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PMY TESTED: CABO 32 EXPRESS

EXCLUSIVE

A couple of rock-star lookalikes and a hot new Cabo convertible make for a memorable day of fishing.

f there’s such a thing as an old hippie hideout, it’s PIKE YACHTS; INSET PHOTOS: CAPT. BILL CABO PHOTO: MAIN Santa Cruz, California. A port town surfing the edge of I Monterey Bay, a few miles south of ‘Frisco, Santa Cruz seems loaded with folks of a certain age—my age, actually— sporting hairstyles, clothes, and vocabularies that hark back, sometimes subtly, sometimes strikingly, to the Bad Old Days. Or at least that was my take as I descended upon the Coast Santa Cruz Hotel one recent Friday night, all jet-lagged and the pulpit. Each had a long white beard, Wayfarer sunglasses, burnt out. and a baseball cap. Old album titles whizzed through my head Saturday morning confirmed my impressions. Cabo Yachts accompanied by the thrum of synthesized drum machines— rep Greg Bourke and I were hoofin’ it down a dock in Santa Tres Hombres, Eliminator…Afterburner. Cruz Harbor, with a brand-new Cabo 32 Express just hoving “Goin’ fishin’ with ZZ Top!” grinned local Cabo dealer into view when two extraordinary-looking guys materialized at Tommy McGuire, jocularily joining the pair. As we all began

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ByBy Capt.Capt. BillBill PikePike

Top speed: 41.1 mph! Above: We used four-pound sinkers to fish. Above right: Are these two ZZ Top guys the real deal or what?

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Left: Our liner-lined engine room. Check out the crisp aura of better switches, above Cabo’s logo. Below: The mother of all electrical panels.

the underside of the molded steps leading down into the ER to save space. Her robust bonding system included prop-shaft brushes as well as a Diver’s Dream bonding plate mounted under water at the transom. Her fiberglass fuel tank had a main- stream electric fuel gauge as well as a removable cap for dipping a plain ol’ (always accurate) measuring stick. Her electrical sys- tem was equipped with a special junction box to facilitate plug- and-play tower installation. And her hull-to- loading tackle, rods, coolers, deck joint, which was visible here and there, ice, cold drinks, sandwiches, had been glassed all the way around (from and guacamole fixins, Mc- inside) and secured with bolts and 3M 5200. Guire clarified the situa- Third was equipage—tops again. Our 32 tion—slightly. His white- had a 5-kW Westerbeke genset without a bearded, Wayfarered soundshield (Cabo thinks soundshields friends, he said, were locals hinder maintenance), a total of five high- John Banzick and Joe Mock, dollar Optima batteries, a powerful 40-amp fishing buddies for 30-some Newmar battery charger, and a set of cross- years, with a penchant for connected, proprietary, lip-seal-type, dripless playing the ZZ Top angle for giggles and grins. “They’re not the shaft logs that can be packed conventionally should a seal break actual guys,” added McGuire with an impish expression. or malfunction. Banzick and Mock just smiled. I finished up by scouting interior and on-deck features as I’m a flexible fella, even when it comes to impromptu salmon McGuire slowly conned us out of the harbor. The layout below fishing excursions. I told McGuire I was totally up for whatever was simple and conventional, with a diagonal berth forward, an he had planned, but I also said I needed to squeeze in an off- enclosed head (with no separate shower stall, unfortunately) shore wring-out of the 32 as well as a dockside walk-through. His and galley to port, settee/dinette and hanging locker to star- response was forthright. He commanded that rigging, gua- board, and an open area with a teak-and-holly sole in between. camole mashing, and other preparations at the bait-prep station Superb craftsmanship was evident everywhere. Corian counter- be halted momentarily to allow for the walk-through, which tops were crisply fitted. Matching closures, hasps, and drawer began with the machinery spaces. pulls were made of sculpted stainless steel. There was rod The flick of a switch rapidly raised the bridge deck, courtesy stowage overhead, and the insides of cabinets and lockers had of a single-piston actuator from Navtec, energized by Match- been smoothed out with power grinders and then gelcoated. Mate Plus hydraulic hoses from Aeroquip. I admired the actu- There were numerous topside standouts, too. They included ator for a moment. Components and related parts were as beefy proprietary stainless steel hatch pulls that looked like they’d as they were exquisitely engineered. Then three general fea- been case-hardened; a complete bait-prep center in the cockpit tures caught my eye in rapid succession. to port with sink, rigging board, and tackle cabinet; an athwart- First was the finish—the entire engine room was fitted with an ship fishbox in the cockpit sole (removable for access to steering easy-to-clean-and-maintain fiberglass liner that was so intricately hydraulics); and a 40-gallon livewell molded into the transom. tooled it looked simple, at least at first glance. Not only were bulkheads and hull sides layered with its smooth, white, gel-coated surfaces, so were engine bearers, the walkway between the mains, the battery box (with three house bat- teries and two starters), and a multitude of landing points for assorted pumps, motors, and

other ancillaries. YACHTS CABO PHOTOS: Second was engineering—it was tops. Our 32’s poly water tank was shaped to conform to

The 32’s interior is simple and functional; the settee con- verts to a berth, and the galley has got all the goodies.

