We may never know for sure what really happened in the meeting that led to the largest outboard-powered boat in the world, code-named Project Everest.
The way Scout Boats President Steve Potts recalls that day almost three years ago, he was pitching the troops from his R&D and design departments on the idea to build something that didn’t exist: a boat with outboard engines in the 60-foot range. Potts says his chief designer, Jeff Summers, heard him out, then leaned back in his chair and said, “That’s like climbing Mount Everest.”
Summers remembers things a bit differently. There’s an inside joke at Scout, he says, that every time they start a new model, they give it a length—but it never sticks. “Maybe we start with a 20-footer. Then it’s a 27-footer,” he says, adding that over in European shipyards, “those big superyacht projects, they always give them project names.” So, instead of calling this monster-size build the 600 Project, Scout called it Project Everest.
Either way, the result is the Scout 670, which comes in at a cool 66 feet, 9 inches long, packs a quintet of 600-hp Mercury V-12 Verados for a projected top speed of 52 knots, and is being offered at a base price of $5 million that could climb to $6 million depending on how any given hull is equipped.
“We have number three sold, and nobody’s really seen the boat yet,” Potts told Soundings in February, with the official premiere scheduled for the Palm Beach International Boat Show in March. “But we had an unveiling event here at our factory with smoke and curtains and all that stuff. We invited a number of people, dealers we have, and they saw the boat. They were just blown away. They said they’d never seen anything like it.”
Hulls 1 and 2 are both LXS, or luxury sport models. The third hull will be an LXF for sportfishing, built with around 25 rod holders and a flybridge that includes a console, lounge seats and—at the owner’s request—a deep fryer. For both variations of the 670, Scout had to order a hydraulic trailer with 12 tires, to move the boat on the interstate from the yard to the launch site. The width allowed on roadways, Summers says, is actually what gave the design team its first data point in deciding how to make the idea a reality.
“That’s restricted to 16 feet, so that gave us a width to start,” Summers says. “Then we started at 60, and like anything, it grows and grows when you throw all the features in.”
While the design team was extending the 670’s length, Potts says, they also were thinking about extending the length of time that people would want to own the boat. “For fishing, most guys will trade up or trade out in about three years. The cruising guys are more like two years. The goal is to get somebody on the boat that doesn’t get tired because it’s not versatile enough,” Potts says. “We wanted to have a boat that you can put on the sandbar or the beach. You can run it in shallow water. It’s high performance and running at 60 mph. It’s got a great sportfishing cockpit.”
Scout’s team also wanted a high-end feel to the 670, so they talked with several firms known for superyacht design. The builder partnered with Harrison
Eidsgaard, a London-based office that has worked with Heesen, Delta, Amels and Feadship, to name a few. “They went the extra mile,” Summers says. “Before we even signed any contracts or agreements, they ended up sketching some concepts and sent those to us. That really guided us to them because they were just as excited about this project as we were.”
Summers also made hundreds of sketches for the 670, he says, using a digital process that was a departure from how Scout created boats when he started working there in 2016. Back then, the team was doing full-scale wood mockups of design ideas. For the 670, he created digital mockups so they could be reviewed in a quarter of the time, and then sent straight to the CNC machine. “This was such a smoother process,” Summers says. “I have this stack of sketches with all these different layouts. We went through every variation before we went with this one.”
Some ideas that made it into the three-stateroom model will trickle down to smaller boats, Summers adds—in particular, the design language that Scout will use for its boats going forward. “It’s a sportier, sexier look. It’s sleeker,” Summers says. “When you look at it from any sort of angle, you never see anything that’s flat or square. I think that’s one of the biggest things that will enhance the smaller models too. Everything will have more shape than before.”
Potts says Scout customers can also expect some of the 670’s interior enhancements to show up on smaller models. For instance, Scout has been using diamond-quilted Ultra-leather for upholstery. Harrison Eidsgaard suggested a material more like Sunbrella. “That may be something we look at in some of our smaller models, the type of upholstery and the way it’s shaped and fitted,” Potts says. “It’s not that expensive to do it. It takes a little bit more talent to sew it and make it look and feel right.”
Another thing Potts says might trickle down is seating arrangements, which are organized aft on the 670 in ways that, to his mind, work a bit better than what everyone is used to having. It’s an example, he says, of how Scout expects the 670 to help set a new standard for larger, outboard-powered models across the whole industry.
“I’ve been in the outboard-powered boat world my whole life, and here you’re kind of in a bubble,” Potts says. “If you’re in a boat that everybody’s accustomed to being in, you realize that things like upholstery haven’t been paid attention to at this level. Design cues will certainly be trend-setting from this boat.”
LOA: 66’9”
Beam: 16’2”
Fuel: 1,500 gals.
Power: (5) 600-hp
Mercury Verados
Top Speed: 52 knots
May 2025
