COBALT R30
There’s an old saying that goes: You can’t have everything, because where would you put it? Cobalt Boats has come up with an elegant attempt at an answer: The Cobalt R30 is a large luxury day boat with the room to fit a crowd and the amenities to entertain them. This yacht-certified bowrider has a fantastic interior layout that can accommodate a large crowd on the water. The arrangment is made all the better by the extra room gained from Cobalt’s Free Space Reclamation build process. By shaving fiberglass off the hull and deck in the mold while maintaining full strength and structural integrity, Cobalt adds nearly a foot of interior width. This allows for more seating and more stowage space.
The main cockpit sports a plush transom bench that can seat four, a jump seat behind the captain’s chair at the helm, and a doublewide bench in front of the port console that has a fore-andaft-adjusting backrest so the crew can sit comfortably in several different ways. A Yeti cooler hides inside the fiberglass base. The head inside the port console is spacious and well-appointed, with a fiberglass sole with vinyl walls, Corian countertop housing a stainless-steel sink, and a porcelain pumpout toilet.
The bow cockpit has space to both sides for passengers to fully recline, with flip-up armrests that are sturdy enough to support the full weight of an adult male standing atop them. (I know this because I tried it.) The anchor locker is easy to access and drains outboard, and the anchor smartly hides underneath the bow. The recessed stainless-steel grab rails provide safety up front without sacrificing any style points.
While at anchor, the aft sun pad provides another lounging point, and it features twin pop-up backrests, giving loungers different comfort options. When it’s time to get in the water, raise or lower the electrically actuated swim step into the water at the push of a button.
Our test boat was powered by twin Volvo Penta V8-300 sterndrives, which propelled the R30 to a near60 mph top-end speed. We planed in 3.7 seconds and hit 30 mph in 6.5 seconds. The twin Duoprops gave the R30 exceptional bite in carving S-turns and making hardover turns at speed. The twin counter-rotating propsets also made handling in close quarters and docking the R30 a breeze. —