Flexibility is the primary feature of open-console boats. They’ll take you fishing with your friends, day-tripping with your family or out for an afternoon of waterskiing or tubing. New designs offer more features than ever on these open pleasure boats. Look for additional storage, enclosed heads, hardtop helms and cost-effective inboard engines. And check out the lengths to which center-console manufacturers are going these days—we’ve seen them as long as 36 feet!