Parker 2320 Sport Cabin, the Trailerable Pilothouse That Defined a Brand

Why buyers still search for a Parker pilot house boat

When people talk about a Parker pilot house boat, the 2320 Sport Cabin is usually the picture in their head: a high-sided 23-footer with a flared bow, a boxy aluminum-framed pilothouse and a big open cockpit, the sort of boat you see working out of Carolina inlets in January. It was one of Parker's core models for more than two decades.

Parker's roots run to the late 1960s in Beaufort, North Carolina, and Boating magazine traces the company to Linwood Parker's 25-foot Sou'wester open workboat in the early 1970s. For years Parker's own website summed up the philosophy in four words from president E. Linwood Parker III: overbuilt and underpriced. In 2019 the Parker family sold the company to Correct Craft, which renamed it Parker Offshore and kept building in Beaufort.

The 2320 appears on Parker's website as a 2003 model, and it remained in the lineup until the 2024 model year, when the new 2420 Sport Cabin took its place.

An 8-foot 6-inch beam you can tow anywhere

The 2320's most underrated feature is its width. At 8 feet 6 inches it is legal to trailer without wide-load permits in every state, which opens up ramps from the Outer Banks to Puget Sound and lets owners store the boat at home. Overall length with pulpit and engine is about 30 feet 9 inches, and dry weight is 4,100 pounds, so a full-size pickup handles it.

The hull is a modified deep-V with 21 degrees of deadrise at the transom and the wide, flared Carolina bow Parker is known for. Hull draft is just 15 inches. The structure is simple and durable: flotation foam, a hull-to-deck joint through-bolted with stainless fasteners and a heavy rub rail with a stainless insert. Parker's hull warranty grew from five years, transferable, in 2003 to ten years limited on later boats.

Inside the cabin and pilothouse

Below the foredeck is a small cabin about 68 inches long and 78 inches wide with 35 inches of headroom over the bunks. It has twin berths with storage, a headliner, screened portlights and an overhead hatch, plus a portable toilet with dockside pump-out. It is a place to nap or ride out a squall, not a weekender.

The pilothouse is the reason to buy the boat. Tinted windshields with an opening starboard pane, sliding side windows with screens, a lockable door, wipers and a headliner keep crew dry and warm. Late boats had a ladder-back helm chair with footrest and an inboard-facing port lounge with a three-tray tackle cabinet beneath. Optional upgrades included a ventilating port windshield, a second station, Seaspension pedestals and an open-back pilothouse with drop curtains for warm climates.

A 9-foot cockpit with a full transom

The self-bailing cockpit measures about 108 inches long, 81 inches wide and 24 inches deep, generous for a 23-footer and the reason the boat works for charter captains, commercial fishermen and families alike. Rod storage and toe rails run under the gunwales, and options included a 25- or 30-gallon above-deck livewell, a six-rod rocket launcher, coaming bolsters and a folding lounge seat.

The transom changed over the years. The 2003 boat had a notched transom with a molded splashwell and recessed transom storage boxes, rigged for engines such as the Yamaha F200, F225, Z200 and Z250. By 2014 Parker had moved to a full transom with a single engine bracket, swim platform and dive ladder, and a 210-quart insulated fishbox. Later boats added a transom door. Bracket boats gain cockpit space and a cleaner stern, so most shoppers prefer them.

Single outboard power and what to expect

Maximum power is 300 hp on a single outboard. Parker listed Yamaha F200, F250 and F300 options around 2017, and F250 or F300 packages on the final boats. A single engine keeps fuel burn, maintenance and repower costs lower than twin-engine boats, and the 137-gallon tank provides real range for a 23-footer.

We could not find a published speed and fuel test for the 2320 itself. For context, Yamaha's 2024 bulletin for its successor, the 24-foot 2-inch Parker 2420 with a single F350, recorded 50.1 mph at wide-open throttle and 2.82 mpg at 27 mph, with 2.51 mpg at 32.9 mph. A 2320 with 300 hp should be in a similar but slightly slower band; ask any seller for their own numbers.

2320 SL, 2420 SC and the 247 Explorer

Parker's naming changed several times. The 2007 lineup called the boat the 2320 SL Sport Cabin, and Parker's 2014 site still used that name; later pages shortened it to 2320 SC. In 2024 Parker introduced the 2420 SC, 24 feet 2 inches long with the same 8-foot 6-inch beam, 141 gallons of fuel and a 400 hp rating, and by spring 2025 the 2320 had left the lineup.

For the 2026 and 2027 model years Parker renamed its sport cabins as the Explorer series. The 247 Explorer shares the 2420's published length, beam, fuel and power rating, and now includes Seakeeper Ride as standard. Its 2027 MSRP starts at $151,605 with a single Yamaha F300.

Buying a used 2320

Because Parker built the 2320 for so long, the used market runs from early-2000s boats in the $25,000 range to nearly new boats above $100,000. The hull is durable, so engine condition usually decides value. A well-kept older hull with a recent four-stroke repower can be the smartest buy.

Expect to spend roughly $5,000 to $11,000 a year on insurance, storage or a trailer, engine service and fuel. Check pilothouse window seals and frames for leaks, look for soft spots in the cockpit sole and transom area, and confirm the trailer is in good shape since many of these boats live on one.