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A Boat Load of New Tricks

By Capt. Ron Svoboda

On a hot and steamy Florida afternoon, I got my first glimpse of the totally new 360 Express. My attention was immediately drawn to the stern of the boat where they have designed a “rumble seat” into the transom locker. Now we’ve seen these types of seats on sportboats, and for good reason. It’s the ideal spot for parents to watch the kids from while they frolic about the water. If you envision yourself on a large express cruiser, sipping ice tea under the shade of an umbrella, while keeping an eye on the kids splashing about, then this fold-out stern seat will make you very happy.

Lots of Topside Features

Something else caught my eye when I first boarded the 360, that was the electric grill built into the wet bar. We’ve seen these before too, usually on much larger yachts, but a growing trend this year is the cockpit grill party. Nothing feeds a man’s passion of open flame cooking like a stainless steel grill, and to do it while on your boat can’t be beat. Now don’t get carried away, it’s a dainty little thing, but certainly fixing a couple of rib eyes and some lobster tail will work just fine. Now below the grill are ample storage cabinets that can be configured with a refrigerator or freezer or both.

Another key feature of the boat is the massive fiberglass hardtop, which are also becoming ever more popular as people are avoiding the sun’s rays and are tired of dealing with Bimini tops. This feature is an option on the 360, but like the previously mentioned items, once you see it, you’ll want it. Especially when you see how much shade it provides the cockpit and helm, plus the whole deck can be zipped up with canvas making for a multi season entertaining platform. Combine this with the optional cockpit air conditioner and 20-inch LCD TV with DVD and your set.

What I really liked about the hardtop was the heavy duty stanchions that support the unit. Big, beefy aluminum tubes are powder coated white and blend in nicely with the curved top. And unlike most yachts that locate the front stanchion directly in front of the captains line of sight, Cruisers Yachts utilized the corner of the windshield, (where the front and side glass meet) to locate their main support tubes.

Considerations

The foredeck of the boat incorporates lots of compound angles and surfaces which look cool and add some style to an otherwise big hunk of fiberglass. But when you’re walking on these curves and the boat is rocking in rough seas you don’t get the feeling of sure footedness, plus I can’t imagine how these ridges feel with bare feet, it’s a shoes mandatory foredeck.

Behind the wheel, this big cruiser feels surprisingly nimble and agile, almost sporty. Our test boat was rigged with gasoline inboards, which put out totally acceptable test numbers in each category and is an upgrade over the standard sterndrive propulsion package. But the whole time I was out running this boat it screamed…stern drive me! This boat wants the added performance of drives hanging off the back so unless you really need those big wheels dredging the bottom, set this baby free and give her what she wants.

• Top speed for the Cruisers Yachts 360 Express (2007-10) is 37.1 mph (59.7 kph), burning 72.5 gallons per hour (gph) or 274.41 liters per hour (lph).


• Best cruise for the Cruisers Yachts 360 Express (2007-10) is 25.6 mph (41.2 kph), and the boat gets 0.80 miles per gallon (mpg) or 0.34 kilometers per liter (kpl), giving the boat a cruising range of 216 miles (347.62 kilometers).


• Tested power is 2 x 420-hp MerCruiser Horizon HO Inboards.