2021 Cobalt 30SC Delivered - Taking Out for the first time with my wife today

[HowieJams]

My wife and I love right on Barnegat Bay and she decided she wanted a more luxurious boat for the Barnegat Bay than my 2017 WorldCat 2740 DC which I have owned since I bought it Brand New in 2018 and put 345 hours on without any issues.

We started looking at a 2023 Crownline 305 XS and my searching led me to find a 2021 Cobalt 30 SC twin Mercury 300s with 116 hours on it.

I wanted to keep the WorldCat, she wanted the Cobalt so we compromised and bought the Cobalt.

The Cobalt was being sold (commissioned) through a Highly Reputable local broker.
After a little back and forth we came to a deal.
He bought my boat for a fair price and the seller agreed to a fair lower price that I offered.

Turns out the boat was owned by a neighbor across the bay who I met last year and exchanged numbers, but at that time I didn't realize his boat was a Cobalt.
His house and boat lift are directly across a lagoon and I see it from my house every day.
I didn't realize it was his boat until I saw his name on the paperwork.
Of course I called him right away and he even told me I could have his Aluminum bunks for my boat lift free of charge, of course I had already put on new bunks, but his might be a little longer so I might grab them anyway.

The only reason he was selling the boat is that he is in a private cove off the bay and half the time it is too shallow to get out of his cove in to the bay.

I also have another neighbor 3 doors down who has a 2024 Cobalt 30 SC with Twin Merc 350s. Small world.

There were a few minor issues, the boat overheated on its first test run, turns out after sitting out of the water for 2 months the original impellers (water pumps) were shot, seller fixed at his expense and the Joystick Skyhook feature wasn't working due to a bad GPS puck antenna which he also is having fixed next Tuesday for me. He knew I was the buyer as I had signed the paperwork and called him pending a boat survey.

The good news is I get to take the boat out today with my wife today for the first time.

Boat is also equipped with a Seakeeper Gyro system he had installed since his wife would get seasick, it works great at rest and underway and it also has Lenco autoglide active trim tabs.

It turns out another neighbot about a block or two away is buying my WorldCat, he came over for a test run and loved it.

Here are is a pic of it o our lift and one Chat GPT pic with the new boat name we are having put on.

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[HowieJams]

Took it out today with the wife for the first time, kind of a snotty day on the bay, but this would be a good comparison to my old WorldCat 2740.

The negative:

First thing, it does not ride anywhere near as soft as the WorldCat.

Today in a steady 2 foot chop with lots of boat wakes we had a couple large thuds and got wet once, this would not have happened in the WorldCat.

I need to learn to slow down again which I never had to do in the Cat, but then again the Cat would only cruise at 20-28mph tops.

Also, I had to learn how to activate the Seakeeper Gyro, it took quite a while, but i did not realize it had a separate battery switch, once it was activated it was great.

The good:

It cruises at over the top speed of the WorldCat, the cat would struggle to get to 35 and was happiest at 20-28mph, 20-25 in rougher conditions.
The Cobalt you are doing 35-40mph without realizing it.

With the Seakeeper Gyro on, even without it on at the beginning, crossing other boat wakes, getting hit by a beam sea, or a following sea there is no issues, the Cat would get squirelly.
Head seas like I said, just slow down, the Cat couldn't get to 35-40mph to go through a head sea or a huge wake, so slowing the Cobalt down to 20-25 is a fair trade off.

This was day one and I was learning the boat, for the rougher ride compared to the Cat it does everything else better.

Now I just need to work on getting the rear inside cover on, tedious to say the least.

[AsLan7]

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So glad you found us HJ….

Great pics of your Cobalt.
Thanks for the ride report as well. It’s really hard to beat the ride of a twin hulled Worldcat. Definitely a trade off but the other factors you mentioned seem to make up for it.

And welcome aboard mate!

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