Cobaltchat.com

I received this information recently from a Cobalt customer service rep:

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.

Am I not finding anything at all because wood rot just isn't an issue in these boats?

nolaboater99 wrote: Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:21 pm I was very concerned about this topic for obvious reasons. I didn't want to dump a ton of money into my Cobalt only to find $10k later I should have had it surveyed....so I did right after I bought it. Especially knowing the history of this boat like I do. Even after living in salt water for 30 years, and being neglected by the PO it surveyed very dry.

As I have said in the past, I am also a long-time member of the Sea Ray forum and it is amazing the number of people that come on and state, "....got a really great deal on a 198x Sea Ray and I wanna know how to make it go faster." Uuhhh….maybe it was a good deal for a reason. Just last night a guy posted a question about an engine. He bought a 1987 Sea Ray 268. A pretty nice, roomy, aft cabin pocket cruiser. Sea Ray sold a shitload of them. His boat came with the Merc 260HP/Alpha I engine package. He wanted to know if it was going to be a dog. (It will be) But I asked him if he sea trialed before purchase. He replied, "No, it needed bellows and has a cracked lower unit." WTF! No survey, no sea trial.... Just like FriscoBoater in the video but I guess it's not my problem.
Shawn

nolaboater99 wrote: Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:21 pm I was very concerned about this topic for obvious reasons. I didn't want to dump a ton of money into my Cobalt only to find $10k later I should have had it surveyed....so I did right after I bought it. Especially knowing the history of this boat like I do. Even after living in salt water for 30 years, and being neglected by the PO it surveyed very dry.

As I have said in the past, I am also a long-time member of the Sea Ray forum and it is amazing the number of people that come on and state, "....got a really great deal on a 198x Sea Ray and I wanna know how to make it go faster." Uuhhh….maybe it was a good deal for a reason. Just last night a guy posted a question about an engine. He bought a 1987 Sea Ray 268. A pretty nice, roomy, aft cabin pocket cruiser. Sea Ray sold a shitload of them. His boat came with the Merc 260HP/Alpha I engine package. He wanted to know if it was going to be a dog. (It will be) But I asked him if he sea trialed before purchase. He replied, "No, it needed bellows and has a cracked lower unit." WTF! No survey, no sea trial.... Just like FriscoBoater in the video but I guess it's not my problem.
Shawn

nolaboater99 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:55 pm No, you'll be fine. The 268 has a dry weight of 4400 lbs. Yours is probably less than 3200. I only have a small block in mine and I weigh 3900 dry. Mine pops right up on plane and will run in the mid 40s.
Shawn

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.