Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2017 i Boating

There’s an old saying that goes: You can’t have everything, because where would you put it? Cobalt Boats has come up with an elegant attempt at an answer: The Cobalt R30 is a large luxury day boat with the room to fit a crowd and the amenities to entertain them. This yacht-certified bowrider has a fantastic interior layout that can accommodate a large crowd on the water. The arrangment is made all the better by the extra room gained from Cobalt’s Free Space Reclamation build process. By shaving fiberglass off the hull and deck in the mold while maintaining full strength and structural integrity, Cobalt adds nearly a foot of interior width. This allows for more seating and more stowage space. MORE ONLINE To watch our online video review of…

DO invest in a towline rated to the proper capacity. WSIA standards call for 2,375-pound rated lines for twopassenger inflatables, 4,100-pound ratings for fourperson models, and 6,000-pound ratings for six passengers. DON’T be careless with your rope’s attachment points. If a tube nose-dives, the stress created is enormous, making it essential to secure the rope both to your inflatable’s connection point and your boat’s tow ring. DO fully inflate the PVC bladders. The inflatable should feel firm to the touch, with few to no wrinkles in the outer nylon cover. Underinflation hinders performance, causes premature wear, and can be a safety hazard. DON’T overinflate. Filling your tube with excessive air may cause internal bladder seams to tear, distorting the tube’s shape. DO adhere to manufacturer passenger capacity ratings. It’s not…

Companies occasionally create independent promotional programs with cash rewards tied to catching a world record with a certain brand of tackle. Mustad Hooks’ Hook-A-Million campaign a few years ago, for example, offered $1 million to the first angler to catch a certified IGFA all-tackle world record from among 14 popular species using a Mustad hook. Anglers needed to preregister to qualify, and one of those was California resident Guy Yocom (pictured, left), who went on to win in a big way. He and the crew of his boat El Suertudo (Spanish for “Lucky One” ) landed a 427.9-pound yellowfin tuna about 100 miles south of Cabo San Lucas. The yellowfin supplanted the previous all-tackle record of 405 pounds, as authenticated by the IGFA, earning Yocom the $1 million, paid out…

New Harmony High School has been awarded $10 million under XQ: The Super School Project, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple’s Steve Jobs. It’s also in a partnership with Stanford University and the only one of the 10 XQ winners built on a barge. That’s not exactly a new one for schools (or hospitals or homes), but it is the first barge dedicated to the study of the coast while climate change melts ice caps, heats up the globe, and creates more fierce storms. Under construction in the Mississippi Plaquemines Parish, which was hit especially hard by Hurricane Katrina, New Harmony will be anchored in Venice, Louisiana, and will accept 40 to 45 Louisiana freshmen every year for four years, until the boat is full. Each student’s…

A pair of electric or electro-hydraulic trim tabs should be on the short list of indispensable marine accessory equipment on board any planing powerboat. (It’s the first upgrade I made to my new EdgeWater charter boat.) Few things will affect or control the way your vessel rides in a variety of wind and sea conditions more than trim tabs. A timely touch of tabs can cure many ills. Let’s take a closer look at when and how to use these plates that extend from the transom. PLANING To correct excessive bow rise, deploy your tabs down all the way and bring your engine or drive to its most negative-trim position. This should flatten your takeoff angle when you punch the throttle(s) and offer improved visibility forward. Once your boat is…

SCAN ME See a photo gallery of the Formula 430 Super Sport Crossover by scanning this tag or visiting boatingmag.com/3018. L Lots of boats are good at style, but they are as impractical as a thunder boat. Many are good at performance and so narrowly focused on it, they leave out everyday fun. But sometimes naval architects draw a bead on style, speed and one-level deck functionality and hit the bull’s-eye, as did Formula’s longtime designer John Adams with the Formula 430 Super Sport Crossover. Like all Formula boats, performance is the cardinal pillar of the 430 SSC, and to accomplish it, the company surprised us with outboard power and lots of it. Four Mercury Racing Verado 400 hp outboards lean over the transom like Thoroughbreds at Churchill Downs. Once you’re…

Runabout builders installing Volvo Penta’s Forward Drive continue to take a bite out of the wakesurfing pie from inboard-powered models from the tow-sport brands. Starcraft’s SCX 231 Surf Edition is an example. With its prop positioned at the front of the drive, safety concerns are minimized. In addition, a trio of ballast bags add 1,385 pounds to sink the hull deeper in the water and produce a bigger wave. Surf tabs, similar to oversize trim tabs, alter the boat’s port-tostarboard attitude to create and shape a surfable wake. Aboard our test boat, an optional Murphy touchscreen display ($4,487) provided ballast and tab controls; Zero Off speed control held the boat at an individual rider’s preferred speed. MORE ONLINE To watch our performance video review of the SCX 231 Surf Edition,…

Oftentimes, the marine product representative who meets with us is a bubbly, fact-spewing, marketing type wielding an expense account and prodding us to hurry lest we be late for lunch. When we showed up to learn about the new Raptor by Indmar 460, we were delighted to have been met by the vice president of engineering, Jason Stimmel. Read on to learn about what Stimmel and the Indmar engineering team have developed. Indmar aims the Raptor 460 primarily at watersports boats and the aluminum jet boats popular on the rivers of western North America, though it should make an able repower candidate for boaters looking to replace a big-block V-8. Both primary missions require lowend torque and high power in order to be successful. Bear in mind that Indmar is…

