New to Cobalt on Lake Winnipesaukee, NH at West Alton Marina

[CobaltDeadHead]

Hello,

Made a few posts in the General Forum, but figured I'd make a proper introduction here and use this thread as a place to document any improvements and modifications I make to my 2005 24SX as well as my family's overall boating experience. Really enjoy what I've seen if this forum so far. Very helpful and friendly members.

First season owning a boat, but I've spent a fair amount of time on friends boats over my lifetime. I've done a ton of research dreaming of owning my own boat and have known for a long time that Cobalt makes the very best runabouts.

Did not start the season with my Cobalt. Like many people Covid restrictions pushed me into ownership a couple of years early. We have a five year old and a 21 month old. Was planning on waiting until the young one was 3-4 years old before buying, but jumped into ownership.

Started the season buying a 2009 Key West 186 DC. My wife wasn't as gung-ho about being a boating family as me, so I figured I'd start small and affordable and see how things go before going after a boat I really want. The Key West was a great little boat.

We started the season trailering to local lakes. Let's just say that didn't go well AT ALL! Long waits launching and coming off water was a disaster with such young, impatient kids. Gave my wife serious anxiety. I thought my boating family dreams were sunk.

I decided I needed a much easier experience for the family and googled into the last valet spot at what has turned out to be an AMAZING marina. Total game changer. My wife went from dreading boating to becoming excited with anticipation immediately.


The valet service at WAM is fantastic, but they are expanding with new amenity slips. These slips afford space for a 10 x 12 Cabana behind your slip as well as a 8 x 12 cookout and storage area behind the Cabana. I put us on the wait list for the new slips and after six weeks I was moved into a one. It won't be ready to add the Cabana until next season, but we have our new home.

Here's a few pictures of the Key West

[AsLan7]

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Hey great intro thread CDH. Thanks for doing that. I have some time behind a Key West as well during some fishing adventures with friends. Nice boats.

Looking forward to your Cobalt Cabana pics down the road.

[CobaltDeadHead]

You can see the obvious construction of new slips in the above photo. You can also see a Cabana slip beyond the flagpoles. While the boating since we got the slip has been fun, that 18' Key West got rocked pretty good on the often big waters of Winnipesaukee. I was lucky to travel 20mph on the big parts of the lake. Boat could do 42 on flat water.

The vision of what could become became clear to my wife once we moved into the new slip. LOTS of family fun to be had. Problem was the Key West had a capacity of only six people. I also started looking towards the fall and planting the seed that to comfortably extend our season, we really need a bigger boat with an enclosed head compartment.

Wife said go for it!!!!!

I had a top end budget in mind of $45k. I knew I'd be buying a Cobalt. I looked at several different models on the market in my price range, but kept coming back to the 24SX. I just absolutely LOVE the 24sx layout. There were two for sale on the lake. One was at a dealership with a Volvo Penta 380 with 475 hours. The other a private sale with a Merc 300 with 275 hours. Both boats well cared for and priced the same at $34k. Was leaning towards the dealership boat until I talked to our Marina owner. He services both Merc and Volvo and says from that era the amount of service work from that era on Volvos was far more than Merc.

Test drove the Merc 24SX two weeks ago and was in love in about 30 seconds. Plenty of power and OMG does the boat handle the chop well. Turns out the private sale owner was college buddies with a former coworker of mine. Just felt like the right move

Sold for $31k.

Sold the Key West within a week for exactly what I paid for it.

Here's the boat when I picked it up from his place

[Big Block Power]

Right that sounds like the hot ticket. Put a lift in there and I'm all set.

[CobaltDeadHead]

I looked at a number of different model Cobalts from years 2002 to 2011 from 23' to 27' in the $28-45k range. I kept coming back to the 24SX because of the unique layout. My understanding is this particular model did not sell well at all. The sister 240 model with traditional DC layout from that era sold something like 5 to 1 over the 24SX.

I'm really not sure why that is. It has so many benefits over the traditional DC design IMO.

1. The center driving position is great. CC fishing boats are super popular not just because you can walk your catch around the boat, but being the captain on the centerline is ideal.

2. My understanding is this layout offers the largest head compartment ever made for a bowrider. My wife and I can easily sit together on the bench seat inside the cabin. The toilet design is super slick. It slides underneath the helm completely out of the way. If I hit bad weather I can easily stash my wife and children inside. It's just a super functional and cavernous space compare to a traditional DC layout.

3. The layout allows for a bigger cockpit L lounge vs the 240.

4. Having my wife sit side by side with me and actually being able to carry on a conversation while traveling 40 mph around the lake is great. The big double wide windshield blocks so much wind noise and makes it relatively quiet to chat while seated.


Ok. I've rambled enough. I'll share some pics from here. I don't expect many to really care to read all that I've written. Just tryig to document what an absolutely amazing summer this has turned out to be for me and my family that landed us in our DREAM Cobalt.

[CobaltDeadHead]

Ok Pictures

[CobaltDeadHead]

Head compartment

[CobaltDeadHead]

More

[Big Block Power]

Holy Crap that has a lot of room.
I think with that side entry and that lay out you can still get the balance of people right. I like it. Not thrilled on how they layed out the helm but I like it.

[AsLan7]

Holy Crap that has a lot of room.
I think with that side entry and that lay out you can still get the balance of people right. I like it. Not thrilled on how they layed out the helm but I like it.

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+1
Curious what's with the bloody crime scene under the fireBoy extinguiser?

[Big Block Power]

Holy Crap that has a lot of room.
I think with that side entry and that lay out you can still get the balance of people right. I like it. Not thrilled on how they layed out the helm but I like it.

.
+1
Curious what's with the bloody crime scene under the fireBoy extinguiser?

Right only time I saw that is when some one used the fire suppressant. The boat didn't quite look the same after that.
I think your boy is leaking. Time to replace that.
But hey it made me look closer and it's got captains call!!

[CobaltDeadHead]

Actually need both of those things looked at. Either the Captains Call is on all the time or it's off. Not sure, but the switch on the dash doesn't seem to do anything with the sound.

The murder scene will be cleaned up in the fall. Have an appointment for the boat to be professionally detailed inside and out before I put her away for the season in October

[Big Block Power]

I would remove the fire boy and just wipe it down quick and order a new one.

[CobaltDeadHead]

Simple fix? I'm a noob

[Big Block Power]

Simple fix? I'm a noob

Yes it's just a round fire extinguisher held in place by those brackets.