Three very different boats broaden and refine the model line from Cobalt this year – a combination sport/deck boat, a mid-sized performance dayboat, and the largest and most innovative crossover boat in Cobalt history.
The 24 SD Sport Deck
We begin with a quick look at the past, a decade ago, when Cobalt pioneered the industry by making the best and stylish use of the “pickle-fork” wide-beam bow, a split-chine design that creates more sitting space forward, more deck area, and a larger anchor locker. Now comes the 24 Sport Deck, the most recent model in Cobalt’s surely popular SD series. The 24 SD arrives with a bow that could not be more expansive, nor more functional in its appointments — LED docking lights, bow seat armrests, a forward boarding platform, a beach boarding ladder, full-beam bow seating with a convertible bow-filler cushion, and a tremendous amount of useful under-seat and console storage.
One of the most unique features of the 24 SD is the feature that Cobalt refers to as the “Design your Dream” feature. Cobalt owner’s have the choice of building each 24 SD to their specifications. The choice begins with the accommodation of family and friends in the cockpit. Owners may configure and customize the seating configuration or cockpit layout to the boat’s most frequent usage. Customers can opt for the cockpit galley, available with or without a fridge – or they may instead choose even more seating and legroom. Additional owners’ choices continue at the helm where optional touch-screen navigation delivers pinpoint accuracy, total control for the captain. Dual five-inch multifunction digital gauges stand at ergonomic attention in an instrument panel that will drop jaws, such is its illuminated accessibility. And anyone aboard can select the background music from an iPod-compatible, USB, CD, AM/FM stereo system through either wireless remote or hard-wired controls at both port and starboard consoles.
At the transom a three-position sunpad welcomes the rays. Lounge forward. Lounge aft. Major comfort either way. Meanwhile the swim platform does its work with patented efficiency, set at an ideal height above the fun, while Cobalt’s swim step – found only, exclusively on our boats – continues to deliver the easiest, most convenient, safest water access in boating.
COBALT R5
Cobalt has built boats for almost 50 years with a careful ear to the water. We listen to what our owners and our dealers tell us. We listen with interest and with respect. We listen, and we learn.
Asked to create a mid-sized runabout with traditional elegance and the smoothest of quiet rides, we went to the prototype shop with an exterior profile first in mind. Sleek, low, and aggressive. Very, very aggressive, per the R5’s Edge graphics, set forward of the sculpted truth that is the R5’s transom, swim platform, and sunpad – cohesive in their integrated design, free-flowing in their easy functionality. The transom is walk-thru, of course. The back-rest is convertible, and the space forward is wide and wider still, with an interior beam almost a foot wider than the ever so super-spacious 242’s. We then followed with yachtesque, wraparound seating to capitalize on those wishes for a flawless ride, a ride begun of course in that legendary Cobalt hull. This seating configuration, by the way, belongs only to Cobalt in boats of the R5’s size. The twice-wide passenger seat forward makes the cockpit even more flexible in its service of a good time – fully convertible in direct reflection of seating aft. A console door, elegant in its woodgrains and crafted vinyls, opens to a head larger above and all-around than any other boat in the class.
The helm gleams in hand-craftsmanship, in oil-rubbed ebony Makassar trim and duotone aluminum dash panels and switches of stainless steel and five-inch digital gauges with multi-function readouts and, over all, a form-fitted eyebrow in everlasting vinyl. The wheel wraps in leather: one of the most time-honored of Cobalt traditions, this masterpiece of a steering wheel. Our owners have always insisted on comfort and convenience and accessibility – “ergonomics” to our designers – and so the R5’s armrests and footrests and controls and cupholders and every last little amenity aboard arrives with a form and a function just too ergo for words. And one more name to drop: the Rockford Fosgate stereo, optimized and ready, as we say, to crank.
Cobalt 336
The new 336 will mean so much to so many, and each lucky owner will find exactly the boat of which she dreamed: sporty cruiser, massive bowrider, accommodating day boat, comfortable overnighter, performance sportboat, flat-out exhilarating machine. Each 336 owner will find the features uniquely his: the award winning Cobalt ride, the leathered luxury of the cabin, the handling of a Ferrari, layback ball-game room for a dozen buddies.
A few particular traits of the 336 jump at first look. The panoramic side windows in the hull bring the outside in and reflect the envious stares of dockside passersby. Even the windshield invites further investigation of its stainless-steeled strength, its wraparound handsomeness. The cabin lies below the helm. At once snug and expansive, with a sofa stretching out there nine full feet and swiftly changeable to a berth capable of sleeping two adults and a three-year-old interloper, the cabin makes full and fine use of its spaciousness, by turns air-conditioned or heated as the day’s outing or the week’s cruise might require. Inside a cabinet designed to very specific purposes of entertainment and efficiency come a 27” LCD HD television, a Blu-Ray player, and a play-station hookup. The portside head compartment looms enormous, ready to double as a shower seat.
Available in meaningful twin-engine configurations, with or without joystick control, the 336 means power as needed, control as desired, luxury and comfort as expected. And, to top it off – literally, the optional stainless arch and hardtop is immediately self-explanatory in its popularity.