Cabo 43

Even at the tail end of a whirlwind two-week tour of America's top sportsfishing boatbuilders, the Cabo 43 really stood out.

Tucked into a side-tie at Basin Marine, just off Harbor Island Drive in posh Newport Beach, California, the distinctive Cabo look beckoned to us seductively from a sea of competitors and blow-boats.

Approaching the glistening white vessel, I recalled an earlier visit to the company's high-desert manufacturing facility in Adelanto, California, where I saw hull #1 of this model getting her interior reconfigured as she sat at the end of Cabo's production line.

During the tour we also got a firsthand look at the high standard of craftsmanship that Cabo invests in every one of its boats, and gained an appreciation of the exhaustive engineering undertaken during the design and development phase of each model.

Cabo Sales and Marketing Director Greg Bourque, who conducted that factory tour, now welcomed us aboard the 43 for a sea trial off the southern California coast.

It didn't take long before we were unfastening latches (virtually all of which we found to be beefy, rattle-free and glistening with quality) and oohing and ahhing over the finely detailed work that has become a hallmark of the Cabo fleet.

For starters, the gelcoat was as flawless as could be expected from a production boat, and Cabo's moulded non-skid decks are unmatched in the industry. Likewise the metal fittings, many of which are custom-made by Cabo (such as the transom door hinges and latch) as part of its quest to deliver top quality hardware that not only works perfectly, but looks good and lasts the distance.

CENTRE STAGE
As anyone who fishes seriously offshore knows, the cockpit is the heart of a boat. That's where we'll start our review.

The Cabo 43 cockpit measures 36sqft - spacious for her class. Standard equipment includes an aluminum reinforcing plate for a fighting chair, a bait-prep centre with a large sink, rigging board and tackle storage with lid, gas actuator, full-length stainless steel piano hinge and a latch. There's courtesy lighting under the gunwales, two large sub-floor insulated fishboxes with macerator pump-out system, vinyl covered high-density foam gunwale padding and a 182lt livewell moulded into the transom.

Rod racks are found under the gunwales with five rodholders (good ones) on top. There's plumbing for quick disconnect fresh and saltwater washdown hoses, a transom door with lift-gate and a cockpit scupper system designed to quickly shed large volumes of water from the decks.

An impressive if not unparalleled list - and those are just the standard cockpit fittings. Like everything else on a Cabo, attention to detail is what makes these boats so special.

For example, those big fishboxes have tightly fitting rubber gasket hatches, stout latches and full-length stainless steel piano hinges. They don't rattle underway, keep your catch cold and don't admit deck water. The insides of the fishboxes are finished with high gloss linear polyurethane for easy cleaning. Now that's attention to detail.

ROOM WITH A VIEW
While our photographer snapped detail shots and petrolhead Editor-in-Chief Mike Sinclair immersed himself in the engineroom, I climbed up to the flybridge where I found nearly everything to my liking, and just one thing I didn't.

The aft mounted control console provides an excellent view both fore and aft for the skipper, but in its effort to provide mounting space for large-screen electronics, I think Cabo may have gone a bit overboard. The starboard side of the console offers enough room to mount a suite of electronics, but even our well-equipped testboat could barely use half of it. Unless you plan to watch DVDs or play videogames on a massive flatscreen TV mounted on the flybridge console (not advisable), you've got a large gelcoat wall staring at you that steals a bit of visibility from the helm on the starboard side.

Yeah, maybe I'm a bit picky about that small loss of visibility, but I sure liked everything else I found on the flybridge console. The gauges are nicely laid out and protected under a sealed panel, and their crisp white faces are easy to read.

The chromed bronze wheel and single lever controls are set on a moulded pod. They're at the right angle and height to encourage the boat's natural agility. Important toggle switches under the wheel are neatly separated by stainless barricades to guide fingers, particularly useful in rough seas. Console faces are nicely angled and there's plenty of space to mount virtually any aftermarket electronics. Protected radio cabinets are also included.

Highly polished surfaces complement the fitout and promise ease of maintenance, and there are grabrails everywhere they need to be.

The rest of the flybridge is comfortable and practically laid-out with plenty of storage, seating for a full family and the best view aboard.

Our testboat's stainless steel hardtop supports and safety rails were among the best we'd ever seen with clean, tight welds, flawless joints, superb structural integrity and a gleaming finish.

Cabo is unique among boatbuilders. In deference to its Californian heritage, it outfits its production boats in ways others won't.

Owners have the option of a minimalist bowrail (east coast style, dropping to the deck near the front of the house) or a west coast-style bowrail that includes a toe band at foot level and runs far enough aft for an angler to safely walk forward. Both are available in either stainless steel or aluminum. Bridge-side outrigger mountings (rather than deck mountings) are another Californian innovation Cabo includes.

LIVING LARGE
After looking over the 43's functional foredeck we entered the spacious saloon and heard a few more ohhhs-and-ahhhs from our sea trial team.

First source of wonderment was the main electrical panel, which is located in a teak cabinet to starboard after entering the cabin. It's probably something an owner will proudly share with any guest. The guts of the switch panel are easily accessed and are protected with clear Plexiglass panels, but it is the wiring runs, labelling and connections that were attracting all the praise. They are a work of art.