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Once we were beyond the jet- The author and Joe Mock bait up. ties, McGuire cranked up the stereo and in seconds put the wake, the strains of “Sharp pedal to the metal—the 32 was Dressed Man” blarin’ (for giggles zooming across the four- to six- and grins), and a couple of ZZ foot seas like an F18 Hornet. Ban- Top look-alikes aboard groovin’ zick, Mock, Bourke, and I hung and grinnin’. on. Beards blew. Cockpit speak- And although the turning ers fibrillated. And one beaten- radius of our 32 was broad, likely up, cherished hat whooshed aft, due to relatively small rudders, a victim of the wiles of the wind. and the inboard heel in hardover In just a bit we were fishing in 200 feet of water. turns significant, likely due to top-heaviness from our optional And we fished. And fished. And fished. Until finally, after C-Fab tower, the average top speed of 41.1 mph was flat-out roughly four hours of trying our darndest with both live bait and exhilarating. And docking our Cabo 32 Express sealed the deal: artificials, on the surface and deep down, we had to “give ‘er up Her hefty, low-profile maneuverability and wind-resistant heft fer daid,” as Mock so colorfully put it. made me a total fan. I’d formed a high opinion of our 32’s fishability in the pro- One thing still bugs me, though. Certainly Banzick and Mock cess, however—the boat tracks nicely at trolling speeds, accom- were skilled fishermen, and their story about just being local modates an arsenal of fishing rods, and offers an elbowroomy boys with a penchant for rock-star imitation seemed plausible cockpit with comfortably placed inwale pads and a console-style enough, but I wonder: Is ZZ Top still a Texas band? Or have icebox big enough to keep a crowd from getting thirsty. those guys maybe moved to Californy? I drove the boat back to Santa Cruz, garnering test data en Cabo Yachts (760) 246-8917. www.caboyachts.com. route. And lemme tell ya: There’s nothin’ like blasting across For additional photos, visit our Web site at powerandmotoryacht.com/webfeatures.
the Pacific at the helm of a fast boat, with a good day in your pmy tested: Cabo 32 Express

Base price: $347,000 with 2/455-hp Caterpillar C7 RPM MPH GPH MPG SM NM DECIBELS TRIM diesel inboards (KNOTS) (NMPG) RANGE RANGE (DEGREES) Optional power: none Standard equipment: Lewmar windlass; Euro Kera 600 7.6 (6.6) 1.2 6.33 (5.51) 1,995 1,735 74 0.5 cooktop; Caterpillar instruments; Carling Technologies 1000 10.5 (9.1) 5.0 2.09 (1.82) 658 572 79 1.5 rubber-booted helm switches; Corian countertops; 1500 14.4 (12.5) 15.6 0.92 (0.80) 290 252 86 6.5 Panasonic microwave; Nova Kool under-counter 2000 26.3 (22.9) 24.6 1.07 (0.93) 337 293 89 6.5 refrigerator and freezer; ITT Jabsco UltraMax water pump; 2500 37.1 (32.2) 34.8 1.06 (0.93) 335 292 92 5.5 Tankwatch; Diver’s Dream bonding plate; 40-amp 2800 41.4 (36.0) 48.6 0.85 (0.74) 268 233 93 4.5 Newmar battery charger; 5/batteries; Reverso oil-changer; Conditions: temperature: 75º; humidity: 72%; wind:18-20 mph; seas: 4'-6'; load: 300 gal. fuel, 50 gal. Fireboy Xintex auto. fire-extinguishing system; 5-kW water, 5 persons, 700 lbs. gear. Speeds are two-way averages measured w/ Stalker radar gun. GPH taken Westerbeke genset; proprietary, lip-seal-type, dripless via Caterpillar engine monitoring system. Range: 90% of advertised fuel capacity. Decibels measured on A shaft logs; Navtec hydraulic engine-hatch actuator w/ scale. 65 dB is the level of normal conversation. All measurements taken with trim tabs fully retracted. MatchMate Plus Aeroquip hoses; Bennett trim tabs; bait- prep center w/ sink, rigging board, tackle stowage, and Time (seconds) 40-gal. livewell 50

45 SPECIFICATIONS BOURKE; TECHNICAL ILLUSTRATION: PAUL MIRTO GREG PHOTO: 40 Length overall: 35'0" Beam: 13'3" 35 Draft: 2'8" 30 Weight (dry): 19,100 lbs. 25 Fuel capacity: 350 gal. 20 Water capacity: 50 gal. Speed (mph) 15 Test engines: 2/455-hp Caterpillar C7 diesel inboards 10 Transmissions/ratio: ZF280-1A/1.48:1 Props: 22x24 nibral 4-blade 5 Steering: Hynautic hydraulic w/ power-assist 0 10 20 30 40 50 Controls: Caterpillar multistation electronic w/ backup control The fact that there are no significant flat spots or other anomalies in the Optional equipment on test boat: C-Fab tower w/ acceleration curve shown here is indicative of a well-balanced boat. She achieves plane somewhere between 8-10 seconds and top speed in 28 upper steering station; teak-and-holly sole; West Coast- seconds. Computerized averaging diminishes the latter figure slightly. style aluminum bowrails Price as tested: $419,000 * Acceleration based on average of 4 reciprocal runs using Stalker ATS radar gun and OceanPC laptop.

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