Advantage Boats 27 X-Flight Gets New Mercury 520

For the first time in a couple of years, Advantage Boats is going to be a part of the Los Angeles Boat Show. With a pair of new models to showcase—a 27 X-Flight and a 21 SR—the Lake Havasu City, Ariz., builder is excited about returning to the show, which runs from Feb. 6-9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Advantage Boats is bringing this new 27 X-Flight model with a Mercury Racing 520 engine to the Los Angeles Boat Show.

According to Bob Sepulveda, longtime sales manager for Advantage, the company just completed the 27 X-Flight, which is powered by a new Mercury Racing 520 engine—the first one Advantage has installed in a boat.

Sepulveda joined Scott Dreisbach, Advantage’s vice president, earlier this week for the boat’s first time in the water, and said the 27-footer “ran like a bullet.” Both Sepulveda and Dreisbach were impressed with the engine and how the boat responded with the new technology. While they weren’t trying to run the boat too hard as they have demos lined up this weekend on Lake Havasu, the boat reached 69 mph and should easily top 70 mph once it’s dialed in.

Sepulveda said the open-bow 21 SR—the other boat coming to the show—is powered by a 260-hp Mercury 5.0L engine. “We’re going to have a higher-end model and an entry-level model so we can appeal to both ends of the spectrum and those in between,” Sepulveda said.

Sepulveda added that Advantage had models on display at the Des Moines Boat Show in Iowa last week (Jan. 17-19) and the company’s dealer in Minnesota, Specialty Boats, will be participating in the Minneapolis Boat Show next week (Jan. 30-Feb. 2).

He also said that a 29 X-Flight is going to be on display at the Utah Boat Show and Watersports Expo, which takes place the same days as the L.A. show in Sandy, Utah.

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