rough ride

[stifflkd]

We do those same things on the coast too. Until I can get and closed cooled outboard I see no compelling reason to switch from a stern drive. I am on a lift like so many others so there is no maintenance advantage for me. In fact just the opposite. I work on a F300/Grady and a VP 350/R5. The VP-350 is a piece of cake to work on compared to the F300. And I don't have the worry of dropping a nut or tool overboard.

[dsthomas]

They may be adding the OB on there models to get a piece of that market. But the hull design on the even series boats was advertised as being designed to produce a better surf wave with Malibu surf system. I'm not alone in noticing the ride quality on my R8 isn't as good as my R7, but don't get me wrong my R8 still rides very well. Best of both worlds for us for sure.

[Matts19]

Did you get trim tabs? If you trim all the way down it will likely make a huge difference, especially if you have a stern heavy load or no passengers in the bow.

[R6outboard]

On the positive, great boat. Bummer on the ride issues. Was surprised to see your post for my r6 out and my r4 stern drive really nicely. Many folks I took out on the r6 outboard commented on the smooth ride. ??? Could be too many configurations of boat types on one platform. I am really happy with my r4 however when I have a full tank of gas slowing the R4 creates a big wave. Note I do have a heavy ass with the big block so kind of makes sense. IF you just slow down the wave will come up completely on the swim platform and some splash up on the transom walkway. Figured out; slow some.... wait for the wave, give a little throttle to scoot in front of it and then slow down. Maybe this is normal but I attribute it to an extra 300-400 at the back with the big block. Seems like the boat shouldn't do that but think it is because I choose the big block. I did finally load up my anchor locker. It has about 50lbs in it total. Helped with leveling the boat out some on deceleration.

That said.... I would think the trim tabs should help as others have suggested. Check these guys out. Was thinking to try them at some point (for fun and curious) for my boat. They might be just what you need to get the boat to perform as you would like.

https://ride.seakeeper.com/products/seakeeper-ride-525/

[lespaulrob]

Did you get trim tabs? If you trim all the way down it will likely make a huge difference, especially if you have a stern heavy load or no passengers in the bow.

^^^^ This...We get some massive waves when coming into the marinas on our lake with all of the traffic from houseboats, cruisers, cigarette style boats, etc., and dropping the trim tabs is key for us, at least on our R6S. The wake boats and pontoons are getting absolutely ROCKED and have to slow down to 15mph or less but I drop the trim tabs and keep rolling through smoothly. It doesn't turn as well with the tabs down but it sure smooths out the ride. Once I'm through the rough stuff, I raise them back up as well so I get better turning performance.

[Table Rockin]

I think the thought behind the R8 was to give you the best of both worlds. Yes there are much better wake boats out there if that is your main passion but those boats suck a@@ when your doing anything but towing. I was just tied up with a buddy who just bought a centurion and his cruising speed is about 20-22 MPH and the ride is rough. That is a major turnoff for alot of people. Cobalt is attempting to supply a boat that does both cruising and surfing well enough but wont do either exceptionally well. That type of boat would be appealing to my family if I could get over the price tag......which I cant......so we "suffer" through

Unfortunately if you have no interest in tow sports, it may be that the R8 isnt the right boat for you. Formula has nice options in class of boat.

[CobaltDeadHead]

It really seems like Cobalt lacks a clear direction as a brand under Malibu. Seems like they should have three series of boats.

Have a regular bowriders series with boats from 20 to 35 feet with a deep V to ride well and great swim platforms. They've fallen behind the competition on swim platforms IMO.

Offer a couple of surf only models like the R6 & R8

Have an Outboard series from 22 to 30ish feet. Design those with desirable saltwater features such as proper scuppers and again a deep V to handle the waves.

[Table Rockin]

you can do that but it costs more. They are trying to essentially do what your saying but to cut production costs and make things more efficient they are using same hull for all boats under 30' long and just changing the rigging based on what you are looking for.

If they created two hulls for boats under 30' I'm sure they could potentially use the same hull for OB and Non-surfs but for whatever reason (I'm assuming costs) they are using the same hull on everything (under 30') and those hulls were really designed to make a better surf wake.

[dustinm]

They could have simply carried over their odd R hull for cruisers/off-shore and focused the new hull for the even Rs/surfing. Engineering/production molds have been paid for on the odd Rs. But understand where you're coming from Table Rockin

[Krob1114]

I'll be holding on to our "odd" for quite some time (hopefully as I'm 70, LOL).

[Paul275]

This is an interesting thread to me. I had a new R8 OB on order two years ago. A 2013 296 came along that I felt was less of a gamble if I didn't like the ride. So I was not going to spend almost 275k without assurance that I liked the ride
We do our boating on the Long Island Sound. For those not familiar with the Sound, it can range from calm to horrible, with 3-4 footers easy. The 296 with twins is about 8900 lbs dry, and the R8 is 6500. The 296 starts to struggle in 2+ footers, but you can still keep her on plane at about 20-23 mph which keeps the ride bearable. Part of it is my skill level in handling the boat, as I am sure someone with more boating experience can manipulate the drive trim and tabs better that me. The 296 never feels unsafe. but I do wish it was better in rough water.

[FirstStar]

Caution putting the trim tabs down in rough water. A couple weeks ago I was overtaking a boat and crossing its wake, not entirely at a right angle but as close to 90% as normal. Trim tabs fully down. The boat rolled on its side pretty dramatically. The bow being down must have caught the wake and instead of going up an over it dug in and the boat (R5) rolled hard to port - farther over than I had ever experienced. Of course it wasn't going to go over but all of the passengers (the ones I deployed the trim tabs for to smooth out the ride) were dramatized

[trackeer]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm,

We owned a 18 SC25 with a 350 Merc and boating on Lake Winnepesauki was a breeze, the boat handled great road the rough stuff pretty good, sold the boat at the just after the onset of Covid and now are thinking another boat, there is a new leftover R8 with twin 300's available and they want to move it. We intend to bring the boat to NC in the cooler weather and at the lake in the summer, the boat is fine on the lake but hanging out in the sound or heading out to the Outer Banks has me thinking (Bad Ride Makes Unhappy Boaters)now reading some of the post about the ride of some of the new hulls is concerning, that and in truth the price has perked my interest but keep leaning towards a DC, may have to bite the bullet and pay the difference and get the boat more apt to please everyone.
To bad, but boat prices are slowly coming down may have to wait until mid-winter to strike a reasonable deal!!!!
Thanks For Info Folks.

[AsLan7]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm,

We owned a 18 SC25 with a 350 Merc and boating on Lake Winnepesauki was a breeze, the boat handled great road the rough stuff pretty good, sold the boat at the just after the onset of Covid and now are thinking another boat, there is a new leftover R8 with twin 300's available and they want to move it. We intend to bring the boat to NC in the cooler weather and at the lake in the summer, the boat is fine on the lake but hanging out in the sound or heading out to the Outer Banks has me thinking (Bad Ride Makes Unhappy Boaters)now reading some of the post about the ride of some of the new hulls is concerning, that and in truth the price has perked my interest but keep leaning towards a DC, may have to bite the bullet and pay the difference and get the boat more apt to please everyone.
To bad, but boat prices are slowly coming down may have to wait until mid-winter to strike a reasonable deal!!!!
Thanks For Info Folks.

.
So glad you found us trackeer.

Yes it’s seems the market is softening. May be best to wait it out a bit longer.

And welcome aboard mate!

.

[jhnmdahl]

Seems like perhaps there's an opportunity to refresh the A series as a deep-vee luxury boat and keep the R series as a shallower-vee watersports boat?