The rest of the cabinetry in the interior from the main saloon, through the galley, into the owner's cabin (to starboard, amidships), through the two heads and into the forward cabin is typical of Cabo's high standards.

The satin finished light teak cabinets are louvered for ventilation where appropriate, and the doors are secured with easy to use, rattle free, spring-loaded pop-out latches.

The interior is entirely livable. Designed with practicality in mind, the whole interior is beautifully finished throughout. From the spacious saloon with its L-shaped couch and uninterrupted view to the open galley half a step down, to the functional, easy-to-clean heads, the 43 offers all the comforts of home. The guest accommodation forward and the master suite also looked comfortable.

Another hallmark of this boat was the easy access to storage areas. Gas actuated hatches are generally fitted, like under the pedestal bed in the master cabin for example.

Cabo never loses sight of the fact that you can never have too many rods and reels on a fishing boat, and that there's a need to securely store that arsenal. There are ventilated rod storage cabinets above the upper bunks on either side of the forward cabin.

Slide-out vertical stores racks grace galley cabinetry offering deep storage with security for those taller items that like to fall down while underway.

FASTEST IN CLASS
Speaking of underway, it was time to light off the MAN engines and see what this puppy could do. As expected, the thrum of the big German diesels did little to interrupt our conversation. Cabo's high-density foam soundproofing works well. Company figures suggest a 70dB sound level at the helm at 900rpm and 89dB at 2400rpm.

We eased away from the dock, idled along the busy beaches of Balboa Island, past the historic waterfront mansions of California legends like Roy Rogers and John Wayne, and headed out the channel into a sea that was doing little to please the local surfing community. So much for a rough water sea trial.

We kept running away from our photographer on the company's 35 Express chase boat, so we slowed down a tad. Through it all, the Cabo 43 carved the ocean cleanly and rode like a thoroughbred. She felt solid, powerful, sea kindly, manoeuverable, stable, dry and capable of anything a serious sportsfisherman could put her through - from tempestuous offshore conditions to getting onto a tournament-winning billfish that's a few feet out of tagging range.

Mike put his back to the helm pod and chased an imaginary black marlin at one point during our trial. The 43 danced like Gene Kelly on the Avalon ballroom floor (which was only 29 miles away, incidentally). He didn't have to say much as he relinquished the helm, but we could gather his impression of her manoeuvrability from the grin.

Cabo's testing indicates a range of 753nm with her standard fuel capacity of 2650lt running at 9.6kt (900rpm) with the optional twin 800hp MAN diesels fitted. Her fuel burn with that high performance engine package is said to be 322lt/hr at 2400rpm, which pushes the boat to 36.4kt. Cabo says she's the fastest of any boat in her class. The 43 reportedly does more than 26kt at 1800rpm while sipping less than half that much fuel per hour - just 161lt/hr.

LOVE & LEAVE
All too soon, our sojourn on the Cabo 43 drew to a close. We had used up every excuse to keep her running off the coast between Newport Beach and Dana Point and it was, unfortunately, time to take her home.

While aboard we found Cabo's 43 Flybridge Sportfisher to be not only an exceptionally well designed, engineered and built boat, but one with a surprising number of standard features which would only be available as options on many other production boats. Everywhere we turned it was obvious that the boatbuilder had gone to a lot of trouble to install the best equipment rather than just any old bit of crap that would do the job.

Metal braided, fire-retardant fuel lines are standard, as are four automatic/manual bilgepumps, two engineroom exhaust fans, windlass and back-up freshwater pump - all direct current 24V units.

A Bose stereo/DVD surround sound system, emergency Y-valve engine-driven bilgepump system, trolling valves, the engine synchroniser and five-rod rocket launcher on the bridge rail are just a few more examples of beyond-the-norm standards on the Cabo 43.

As for options, if I was fitting out a Cabo 43 for myself in Kona, Hawaii, I'd probably go with a maroon hull (yeah, I know that would be hard to keep nice). I'd opt for the west coast bowrail (in stainless steel), four additional rodholders on the launcher, the ice machine in one of the cockpit fishboxes and a larger genset to support it (the standard genset is 10kW). You don't seem to need a lot of options to finish-out a Cabo.

Since Cabo made the apparently seamless transition from managing one of the world's best sailboat manufacturing companies (Pacific Seacraft) to managing one of the world's best sportsfishing boatbuilders, I've watched in awe as it followed a path not dissimilar to the one Richard Bertram trod decades earlier.

First it built the widely acclaimed 31 Express, then they grew to build a 35 (express and flybridge), then came some bigger boats (a 45 and a 47), and now they are filling in the gaps with the 43 Flybridge we tested and the brand new 40 Express.

Each is impressive in its own right. When there have been problems, Cabo has moved quickly to resolve them, even to the point of completely redesigning the hull of its 35. Some owners have described the original 35 as wet and less sea-kindly than they thought it should be. The new 35 apparently resolves both issues.

This is a company that builds world-class sportsfishing machines. As a matter of fact, this may well be the company that builds the finest production sportsfisher in the world. In my opinion the 43 deserves that accolade, but the new Cabo 40 and the soon to be released Cabo 48 could well eclipse her reign.