Cobaltchat.com

akorcovelos wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 3:09 pm

TechieTechie wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:24 pm I am the person from THT who contacted Cobalt about the use of wood and when they went 'wood free'. Here is the complete email response.

"Dear (aka)TechieTechie ,
Thank you for your e-mail. That is an excellent question. I have been here at the factory for over 35 years and spent 15 of it building the
boats. We actually did not start using fiberglass stringers until the 252 came out in 1994. The composite liner floor came out at that time, but only on the 252. Every new model after that had the liner floor and fiberglass stringers with the exception of the 190 that came out in 1996.

In 1997, we began to install a composite foam transom on our boats, replacing the wood transom.

We have always used marine grade plywood in the construction of our boats. It is supposed to be resistant to water intrusion, but we ignored that and covered it first with resin, and once it was installed in the boat, we covered it with fiberglass. But even with that, care had to be taken. I hope this information helps."

Techie opinion, reading up on early model designs in boat magazines (as I like the 1st generation 263). Cobalt was painstaking in their build process in the early years. They completely cleaned and waxed each mold after, like, 5 boats. They had 3 cross-checks on layups to make sure there were no voids, crazy quality control. IMHO, that's why, even tho they did have wood in earlier models, they had very few hull failures. And, because their boats came so well outfitted (and very rarely used for offshore fishing) and had low hours, it was more rare for owners to add/replace items that breached the hull (such as depth sounders, replacing old OMC outdrives, etc) that would increase the risk for water intrusion.

That's my 5 cents.

This post on THT is what helped me hone in on year/model of boat I was looking for, thanks much for posting that!

AsLan7 wrote: Thu Oct 12, 2017 7:00 pm
Now if you have never watched this video, it's a classic. He tells the story of his Sea Ray purchase and the "minor" wood transom issue.

...

He chronicles his saga here if you want more. Transom story starts with vid 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kopF4mu ... B574CD948D

TechieTechie wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:58 am It's funny, I'm sure there is more than 1 Rick...but yes, the response came from Rick Schoonover.

Seemed like a great guy.

AsLan7 wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:47 am .
Wow That is bad.

Thanks for the pics SD.

Great to hear insurance is covering this. That bill could hurt if it were out of an individual's pocket. Looks like that mechanic does nice work too.

.

shrfdeputy wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:52 am

AsLan7 wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:47 am .
Wow That is bad.

Thanks for the pics SD.

Great to hear insurance is covering this. That bill could hurt if it were out of an individual's pocket. Looks like that mechanic does nice work too.

.

They were actually out of pocket for the transom. That wasn't something they knew about, so they didn't include it in the claim. He only charged them $1,200 to fix the transom since he already had everything out though. And he definitely does excellent work. It is Barry from Barry's Westside Marine just outside of Wichita. I've seen his name come up on here before. He is great.

thunder550 wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:35 pm First Cobalt transom failure I've ever seen posted. But proves that wood is not indestructible no matter how well you prep it. I wonder what happened to allow his transom to rot where most others haven't?

shrfdeputy wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 8:04 pm In my opinion you don’t really need to worry about the stringers. I wouldn’t want a wood floor or transom, but I’ve been to the factory and have seen how they encase wood in fiberglass. And here’s a little secret...there is wood in a brand new R5. I saw it. Not sure about the R6 or R8.