Cobalts BEST Hull

[Snowman8]

OK. I have a 2014 R5 and love the boat, but I just posted a comment on another thread about how it handles the chop at our lake. Boating in Texas has been a real learning experience. The wind is almost constant here, but especially in West Texas where our lake is. So, most days are windy and the chop ranges from 1 foot to 2 foot without boat traffic. The R5 can handle that pretty well, but throw in a few wakes and it turns into a washing machine. Last weekend was another example of that. We headed out Sunday morning and our friends were behind us in their 250. The 250 is a little bigger, 25' hull length to my 23.5' and weight was close to the same, but he eventually passed by me as I was navigating the chop and I was watching as he was planed out and the boat didn't appear to jumping around like my R5 does. As I saw him go by, I tried to plane out and see if I could move across the chop better, but I couldn't keep it up very long before I needed to back off of it. Can anyone on the forum provide some knowledge on why this "appears" to be the case. I have not ridden on his boat, so I can't say how it felt actually in the boat, but from the outside, he seemed to be handling the chop much better. Is this a hull issue or does that extra 1.5 feet really help that much?

Do you have an R5 or R3? An R5 is 25’8” long, not 23’5”. I believe the 250 is slightly heavier boat but not much. I currently have an R5, at least until my uncle buys it from me.. and it has trim tabs. It handles windy chop and large wakes with ease. Trim tabs make a HUGE difference in choppy water & large waves.

[Tuscany]

The truth?
Chop off a couple feet from each advertised length, because the swim deck is included in the overall hull length.
My R7 is a 27 1/2' boat with a 2' swim deck? It's actually a 25 1/2' hull.

[AsLan7]

The truth?
Chop off a couple feet from each advertised length, because the swim deck is included in the overall hull length.
My R7 is a 27 1/2' boat with a 2' swim deck? It's actually a 25 1/2' hull.

.
I can’t remember the year manufacturers switched this spec but our 2005 263 is a 26’3” hull roughly and with the extra extended swim platform a 28+ foot boat.

[Snowman8]

The truth?
Chop off a couple feet from each advertised length, because the swim deck is included in the overall hull length.
My R7 is a 27 1/2' boat with a 2' swim deck? It's actually a 25 1/2' hull.

.
I can’t remember the year manufacturers switched this spec but our 2005 263 is a 26’3” hull roughly and with the extra extended swim platform a 28+ foot boat.

I would guess it was in the 90’s when they started listing the length over all. I remember my uncle buying a 1989 215 Four Winns Sundowner and it was actually 21’ 7” long with a 2’ teak swim platform screwed on the back. Somewhere we lost 2’, maybe that’s why we all get 2’ itis…

[Titaniumboy]

Cobalt wasn’t cheating with the hull length as of 2007. My 240 is listed as 23’-9” overall hull length and 25’-11” with the extended swim platform. Other manufacturers may have started exaggerating earlier than this?

[Krob1114]

Our first boat was 18.5'. The swim platform was extended out over the water, making the boat feel like it had more room.
The swim platform on our R3 is incorporated into the hull, so I feel like we have a 23'10" hull.

[stifflkd]

LOA is the measurement of the mold. Since most current Cobalts have an integrated platform the measurement is from bow to end of platform. My R5 from transom/keel to bow is 22'. Probably add an additional 1' for the extended running surface.

[MnLakeBum]

The truth?
Chop off a couple feet from each advertised length, because the swim deck is included in the overall hull length.
My R7 is a 27 1/2' boat with a 2' swim deck? It's actually a 25 1/2' hull.

This exactly. My R5 is really a 23 foot hull. For comparison, I now have a Boston Whaler 230 Vantage that spends most of its time in Florida but I dragged it back to MN for the summer. It’s a 23’ foot hull but with the swim platform(smaller than the R5’s) the LOA is 24’8” plus the outboard adds another foot or so. Now that I’ve had some time with the Whaler at the lake, I can say it rides better than the R5 in the boat chop of a busy weekend day. The hull design is certainly different than the R5 even though the deadrise is similar. On the Gulf of Mexico, it’s only adequate on a calm day which means I’m going to need something more like a 32-35 footer. My wife already knows this is a need and not a want.

[Kenboat]

I agree, you must take care of needs before wants!

[Tuscany]

Bum,
One thing that wasn't available on your surf was trim tabs. That corrects a LOT of ride issues on my boat.
While not having them on our first boat, I ordered tabs because I thought it would help correct weight distribution issues with the dumb azz port side rear seating overload in the 3/5/7 series. Just looking at the layout was a question of "what were they thinking"..
I never realized before how much of a difference they make in smoothing out choppy water.

[Krob1114]

Just looking at the layout was a question of "what were they thinking"..

They were probably thinking that the largest lard a$$ would be at the helm.
At least on our boat.

[dustinm]

Just looking at the layout was a question of "what were they thinking"..

They were probably thinking that the largest lard a$$ would be at the helm.
At least on our boat.

lol you goofball!!