fiberglass bow rider power boat by Cobalt boats

Cobalt Boats have put their 210 bow rider on sale at the boat show. This is an opportunity to put your family in a luxurious, top quality Cobalt Boat at a terrific value. Now you can have all that makes for a top shelf family bow rider power boat on your waterways.

But it is the ride and handling that a Cobalt boat is known for. Buy a boat for its performance on the water. Get to know that legendary bow rider experience for yourself. It starts with a chop splitting sharp vee at the bow and continues into a hull bottom shape that gives a soft ride in a quick to plane performance boat. Yes, she is a performance boat, just try her out and you will experience performance on the water in a top-of-the-pile family boat.

This Cobalt bow rider power boat is 22’ 5” in length with its swim platform and has a trailer able maximum 8’ 6” beam. The boat and engine weight in at about 3,850 lbs. before you fill its generous 40 gal fuel tank and cockpit with up to 1,650 lbs. of family, friends, and gear. The Coast Guard rates that as a 12 person boat.

After the ride a Cobalt boat is all about fit, finish, and a healthy dose of hand craftsmanship from a dedicated group of middle of America folks that make outstanding power boats. Tour this boat builder’s plant and see happy, energetic people, as Seabuddy has.

The Cobalt 210 fiberglass bow rider power boat is something for you to see at the boat show.

cockpit and helm photo of Cobalt bow rider fiberglass power boat

Pricing sign photo of model 210 Cobalt boat bow rider power boat

getting ready to be the queen of the boat show

The oldest (since 1905) boat show has traditionally had a “Queen of the Boat Show” cabin cruiser power boat.  This year it’s the 54’ 9” Sea Ray Sundancer express cruiser.

Sundancer is a name that Sea Ray applies to their boat models that have an extra bed under the mid-section of an otherwise express style cabin cruiser. The first boat that came with the name “sundancer” was a 24’ 4” SRV 240 Sea Ray in 1975. That boat had a trailerable beam, not the 15’ 3” beam of this year’s Queen.

If they did not invent the mid-cabin boat design (some say that Skipjack boats is also in contention for that recognition), Sea Ray boats certainly has made it a runaway success story among boaters and also within the boating industry.

C. N. “Connie” Ray started building outboard powered 16’ runabouts in 1959 in Oxford, MI, which is north of Detroit. The 2012 queen of the boat show uses twin Mercury Marine Mercruiser Zeus drives.

Today’s boat has up to 1,430 Hp using diesel fuel, not the 25-35 Hp using gasoline as a fuel that the 1959 runabout was powered with. The Sea Ray Queen’s engines are made by Cummins.

The master stateroom is the one that is amidships and not at the bow. It has a TV as big as the main salon, not the smaller one that the forward bow stateroom has. Both staterooms have a “dry” head; that is a bathroom with a separate shower stall so that the entire bathroom does not get sprayed down when the shower is turned on.

By the way, the generous luxury space of the master bedroom can be ordered configured as two small staterooms so this cabin cruiser has three private staterooms if that is what your family needs. In that layout, the Master Stateroom would then be the forward bow stateroom by default.

Note my boat photo of the thru-bolted bollard style cleat that Sea Ray uses as standard equipment on this yacht. It is one of eight onboard, and they are very impressive!

bollard style cleat on Sea Ray boat show queen

Queen of the Boat Show underway

Specs on the boat is 18’ 11” in length and she has a beam of 6’ 1”. Her overall weight runs in the 2,100 to 2,400 lbs. area. Chris Craft built 503 of them in a production series from 1948 to 1954.

She is not a bow rider and one must change which cockpit to sit in at dockside, as this power boat is a true runabout and not a utility. She is almost all deck, engine room, two rows of seats and little, if any, walking around room in the cockpit areas.

I got a ride on a Pennsylvania Lake in a similar boat that belongs to a friend that was also lovingly restored and its ride and handling during that fresh water cruise was really a terrific experience. That one had an extremely special Chris Craft engine rebuild by an out of state noted engine builder of classic engines.

Chris Craft offered this wood power boat model in either a natural wood stained and highly varnished hull and deck or as a painted red and white finished powerboat. Most came with the seating areas finished in a Chinese red or red hue, but blue was a choice, as I understand it, but not in all of the model years the Racing Runabout was built post WWII.

The photos are from Moores Marine,  www.woodenboatrepair.com  that did this runabout’s restoration. Great workmanship and attention to detail is shown in the work coming from Moores you can see.

This one is a 1954 model Chris Craft

early on in the restoration work

Wood was the boat building material of choice for all boat builders back then. Mahogany was used for planking and often oak for the framing. GarWood Boats were no different about the wood choices, just in the specific boat design details and the quality of the finished product. He and his company wanted the highest quality in all the boats that wore the Gar Wood name.

