The 261 XSS is the crossover in Scout’s bay boat range: 26 feet of hull that fishes the flats in 17 inches of water and still carries the deadrise and the fuel to cross open water when the weather allows. Scout builds it in Summerville, South Carolina, and the specification reads closer to the yard’s larger offshore boats than to an inshore skiff.
Fishability drives the layout. Casting decks run fore and aft, the port and starboard baitwells are aerated, the console carries a coffin box, and rod storage is spread through the boat rather than concentrated in one rack. Standard equipment includes an integrated exposed carbon fiber T-top with fully enclosed windshields, a Fusion Bluetooth stereo with six JL Audio speakers, and a removable transom ladder with a built-in synthetic decking step.
The option list is where a buyer shapes the boat: two upgraded leaning post configurations, a bow casting platform with filler cushion, underwater lights, hardtop rocket launchers, raw and fresh water washdowns, outriggers, Power-Poles, a trolling motor and a porcelain head. The carbon fiber hardtop legs can be left exposed or finished in Scout white.
A single outboard drives it, with the Mercury Verado 350 V10 behind Scout’s own 292 mile range figure and the Verado 400 V10 also documented. Fifteen degrees of deadrise, 90 gallons of fuel and a 4,429 pound dry weight put the 261 XSS in useful territory for a buyer who refuses to choose between inshore and offshore.
