Cabo 44 Boat Test

Cabo 44 Hardtop Express (2011-) Captain's Report Printer Friendly | BoatTEST.com of 10

Cabo -44 Hardtop Express (2011-)

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Captain's Report

The new Cabo 44 HTX crashes through some low rollers heading offshore at speed. Looks dry to us. She is in a special niche all her own.

Michael Peters Design

One of the hottest powerboat designers these days is Michael Peters and he has designed the new Cabo 44 HTX, as well as all of the rest of the Cabo line. Hedesigns boats in several other categories as well and we admire his sense of American ergonomics, his practical approach of functionality, and his good sea-keepingdesign features. The style of the new 44 melds in with the Cabo family, which carefully combines traditional lines with those more modem.

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Even though she is a foot shorter that the 45 she replaces, the new Cabo 44 HTX is a much bigger boat and should be able to hold her ownoffshore with far larger battlewagons.

The Peters design firm is not a one-trick pony and its wide-ranging experience in other types of boats has held it in good stead with the new 44, in our opinion.

Peters has taken the best lines of the Rybovich brothers, the practicality of Jack Hargrave, and some of the cleverness of Tom Fexas, mixed all of that together withempirical evidence gathered in the test tank, and has designed a line of boats that are good performers and fishy as they come.

The Cabo 44 HTX has over 95 sq. ft. of real estate in the cockpit The boat we were on had three Stidd seats on the bridge deck, contrary tothis drawing.

A Man-Sized Boat

As we said, this boat is big, roomy 44-footer and anglers or yachtsmen who want a rugged offshore boat that is man-sized should be pleased at what they find here.The bridge deck has three individual Stidd seats so the captain and crew can all be riding forward, and get in and out of the seats without bothering each other. Thereis 5t>" headroom in the engine room, reversing a trend among some brands to make the superstructure lower (therefore sleeker) and take it out of the engine roomheadroom. The master cabin is in the bow and it is largest we have seen in this size and type of boat, with good access on the sides of the bed, good room at thefoot, and a large hanging locker.

Peters' has created a large, open salon below with the galley along the aft bulkhead and an L-shaped settee to port. The 16'6" beam pays off in a salon where grownmen can actually pass each other without going belly to belly, and there is also room for a guest cabin to starboard. This bunk room is ideal for crew or guests. All weneed now is an option for twins in the bow.

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This is a clever cutting board, bait prep center, or a place to clean your catch. There is a huge sink underneath. It is located under afiberglass cover in the starboard forward part of the cockpit.

The New 44 Compared to the Old 46

This boat replaces the 45 Cabo that has a beam of 15'8" at the bow flair and displaces 33,000 Ibs. The waterline footprint of the new 44 is significantly larger than theold 45 which allows her to carry 10,100 Ibs. more in displacement - 33% more! - yet draws only 3"7" instead of the 4'6" of the old 45. This makes the new 44 not onlymore comfortable offshore because she is heavier, but also a fishing boat that can squeak into skinny water.

C-18 Cats at 1015-hp and 1150-hp are on the option 1st along with a Man and A CMD diesel. Since the horsepower offerings are about the same as on the ok) 45,and the boat is 33% heavier, we deduce that the WOT speed of the new 44 will be less than the relatively light 45. Clearly, Cabo has changed Is emphasis on speedand redirected it to offshore comfort and better shoal water capability

The cockpit of the new 44 features mezzanine seating, a change from the old 46 which had a more traditional layout Note there is a gateon top of the transom door for safety.

Cockpit

At the business end the old 45 was getting a bit dated with its traditional freezer and bait prep center along the forward side - the place where crew and guests oftenhopped up to sit while trolling. That has been replaced with the au currant mezzanine seating made popular in the battlewagons a few years ago.

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The lockers under the step up to the mezzanine seating can be used for optional refers or freezers. The opening in the seat to the rightallows air into the engine room while under way.

There is a fish box in the cockpit deck and in the transom there is a fish box or live well should you choose. Up a step to starboard is a counter, below which is ahandy and versatile cutting board over a large sink. There is space in lockers under the step up to the mezzanine seating for all sorts of options. Typically coolers orfreezers are put here. We will miss the convenient step up to the side decks that existed on the old 45, but the step up to the mez will suffice for the purpose.

Access to the engine room is under the center mez seat. To the right are the steps up to the bridge deck.

The Engine Room

Access to the engine is under the center mez seat where a ladder leads to the engine room which is under the bridge deck in this conventional inboard-power design.There you'l be happy to find 5'5" headroom, plenty of room between the engines—and most important, enough room outboard of the engines for a 240-to. skipper tocheck on things. Again, the engine room is a place where the extra foot of beam (and maybe even more at the waterfine beam) pays off in the new 44 compared tothe old 45.



The 44's 16'6" beam permits plenty of space between the engines. There is 5'5" headroom when standing between the engines.

We have come to expect immaculate, orderly, and handy engine room installations from the folks at Cabo, and we were not disappointed. Fuel fitters and fluid checksare all possible from between the engines, raw water strainers are forward and also easy to get to. By going across the front of the engines a skipper can getoutboard of them.

The Bridge Deck

Up three steps from the cockpit is the bridge deck. There is a large L-shaped lounge seat here, pretty much as on the old 45. So we know owners like it.

\e console abaft the navigators seat in the background can hold a grill, refer, or icemaker. We like the footrests on all of the Stidd seats.

What impressed us was the expanse of the helm area with three Stidd seats, one for the skipper and one to port and another to starboard for companions. This is agood design in our opinion because it allows three friends to interact together, all facing forward. Most important, of course, is the fact that there can be three pairs ofeyes scanning the water for pots, flotsam, weed lines, rips, birds and other obstacles and other fishy sign.

