Beyond the Conception

Despite Mr. Wayne Rhodes' well-earned confidence in his colleague's abilities, Cobalt research and new-product development begins and ends in practicality. Magic word, "practical." In the Cobalt lexicon, it denotes functionality, of course, but also convenience and comfort and accessibility and dependability. And style. Elegant, refined, distinctive, very functional style. Practicality concerns itself with ultimate value.

Having listened to current Cobalt owners, having learned from knowledgeable boaters how great watercraft might be made greater still, the discovery process begins with hand tools and building materials. As opposed to a computer screen or a set of predetermined specifications. In its hour-to-hour construction a prototype takes shape. In the practicality of actually building the new boat, its strengths emerge, its opportunities for immediate improvement shout out loud. Operating happily in reverse gear, Cobalt R&D defines the new boat on the shopfloor long before any CAD drawings might.

"There's nothing we can't do out here. We'd make an airplane if someone tried to tell us we couldn't." Wayne Rhodes, R&D Shop Cobalt Associate since 1993

In the ongoing exchanges between owners and builders, Cobalt has shown an entire industry exactly the way to go. For example, in what has become perhaps the most imitated component of runabout performance, the Cobalt extended running surface forces more of the hull into continuous, hugging contact with the water at cruising speeds. Meaning quicker planing, firm and true turns, minimized bow rise, and enhanced lift astern. Then the extended running surface combines with the other critical elements of the Cobalt hull - the deep, deep-V shape and the reversed chines most of all - to produce a design so nearly perfect that model year-to-model year changes are beside the point.

It was Cobalt who first built walk-thru transoms on smaller boats, Cobalt who devised the flip-lip seat, with all its flexible comfort, all its multitasked convenience, Cobalt who saw a way to build protection into necessarily vulnerable points of overall design - at the bow, for instance, where the now-legendary Cobalt scuff plate stands guard or at the windshield where a stainless steel latch beefs the hold in the open position.

As each Cobalt winds its way through the plant in Neodesha, the standards of the manufacturing process put into place the benefits of practical design. Spec'd as "the very best available," the raw materials of a Cobalt undergo testing and retesting, even as Statistical Process Control guarantees accuracy, efficiency, and economy across every step of the manufacture of boats working toward total customer satisfaction. Always, always though the individual Cobalt craftsman determines ultimate value. Daily, every Cobalt associate decides when a job has been done right.

And so it goes.

Day after day, more practical applications of imagination and ingenuity, more personal accountability, more hand craftsmanship, more conviction that - airplanes aside - all things are possible.

The extended running surface provides quicker planing, firm and true turns, minimized bow rise, and enhanced lift astern.

Cobalt innovations such as walk-thru transom in runabouts remain industry benchmarks.

Another industry first was the added protection of a solid stainless steel bow scuff plate.