Malibu Sunscape 247 LSV Review
Malibu's Sunscape 247 LSV doesn't just look good; it's loaded with features and space.
April 19, 2008
Measuring 24 feet, 7 inches long and 102 inches wide, the Sunscape 247 LSV offers loads of room in the rear U-shape lounge.
Spend a little time around the people who create, market and build Malibu boats and you'll learn quite a bit about the company's processes, that they can get ideas from any place or any industry and that those ideas often turn up in their boats. Spend even more time around those same people and you'll learn they're great fun to drink beer and swap stories with.
Obviously the latter has little to do with building innovative tow boats, but the former has everything to do with it.
Malibu isn't above drawing influences from the automotive industry and the Sunscape 247 LSV is a fine example.
Malibu isn't above drawing influences from the automotive industry—what boatbuilder isn't?—and the Sunscape 247 LSV is a fine example. Its black-and-chrome frame wraparound windshield owes a lot to automotive styling, as does the black wood panels inspired by GMC's Denali line of pickups and SUVs. Its forward-canted towing tower looks a lot like a radar arch, as if it were borrowed from a Sunseeker yacht. Ditto for some of the company's color choices, in particular, the navy blue and white gelcoat with gray-accented white upholstery. In a market filled with faux flames and graphics that resemble tribal tattoos, the clean and simple graphics are a welcome change.
Measuring 24 feet, 7 inches long and 102 inches wide, the Sunscape 247 LSV offers loads of room in the rear U-shape lounge. Yes, we know, lots of V-drive tow boats offer large rear lounges, but very few, if any, are this big. Malibu says the boat's capacity is 16 people, which is right up there in pontoon boat territory. The Sunscape 247 LSV holds 87 gallons of fuel, which is good because the standard fuel-injected Hammerhead engine is rated at 400 horsepower. An available 8.1-liter monster is rated at 450 horsepower if you're seriously into pulling three dozen show skiers.
Other notable standard features include docking lights, a driver seat with a flip-up bolster and a pop-up bow light. If you really want to trick it out, you can do that too, with an optional heated driver's seat, an observer's bucket seat, Sirius satellite radio, four channel amplifier and a 12-inch subwoofer, among others. All that jacks up the already high base price of $68,889, but if you have the means, why not?
Look, not everyone gets to have one-on-one conversations with key people at Malibu, but the Sunscape 247 LSV makes it almost a moot point. Anything they could tell you over a cold beer isn't half as good as seeing it up close in the showroom. When it comes to the people who make Malibu boats, the beer does less talking than the product itself.
