![]() ![]() Soon after, a 20-pound false albacore (generically called “bonita” in these parts) came aboard before being safely released. But without any aerial displays it quickly become apparent that I was tangling with something other than a billfish. And, before we knew it, line was screaming off one of the port rods. He repeated the ritual until we had four of the 16 rod holders occupied. Davis pulled out an unwilling pilchard and deftly skewered it onto a large circle hook, before drifting it back behind the boat. Dipping his net into the 36-gallon port livewell in the aft casting deck, Capt. That’s thanks, in part, to a generous 8’10” beam. It provided an amazingly dry, smooth ride for the five folks aboard, and it’s also worth noting that the 2600 TRS never felt crowded even with the full crew. And the 2600 TRS handled these conditions with ease. The F300 burned just 7.1 gallons per hour at these speeds, which nets a theoretical cruising range of around 200 miles with the 70-gallon fuel tank. Outside of the inlet we peeled back to the 20’s and set a course offshore through a four-foot swell topped by a one- to two-foot chop. ![]() Acceleration was impressive, too, with a zero to 30 MPH time of just under eight seconds. Running down Indian River Lagoon, the Yamaha F300 four-stroke outboard easily pushed the 2600 TRS up into the lower 50 MPH range, making quick work of the five-mile run to the inlet, burning about 25 gallons per hour in the process. A booming southeasterly sea breeze blossomed outside Stuart Inlet. Eric Davis was our guide for the day and we set out from the Hutchinson Island Marriott Marina around lunch time. Could a cushier version of the 2600 really fit the bill for billfishing? We'd find out. Otherwise, the 2600 TRS rides on the same wave-splitting, double-stepped, 18-degree deadrise composite hull as its HPS brethren. The TRS model adds an expanded center console with a head compartment underneath, cushy aft jump seats with stowage underneath, a premium double-bolstered helm seat, integrated flip-up backrests that transform the padded casting area into a lounge, and more. But the TRS version I ran this summer is a little bit different it’s got comfort baked in. We reviewed a different version of this hull, the Pathfinder 2600 HPS, when it came out in 2013. The Pathfinder 2600 TRS is as much at home in the shallows as it is offshore. Our crew searches the shallows off Hutchinson Beach, FL, for live bait.
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