 220-volt. When you unplug the shore power, you run it off with 12 volts.
Fusion stereo is also here, which I’m going to turn down because I can hear it whispering in the background. And then there’s a fridge here as well. That’s down underneath. Got the milk in there ready for a cup of tea.
MID-CABIN
And then this is the mid-cabin [port side of the companion door]. So that seat there [main deck seat located on the port side] actually gives you a bit of extra headroom inside the mid cabin.
Curtains’ off, that’s what this little trap here is for. And what this is, is a double bed. It’s full of stuff at the minute, but you get the idea. The double bed runs right the way across, down underneath.
Well it is compact, the whole boat is compact. But that’s exactly the point of it, and it comes back to what I’m saying right at the beginning. It is a pocket cruiser. It’s designed to offer you an awful lot in a pretty small space, and I think it does it well.
“The mid-cabin features a double bed that runs right across the space.”
The last thing to show you down here is the toilet, and that is in here [starboard side of the companion door]. So it’s a vacuum flush toilet, and there’s a shower that pulls out over there [sink], and a mirror. Brilliant! It’s got a translucent door to put a little bit of light. Obviously, it’s got the window there as well. So that’s that.
ENGINE ROOM
Last thing to talk about then is the engine. This is a 6.2 litre, 350 horsepower engine. That’s quite an upgrade! I think they do three engine options. The smallest is a 4.5 litre. This, though, is the one you want to give you sort of 30 knots plus performance, mid-20 knot cruising. Don’t know the range—a couple hundred miles is typical. But yeah, that is just a good old V8 high-capacity engine, isn’t it?
It’s a petrol engine, nice and smooth, nice and powerful. Flat out with that, I would imagine—it’s got to be up towards the mid-30s, isn’t it? Quite a quick boat, I should think.
And then you’ve got, obviously, things like bilge pumps, batteries, hydraulic pump for the power trim, the fresh water tank, and we’ve got tankage in here as well.
” It’s got a 6.2-litre, 350 horsepower engine, providing significant power…a good old V8 high-capacity engine”
SUMMARY
So, there we go. As I say, very much a pocket cruiser, but it is surprising what they get into these. Fantastic! I think we’ve just about covered it. I’m going to sit here at the helm. Let’s drop these bolsters down, make it a little bit more comfortable. And I’m going to say a massive thanks to Marina Marbella for organising that tour. I put a link for those guys in the description. Huge thanks to you all for watching. Let me know what you think of that one, and we will catch you on one of these a real soon. Take care. Bye bye.
