THE BRAND
The irrepressible coolness of an XO sports boat goes way beyond its styling. In terms of its sheer usability, the brand’s designs encompass a range of open, hardtop and cabin options that enable you to fine-tune each model precisely in line with the way you like to go boating.
In terms of the ownership experience, the fact that XO’s crossover approach combines slick fibreglass topsides with military-grade aluminium hulls helps remove a great deal of the stress and doubt from a day on the water. Tough, lightweight, easy to maintain and simple to mend, XO’s famously robust aluminium deep-V hulls mean that, as polished and refined as they might look, XO boats are also brilliant for the rough stuff – for nosing onto rocky beaches, for rafting up at busy berths, or for the knockabout rigours of offshore passages and everyday family recreation.
THE RANGE
There are four 8.6m models and four 9.4m models in the current XO fleet, each organised into one of three distinct product lines.
At the upper end of the range, XO’s four-season EXPLR Series offers five versatile cabin-equipped pilothouse models in both 9 and 10 variants, with flexible overnighting facilities and a range of inboard and outboard options. Beneath that, the DSCVR Series is all about the bow-rider-style 9 model in either Open or T-Top variants.
Designed for the full range of day boating activities, it features an eight-person cockpit, an enclosed heads in the port console, a convertible bow space big enough for five, and a skipper’s impact mitigation seat as standard. If you’re looking for a fast, multi-purpose offshore sportsboat for a four-season cocktail of open and closed boating adventure, the DFNDR 9 is impossible to ignore.
OUR PICK
