SPORT CRUISERS

Cobalt is offering a complete range of sport boats, overnighters, ski boats and sport cruisers. sport cruisers offer the a smooth ride, luxurious amenities, and high-tech construction of a larger boat with the versatility of a smaller sportboat.

Both were already high-volume producers of pleasure boats and sport cruisers. Manufacturers are likely to continue to develop new, sportier sport-cruisers in the coming years. Take the most-advanced, best-performing sport cruisers and compare with any model of equal displacement in any other class and it will fall flat on its face in every performance parameter.

The contoured bow seating of those sport cruisers offers room and scope, as does the curved bench just ahead of a walk-thru transom. Also included in those sport cruisers, are concealed ladder port-side brings swimmers safely out of the water. Hour to hour, year to year, the sport cruiser will answer the call of days exceptionally well spent. You may leave your watch at the dock.

Very few cruisers, even so-called sport-cruisers, will embarrass the Cobalt on a curvy sea. The seven sport-cruisers assembled here are pretty sparse in those regards, but they represent the newest and, to us, one of the most interesting niches in boating.

Looks in this case do not deceive. Give credit to the Venetian subtlety of the sport cruisers’s lines, to the unabashed aggression of the power humps forward, to 425 MerCruiser horses rumbling aft. And because the sport cruisers are first, last, and always a Cobalt, the going fast is simultaneously going good. In the cabin, directly in front of the dash, stands a very large cedar-lined locker. A large settee sweeps around the bow, with filler cushions (stored in the sidewall) ready to replace the center table.

A lower galley with a single-burner stove and a sink is both efficient and easy to use. The sport cruisers headrooms must be felt to be believed, and new colors and fabrics throughout amplify the spacious feel of the cabin. Configured around an L-lounge, the cockpit is roomy and comfortable. The helm seating is double-wide, set next to a widened walkway.

The cleverly concealed Porta Potti hides in the cabin below. With a walk-thru transom door, the activity platform has become an intrinsic part of the floor plan. A wet locker waits there in an extra measure of accessibility and convenience. Altogether, the sport cruisers offers a singular bit of advice: vacate the city limits as soon as possible.

In a place where technology contributes in measurable ways to every component of the sport cruisers construction but where, in ways beyond measure, individual effort and personal integrity have refined the boat-builder's art over more than 30 years of ever more sophisticated design. In a place where a handshake is still sufficient to the sealing of a dream.

Access to the foredeck of the sport cruisers from the cockpit can be challenging via the normal side deck path. The deck of the sport cruisers, along the cockpit is only slightly more than five inches wide, offers no secure hand holds and the life rail is a mere 12 inches high along this path. This route should not be attempted while the sport cruisers is underway. The easiest and safest passage to the foredeck on the sport cruiser is through the forward deck hatch.

The layout of the sport cruisers features a diagonal double berth forward followed by a head and shower to port and a hanging locker to starboard. In the main saloon of the sport cruisers there is a galley to port with two-burner, counter-top stove, a microwave oven and front-loading refrigerator. Opposite the galley on the sport cruisers, is an asymmetrical dinette which seats three comfortably and four in a pinch.

Sports cruisers are well engineered, and come very well equipped with standard features. Both models offer attractive modern styling as well as comfortable accommodations for four people. All this results in their generally holding their value and appeal better than average for performance oriented sport cruisers boats.

Vinylester resin is considerably more expensive but is stronger, more flexible and bonds better than polyester resin used by most production sport cruisers boats manufacturers. Hull sides and high stress areas on the sport cruisers are reinforced with foam core for strength and light weight.

The cockpit on the sport cruisers are deep, secure and where passengers should be when the boat is underway. On the sport cruisers, there is a double bolster seat at the helm and a full-width bench seat across the back of the cockpit. Underway passengers should be seated or standing and supported by the bolsters.

There are dozens of reasons to own multiple sport cruisers, many of them technical and non-glamorous: rattle-free doors maybe and everywhere storage and multiple platforms for waterborne fun aft. The sport cruisers are surprises packages waiting to happen, a set of expectations waiting to be exceeded, a sport cruiser that combines practicality and personality. You’re simply going to have to learn to live with it.

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