In 1935 GarWood added a 20’ utility (or open) runabout to its line of boats. This was its first utility design. More utilities were added in a 20’ length in 1936, a 18’ in 1936, and a 24’ utility in 1937. These power boats were all made of wood also.

No discussion about this yacht should happen without a mention about its yacht designer, Tom Fexas. He used some extra ordinary design skills, grand style, and technical acumen to create a special yacht in the Midnight Lace boats. He first used his thoughts about fast power cruising using modest power in his 44’ Midnight Lace model. I have driven an example of one of those cruisers in the Pacific Ocean. A very nice boat, but somewhat under powered as that one had twin small Renault engines under its cockpit. The Renaults also were smoky engines on that 44’ boat cruise and that was a fairly big issue to me at that time.Tom Fexas made a fast yacht in the Midnight Lace 52 by watching the hull weight and its balance along with a easy to push, narrow beam hull shape.

He has said that the design was “inspired…by the slippery old hulls…of the rumrunners” and the yacht designs of Consolidated and Elco boats.

She is a 52’ yacht with less than 10 tons in displacement! Her 13’ beam makes her narrow compared to other boats of this length. Yet the boat has a double berth master with its own head (with a short bath tub). Plus, a private guest stateroom that has two single berths and there is also a fully found second head.

Cheoy Lee built this yacht in 1983 using the latest fiberglass construction with coring for a light weight composite hull. They constructed a glorious interior to match her exterior design. She has since been updated and her equipment has been generously replaced as needed by an attentive yacht owner.

Oh yah, I saved the best for last…a Midnight Lace is a bow rider.

The photos are from Yachtworld.com that has this yacht currently for sale.

AHacker Craft underway on the Lake

Hacker Craft makes wood boats even today in the USA. They continue to believe that a wood boat offers the best qualities of ride and performance for a recreational boater to enjoy our waterways. Wood is not the path to the lowest price for enjoyment on the water, but for a hobby, how far up in importance is price?

With Hacker Craft being located on Lake George in upstate New York, the highest achievement of boating fun is often tied up at a nearby dock at the signature lake. Feel the experience of a fine wood classic craft for yourself if you are in the market for a boat. I did and must say, I was impressed with the ride and handling of a Hacker Craft inboard.

She rides level, takes a good chop very well, and gives a solid bite on the water for all on board. This is a signature boat – an excellent example of what boating can be about.

By the way, Neiman Marcus will have a Hacker Craft in its upcoming Christmas catalog this year.

a new Hacker Craft at the dock

66' Baglietto for sale at yachtworld.com

Baglietto is a shipyard that builds and has built fine mega yachts, motor yachts, and speed boats in its home country of Italy.

Baglietto was founded as a boat builder in 1854. They relocated to a waterfront wood boat building plant in around 1890. They built sail boats there and then crafted their first motor boat in 1906. At that time, it has been said that such an antique and classic wood craft would be called an automotive boat.

During the nineteen teens and the nineteen twenties they mostly made government boats and seaplanes. By the 1950s they were known for their speedboats as well as motor yachts with sailboats. They made sail craft, it seems, until about the middle of 1956.

Baglietto used mahogany, iroko, and teak for their wood boats. They also used plywood by the 1960s in their yachts, cruisers, and day boats.

In the 1970s, Baglietto changed to aluminum as their preferred boat building matieral. This was also the intial time that the ship yard built mega yachts.

a new Cigarette for 2012

 Cigarette Racing or Cigarette Boats has a new hatch with a special air intake treatment for their 1400 Hp powered Top Gun model.  It features the newest outdrive from Mercury Marine or Mercruiser division of Brunswick.

This hatch is the latest method to get dense air into the engine room and therefore the engine for more boating power.

Cigarette is noted for top shelf race boats and innovation in pleasure boating.  See a 2012 model year Cigarette wherever you can, its worth a look.

New electronics, new colors, and new interiors are very nice, but hot boats, real Hot Boats, are really about performance on the water.

Cigarette Racing is a built in Florida boat, the east coast of Florida. Its is and in the center of fast boats and safe and durable speed on the water.

Other models of Cigarette Racing Boats are made for open water cruising or for offshore fishing.

Classic boats are here along with historic planes and antique cars.  Wood Antique and classic booats as well as race boats are apart of this Florida event.  Enjoy the boats on the water and on land. Ideally, one would enjoy all three (land, sea, and air) in this one event.

Show exhibits range from yacht builders and designers to exotic cars and brokerage yachts. A wide variety of boats and sea vessels will be on display including runabouts, sportfishers, high performance boats, center consoles, cabin cruisers, flats boats, skiffs, express cruisers, sailing yachts, motor yachts, bowriders, catamarans, ski boats, jet boats, trawlers, inflatables, canoes, and extraordinary superyachts. Added attractions include The Blue Wild Dive Show, IGFA’s School of Sportfishing and Hook the Future’s Kids Fishing Clinics.