Stewart Suffield, a man jaded by half a century of experience in the industry, turns his critical eye to the Cobalt 243 Cuddy… and comes away impressed – not an easy feat.

First things first, for those of you not familiar with Cobalt Boats, let us straighten out a few things before we start. Importantly, these are not American budget boats built in an associate factory of a huge conglomerate. Cobalt boats are unashamedly premium products fastidiously hand built, using skills amassed since 1968 by Cobalt Boats of Wilson County in the heartlands of the American Midwest. Cobalt is an extremely proud independent Kansas boat builder, but unfortunately it would take far more space than we have today to go into the nitty gritty of Cobalt’s almost paranoid attention to detail; the ‘standard extras’ found in every boat, and the little touches (such as hand sewn double stitched upholstery and decals buried below the gel coats) that contribute to Cobalt’s hard earned success.

The Cobalt 243 Cuddy

On appearances, this is a very European - even Mediterranean - style of craft with a gently drooping bow line, a three piece windscreen, tapering side screens and a striking profile. The boat has a walk through stern incorporating a huge swim platform and a brilliant interior layout which adds up to a very stylish craft. Naturally there’s a host of standard features including an inbuilt sound system, an easily erected Bimini/cockpit cover, a bar, a central table and even a heater if you wish… but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

So let’s start with the hull of this 25ft sports cuddy. Usually when Americans talk about a ‘deep vee’ they actually mean a medium vee by Her Majesty’s standards. But the hull beneath this craft has a 22’ deadrise, which is pretty deep by anyone’s standards. It also has pronounced chines, spray rails and frankly it handles like a big pedigree European sports boat. The hull is not a simple sprayed GRP construction with wood re-enforcement, but an ultra modern hand laid combination of GRP, honeycomb, fabricated stringers and a deep mirror smooth external finish – and all reinforced with Kevlar. As I said before, this is not a budget boat…

For the full boat test of the Cobalt 243 Cuddy, pick up a copy of the September issue of Sports Boat and RIB magazine. In shops from 22 August.