It was 2001 and IMO it is a dated hull design. The 35' Carolina Classic offers a phenominal ride in any sea in comparison. The new 38' was actually origionally slated to be a 36' to replace the 35'. Then towards the end they added 2' to the design and made it a 38' to encompass many additional things in the boat that they couldn't do with 36'. The 35 has a fairly nice ride, but is a little wet and can pound a teeny bit.
If I recall, Crealock designed the first version of the Cabo 35's. Lou Codego redesigned the Cabo 35 Express and Flybridge hulls in 1997 and they went into production in 1998. As an easy identification, they discontinued the blue stripe on the Flybridge with the redesign.
As was told in the old website all Cabo till year 2000 where hull designed by Lou Codega, and then they switched to Micheal Peters (the dry hulled second version of 35 was by Peters). The first version even though a solid ride is known as a wet-boat.
This is true. The Michael Peters hull designs on the Cabo's were a far superior ride than the previous designers. The 45' Express was redesigned at some point as well and the 2nd hull design was a very good running boat.
I am not sure where you got your information from but I have to disagree. The original 35 was designed by Bill Crealock - he was more of a MY and Sailboat guy (think Offshore Yachts and all the Pacific Seacraft sailboats) and not a true SF designer. These were the rough riding first gen 35's. They may have been wet and pounded but they did this without the creaks and groans of their competition at that time. They were solidly built and the consumers took notice. Lou Codega did the 2nd generation 35's as well as the original 31 and 45 Express. The 45 Express hull was used for the 47/48 Convertible in an in-house design effort. Dave Napier of Bertram fame did the 43 Convertible, his only commission with Cabo. That would leave the rest of the Cabo design portfolio to Michael Peters, which would include the 32, 36, 38, 40 and 52. He did not redesign the 45 Express. This is all before Brunswick/Hatteras got their hands on the brand.
PacBlue I just quoted what was said on the old website. But you information is very datailed so I guess it might be more correct then what Cabo said on its old website. For example they never mentioned Dave Napier in the old site as well. Thanks for all the details all very interesting. To be honest I always had big respect for Lou Codega so hearing his projects where wet kinda was a disappointment. He is considered among the best especially after the success of the Destriero Blue Ribbon record breaker Fincantieri build in the early nineties.
So just to keep it straight, Lou's updated 35 was the improvement so I wouldn't be disappointed with his work. His SF design work on the Hines-Farley custom SF line was truly outstanding and all his Regulator CC design is great stuff.
The updated 35' was still wet and still pounded, just half as much as the earlier version. I have run EVERY iteration of the cabo line up from the 31'-52's, and somewhere around 40 different 35's. The 36' by Michael Peters that replaced the 35' was far superior in hull design. I've run over 200 different cabo's, maybe even more for both Cabo and many of it's dealers. The Michael Peters hulls were by far incredibly better riding than any of the previous hulls, save for the mid 2000s 45' express, I did like the way that one rode if you kept the aft fuel tank full it was a great running boat. They did redesign the 45' hull at one point in time and added a little chine to the hull side, I just cannot remember when but think it was around 2001.
Well, that's sounds a bit strong from your previous comment in your Post #4 - "The 35 has a fairly nice ride, but is a little wet and can pound a teeny bit." But at least you give Lou Codega the recognition he deserves in the same post - " The 35' Carolina Classic offers a phenominal ride in any sea in comparison" as this is a true Lou designed hull. Keep in mind that when Lou helped redesign the 2nd generation 35 he was limited to working on the design below the chines as they did not want to re-tool all the interior. So it really was a hand at helping a not so robust existing design to perform a little better. Not a true blank slate like Peter's got to do with the new 36/38.
"Half as much" of the initial hulls pounding and wetness is an incredible improvement!!!! As you well know, how a boat rides, is a huge formula......hull design is half of it, trim, weight and COG are another large part of it. The Carolina classic 35' has a pretty good flair to the hull and different design parameters. Also, as you well know......any given manufacturer that uses the same hull designer throughout their line. 1 or 2 of the models will REALLY SHINE and ride excellent...….and the rest of them may ride very good, but clearly not excellent... the hull designer can only do so much and then it's up to the manufacturer to get the trim, weight and everything else right for the hull design.….some of it has to do with the weight to displacement ratio...….the hull design and trim just working perfectly, etc. etc.....or even engine choice. The 52' express rode a lot better with MAN's than it did with the CATS because the MAN 1550's were considerably lighter, quieter, and fuel efficient. The 45' express rode/ran really good with series 60's but they only built 1 or a couple with them, I only saw 1. They were faster with the C18's and 1100 common rails......only 2-3 knots.....but the series 60's were really quiet and just performed well in that boat. I used to fish hull #1 of the 45' express also back in the late 90's as a friend of mine was it's full time Captain. My biggest gripe of any of the Cabo's was helm noise. Things also progressed in the early 2000s on all of the yachts with higher HP to weight engines, cad/cam hull designing, tank testing, etc
"I used to fish hull #1 of the 45' express also back in the late 90's as a friend of mine was it's full time Captain." The one Josh ran in Cabo? He really liked that boat!
No, hull #1 was "Destiny Unlimited" , a 1996, out of Pompano Beach,FL that the buyer bought at FLBS when/where they first debuted it. It had 660 HP cats......owner had a full time Captain named Smokey. They used to fish the hell out of that boat and put 2400 engine hours on it, in the first 2 years. Which just reminded me. When Cabo changed the 45' hull, fuel capacity went from 600 to 800 gallons (fwd tank became 400 gallons from 200 gallons).
OK, I was thinking about this one: https://www.**************/boats/20...to-Vallarta/CA/United-States?refSource=browse listing#.W0izXHmWx9A 4000 hours on Series 60 engines, not too shabby!
At 23 months old and 2400 hours the 3196's on destiny unlimited had to be rebuilt due to a leaking aftercooler. Cat rebuilt both motors for free and extended the warranty another 2 years for free.
100% accurate except the 38 was really Brunswicks first endeavor on their own. The express was started when we were there but the flybridge version was all Brunswick.