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There is ample real estate for two large screens on the instrument panel. Other gauges and VHF can be placed to the port side.

The helm is on the centerline as most anglers like it. The wheel is like you find on a bus or 18-wtieeler Cabo offers single stick controls that were spaced at the rightdistance apart for us to face aft and control them behind our back. When a big bHlfish is on the skipper needs to be able to keep his eyes riveted to the line and not beturning around to look.

This is on of the optional layouts for the new 44 HTX, Note the two bunks in the guest cabin and the design of the head.

Accommodations

Cabo has pretty much kept all of the same elements that it had in the old 45 in the new 44. That's a good sign. It means that the two state rooms, single head, galleyand settee were all appreciated by owners. Because of the added beam there is more width to 44 layout which is basically used to provide more "walking around"room in the salon.

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A wide-angle view of the salon looking aft. The big change is that the galley has been placed along the aft bulkhead. Note the four pull-outdrawers for refers and freezers under the counter. We'd put the microwave in the cabinet to the left over the counter.

Cabo has used some of that added beam to provide a slightly larger head, which is much appreciated. Also, now Cabo offers two head compartment layouts, one ofwhich has the toilet separated from the sink by the shower. In this way two (well, actually, three) people can use the head at the same time. You never know whenthat will come in handy.

There is actually more room on either side of the island than it appears in this photo. There are two hanging lockers in the master, one ofwhich is 28" fore and aft, large for this size and type of boat

Designer Peters has cleverly tucked half of the guest cabin under the bridge deck. This trick has helped pick up much-need space below. This cabin is tight, but it isthere. One can stand up inside and close the door without too many contortions. An alternative layout which Cabo wisely offers here is simply turning this room into alarge closet for gear. It is an ideal place for foul weather gear, rods, tackle and whatever.



The guest cabin to starboard can also become a storage compartment without bunks.

The master stateroom is forward. The bed is an island berth which is dictated by the marketing departments of virtually all boat companies because it appeals towomen. Or, shall we say most women insist on it. We're told by several builders that the boats actually go out of the plant about 50/50 island bed vs. twins. The twins,of course, have all of the advantages, save one.

This is one of two optional layouts for the head compartment. We prefer the layout option with the shower stall between the toilet andsink.

The galley is an improvement on the old 45 because it is moved out of the traffic ftow and may have picked up a bit more counter space. Cabo now offers the optionof four betow-the-counter refer/freezer drawers which are a big improvement of the old-fashioned single units. There is a sink to port, a two-burner cook top and agood amount of counter space. For some reason the microwave has been placed below the counter. This is a no-no for most cooks we know. There is plenty ofcabinet space above the counter for a microwave.

Overview



Cabo was bought by Brunswick several years ago and it, along with Albemarle which it also bought a bit later, combined with Hatteras formed what the companycalled the "Hatteras Collection.* The concept was to start out fishermen in the Albemarle 20-something express boats and then move them up to Cabo and laterHatteras. Albemarle has since been returned to private ownership and Cabo production has been moved from its west coast plant to the New Bern, N.C. Hatterasfacility.

The new Cabo 44 HTX has a WOT in the low 40 mph range with twin 1,000-hp Cats. Her 43,200-lb. displacement means that she can crashthrough the square ones to keep up with the large battlewagons.

Moving Cabo into the Hatteras plant obviously has 8s economic advantages for Brunswick. One would hope that the best of both corporate cultures will combine toproduce something even better than what both had in the first place - which was very good in both cases. Cabo's niche was always one of being a well-designed,well-engineered fisherman's boat that was a bit on the Spartan side at a price that was not low, but was good value.

Traditionally, Hatteras was the leader in systems engineering and in fact its staff contributed mightily to setting the benchmarks for ABYC Standards over the years.Where the two brands diverged, other than in the size and type of boat, was in the interior finish work, amenities, the market niche, and price point.

It is probably too early to know how this combination will ultimately play out, but if the Cabo 44 HTX is any Indication, things look good. Certainly the interior of thenew 44 is a step above the ok) 45, and it is there where we expect to see the most obvious improvements in Cabo.

Of course Cabo cannot forget its niche, and it is not the high-end Hatteras market position. Cabos are every bit as fishy as Hatteras, but they must do so for lessmoney. (The smallest Hatteras fishing boat is 54.') The MSRP base price of the 44 HTX is under $1 million. The boat you see pictured here with the tower, lots ofoptions, and powered by twin Cat C-18 1015-hp engines was on sale for $1.2 million at the Miami Boat Show last winter.

The optional layout has converted the guest cabin into a huge walk-in compartment for all sorts of gear.

Comparison

During the last decade a number of issues have hit the big game fishboat builders, not the least was the Great Recession. Today, there are surprisingly few expressfishboats built in the 44' range - Tiara, Riviera, Viking and that is about it. And most of these are opens or opens with an afterthought hardtop tacked on. Bertram nolonger builds boats under 51.' Rampage's largest express is a 41.

When it comes to engines, accessories and equipment on the Cabo 44, the builder uses the same brands and grades that are used on the gold-platters. Theengineering and installation of systems appears to be also up to that of the more expensive battlewagons. Construction techniques, materials and g lasswork are allworld-class on the Cabos.

Looking at what is available, we can say that because of the Cabo 44's 16'6" beam and displacement of 43,200 IDS. there is really no other simiar boat on the marketand the ones that come close are 10,000 Ibs. heavier or lighter. That fact puts the new Cabo 44 HTX hi a class by herself


Cabo 44 Boat Test

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