Maxum 2600 SE

Providing you pick your anchorages your biggest problem with the American-made Maxum 2600 SE might be your reluctance to head home. With spacious accommodation for four, a moulded head with hot shower and electric loo, microwave oven and two fridges, you need to think of the 2600 SE as a weekender for two, plus two kids if you have them. Spend Saturday night aboard and if not tied to a marina and tapping into its shorepower supply, then on a mooring or the anchor in a quiet bay somewhere.

To this end, I would fit an aftermarket invertor to convert the boat’s separate 12V house battery supply to 240V power for brief use of appliances (such as the toaster at breakfast and the microwave oven to reheat dinners). In fact, I would add a third battery for this very purpose. But, really, nothing else is needed to complete this floating apartment. And with an upgraded big-block V8 petrol MerCruiser motor, the 2600 SE isn’t going to hang around.

Destined to be stowed at marinas and in dry-stack boat racks, the 2600 SE has a handy 2.59m beam. That means it can be legally towed, albeit with a permit of some kind. I’m told it will tip the scales at 3800kg on road, so I know where I’d prefer to keep it. Stacked and racked. Hold the antifouling.

With a one-piece bowrail and moulded tow rails, the 2600 SE has good access across its bow. But with an optional windlass fitted, there is no need to go forward to drop the anchor. Press a button at the groovy, low-glare, grey and metallic dash and the anchor drops. Thus, the only time you will need to head forward is to tie a mooring line or perhaps sit on the flat foredeck with a cold drink in hand.

Besides the usual spread of Faria engine gauges for the MerCruiser, I found an optional stereo remote, controls for the windscreen wipers and trim tabs, woodgrain tilt adjustable wheel and matching trim on the modern dash. Incidentally, the supplied trim tabs are a necessity on a boat like this, with such a big portside co-pilot lounge that, when loaded, could lead to a trim imbalance. It was also great to see a full breaker panel rather than fuses at the dash.

The windscreen, held up by stainless steel supports, is a new rakish design that complements the boat’s racy engine vents and modern sculptured sidepanels, helping to conceal its surprising volume. You wouldn’t know there was an aft cabin with a big double bed and an easily convertible dinette in the bow that creates another double bed. Nor would you know there was head room inside, unlike so many boats in the entry-level cruiser class.

CABIN COMFORTS
The fact that 2600 SE has head room around the landing area in the saloon, before the portside galley, is a key selling point. But sit around the dinette in the bow and you’ll also have a terrific sense of space. Again, this is refreshing compared to some low-profile, more sports-orientated cruisers. It’s also indicative of Maxum’s full-beam forward, maximum-volume approach to hull design.

Among the amenities at the portside galley are a single-burner electric stove and microwave oven (as said, an invertor is needed to use them away from the dock). The counters were an upmarket, solid, Corian-like material, while the stainless steel sink had a trendy mixer with pullout spray rinser so you can fill a pot with water prior to cooking the pasta. Stir in the prawns, wait till they go pink, pour a wine, and you’re cooking.

Food prep space is boosted by a plastic, slide-out extension at one end of the counter. It’s a clever touch that underscores the fact there is scope for innovation on a small boat. The sub-counter bar fridge with freezer tray is big enough to carry a weekend’s worth of grub and/or bait, and there was storage for appliances, pots and pans, and pantry space. Opening portlights and an overhead hatch provide ventilation.

Hot water comes courtesy of an accumulator tank, driven by a heat exchanger on the engine and 240V shorepower. Besides the galley, there’s hot water in the starboard head, along with moulded sink with pullout shower rose and wall attachment. There’s not a lot of room to shower and you have to straddle the (upgraded electric) loo. But with a more practical hot/cold shower in the cockpit you’ll rarely use the internal unit anyway.

As mentioned, the dinette is roomy and able to seat four adults comfortably before a dedicated area for mounting the LCD television/DVD player within view. There’s sub-seat storage space for safety gear and spares. Drop the table and you have a double bed. The lounge backrests double as the infill cushions, thereby reducing clutter. The upgraded fabrics have a smart executive look.

The aft cabin might appear stifling for some, but at least there’s room to sit up near the bedhead, which was flanked by reading lights, and there are two opening hatches for ventilation. Best you consider it a kids’ cabin or rumpus room. Put it all together and you get a lot of comfort for your cash in this sportscruiser. But for all that, the 2600 SE is even smarter outdoors.

NOT-SO-ACTIVE SEATING
As much as this is a cabin cruiser, it’s been conceived as an entertainer by day. There are two different seating options: the standard layout includes a three-quarter-length aft lounge with lunch table and starboard-side transom door; the option is for a split aft-lounge with a centre transom door and no table. The latter is promoted with the optional waketower as more a watersports boat than a family weekender.

For cruising with the clan and kicking back in the cockpit you can’t beat the standard seating arrangement. Simply, you get more seats and more of what the manufacturer calls Active Seating. A tautology, isn’t it? The aft lounge can be used four ways: as a seat for up to three people when cruising; as part of a lunch setting around the table; as a sunpad for a couple when the backrest is folded inboard; and as an aft-facing seat for doing sundowners or watching the kids splash about when the whole seat base module is slid inboard.

Whichever way you choose to use it, that aft lounge creates a separate seating area to the Active Seating zone at the helm, which works as follows. Once anchored, you swing the double helm seat from its transverse position to a longitudinal position, where it faces the co-pilot lounge. That lounge is big enough to seat three people and act as a daybed. Configured this way you create a social setting shaded under the boat’s canopy, where you can do lunch on your lap and enjoy the views extending out the deep windscreen panes. It’s a lot of seating whichever way you take it.

Nearby amenities ensure you stay glued to the seats. There’s a sink with a sliding cutting board lid and food prep space and the (optional) cockpit fridge. Storage space is the only thing that’s light on up top, but there’s some room under the helm seat and rear lounge. However neither area has a moulded insert. As to be expected, though, the transom is deep enough to function as a play area, with a swim ladder the hot/cold handheld shower, and easy-to-reach cleats and deck fillers.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the engine installation or engineering, with good servicing room around the single V8 petrol motor. The engine room is accessed by pressing a button that raises the bonnet on a hydraulic gas strut. I could reach the house and engine-start batteries for servicing (they need distilled water once a month), the hot water service, engine oil and cooling system, the 76lt water tank, and holding tank. The latter should see you through a weekend if you’re careful.

SNAPPY EXODUS
As you might expect, there’s something to crow about on the performance front. But it’s not so much the speed and the amenable nature of the 320hp V8 that impressed. Rather, this was an especially quiet inboard-powered cruiser, with plenty of acceleration and no harsh roar. That’s mainly due to the exhaust setup of the Bravo II sterndrive leg.

Fully trimmed in and with the trims tabs engaged to button the bow to the water, the 2600 SE travelled in a dignified manner – or what I call a family cruise – at 23kts at 3200rpm. It was just as delightful at 27kts at 3500rpm.

Above these speeds the boat leapt around somewhat if you trimmed the leg up and removed the trim tabs to try and gain maximum efficiency and speed. But with a touch of leg trim and tab there was still a pleasant fast cruise of 33.6kts at 4500rpm. Top speed was 36.5kts.

As for the Active Seating, well, I have to say it’s destined for nothing more than catching some rays and sleep, kicking back with family and friends, and hosting long lunches. All the ingredients for a big day and night afloat.

HIGHS

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