About six years ago, Stu Jones, president of the Florida Powerboat Club, was facing a critical crossroad in the organization’s history. Should he restructure his poker runs to encourage owners of center console boats to participate or continue to cater to the faster, high-performance offshore go-fast boats that had traditionally made up the fleet at the events? “I had to welcome them,” explains Jones. “I liked that they were coming around and the fact that they were accommodating more people at the events.” Owners, he discovered, were buying center consoles because they could carry more friends. That, of course, was all good news to Jones because he could recruit more members to his club. Today, performance center consoles are commonplace on the poker-run circuit. Here are seven fast center consoles…

(Answers on page 17) 1. A catamaran is a tunnel hull. A. True B. False 2. Some catamarans powered by a single sterndrive have a small appendage in the tunnel ahead of the driver. What is it called? A. A center pod B. A drive diverter C. A prop feeder D. None of the above 3. In an offshore powerboat race, a V-bottom and a catamaran are heading into a turn together. Which one can make a tighter turn? A. The V-bottom B. The catamaran C. There’s no difference 4. Spirit of Qatar holds the record for the fastest pass at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. How fast did the boat run? A. 254 mph B. 234 mph C. 224 mph D. 244 mph 5. What is the primary reason…

BOAT DOCTOR /// Q&A • WEEKEND WORKBOOK • QUICK STUDY • WHAT TO LOOK FOR • BOAT DOC SPECIAL Q: THE SOUND AND GLORY Mick, I have a new 2016 Cobalt 26 SD powered by a Volvo Penta 300 hp Duoprop sterndrive. It gets really loud between 2,400 and 3,000 rpm. Is this normal and, if so, is there any way to reduce the noise? Also, is it possible to convert a regular throttle to an electronic one? Thanks. Kerry Bender Via email A: Hi Kerry. You already have an electronic throttle. Optional available features for a single engine are: cruise control, Powertrim Assistant and Tow Mode. See your dealer or contact Volvo Penta for upgrade information. As for the sound, it’s normal for almost any boat powered by a gasoline…

OEM Most boatbuilders use precisely designed digital templates from which suppliers computer-cut canvas. To replace the factory top, or just part of it, consider ameritex direct.com. It provides thousands of OEM tops, along with detailed hardware-mounting locations. Since 2010, Ameritex has sewn on a rubber label with the part number on all of its tops. Check yours. OFF-THE-SHELF Aftermarket Bimini tops are simple rectangles, 4, 6 or 8 feet long, typically with three height choices, and made to any whole-inch width dimension. Online tools such as West Marine’s Boat Cover Fit Guide (westmarine.com/boat-covers-and-bimini-topselector) let you choose a specific boat model and year to find a predetermined best fit (not a custom-fit top) with no measuring or guessing. Using that same 10,000-boat database, taylormadeproducts.com selects the right top to order through…

SCAN ME To view our online photo gallery of the Sea-Doo GTR-X 230, scan this tag or visit boatingmag.com/3019. F For an all-new model, Sea-Doo’s GTR-X 230 definitely evokes a distinct feeling of déjà vu. That oh-so-familiar top deck is lifted directly from the RXP-X 300, Sea-Doo’s flagship performance craft. As such, this PWC delivers much of the RXP’s race heritage, though with a more recreationally amenable hull form and a top speed of 66.9 mph. Settle into the saddle and you’ll note it doesn’t push your thighs wide like the typical broad PWC seat, but narrows through the middle like an hourglass. The shape not only allows riders to keep their legs closer together for comfort, but it also engages their stronger lower-body muscles to keep anchored during aggressive, high-speed…

SCAN ME To see our firstimpressions video of the Starcraft 211 CC OB, scan this tag or visit boatingmag.com/starcraft211preview. There’s something about the word inflatable that just gives us the giggles. No, not those kind of giggles, but rather the giggles that result from fun memories. Maybe it’s from riding a simple inner tube behind your parent’s boat as a kid on summer vacation. Maybe it’s from bouncing across the waves as an adult, escaping the monotony of the work week. Maybe it’s the looks on your kids’ faces as you whipped them outside the wake for the first time. Inflatables don’t discriminate. They appeal to all ages, all sizes, all athletic abilities. Inflatables, however, can no longer be defined by that doughnut or tire tube of old. Modern versions…

A A morning of fishing off the coast of California resulted in a cooler full of tasty bott omfish, including a brown rockfish weighing more than 5 pounds that my buddy Ron Ballanti caught. Once back at the dock, Ballanti took off for an appointment, so I filleted the fish and served them for dinner that evening. Later, out of curiosity, I checked the International Game Fish Association online database. Th at’s when I discovered that I ate a world record. “That rockfish you caught beat the IGFA world record by at least a pound.” “The bad news?” “It’s, ah … gone. But it was, ummm, delicious.” How could I let this happen? How would I break the news to my buddy? “Ron, I’ve got good news and bad news,”…