The Boating Forum - cabo 35 express versus flybridge

looking for some feedback from an owner of either of these boats. I have been an express boat owner for a decade (3000 Pursuit). My use of the boat is 74% fishing mainly on the chesapeake and the balance is cruising with the family(two very young kids). I want something larger to accomodate the family, but do not want to lose the ability to fish with a couple buddies. Would also like to be able to do offshore fishing down the road whenever i figure out how to fit that in the schedule. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

I have fished inshore and offshore extensively on a Cabo 35 FB, but I am not an owner, sorry.

I have a 35 fb Cabo The boat has pros and cons. The fishing lay out is good in cockpit. Nice bridge and Very nice inside. We stay on it a lot of times the night before we go fishing off shore. Most time four fellows. Plenty of room The cons of the boat is the ride is not the best in the world. But I have been on a lot of boat that is worse than the Cabo. The tracking is not the best. But over all. I like it a lot

Albe - interesting comment regarding tracking. I have never had a problem with tracking, even in a fairly significant following or quartering sea. Ride may not be best in class, but I just made a 40 mile crossing last week in some pretty nasty stuff (a gale warning that had subsided to a small craft warning a few hours before we left), and we still ran at 16.5kts w/o slaming, so no complaints.

To the OP, if all I did was fish, I likely would have opted for an express. However, we do several long non-fishing weekends (2-5 days) a year with a family of 4 and the FB is perfect for us. Second stateroom is very handy, and uncommon for a boat of this size. Wouldn't trade it for anything else out there in the same size category.

Good luck!

Fishtales66. The tracking is kinda funny weather u are on auto polite or just holding the wheel. All the boat does is wondering left to right and. It's. More likely to do it on down sea or quarting sea. When u look behind u it looks like u had one too many to drink haha What power do u have and what your cruise. I have 3 blade wheels 22x23.5. 2400. 24 knot cruise Full. Load like 22 to 23 knots. Thought about 4 blade but don't know what size to get. I have. Cat 450s

albe - sounds like we may have same engines (3126b's, 450hp). I have 4 blade 22 x 22's. They were 22 x 24's, but I took 2 inches of pitch out of them to ensure proper rpms. depending on load, 2400 rpm will get me 24-25 kts. WOT is 30 kts (not that it is relevant). That being said, I cruise 2250-2300 just to provide a bit of margin for error, and that yields 22.5-23 kts.

I just went through this same process...Wanted a Cabo 35 but the wife and I could not decide on Flybridge or express. For fishability I think the express is the way to go (not that the flybridge is not a good fishing platform, just that the express edges it out a bit with room to move, tackle storage etc.. (we chose the express). Though the wife mentioned many times as well a I thought if we had kids we would have gotten a flybridge. (room inside for the family to utilize and no Tower (which most expresses will have) for kids to climb and fall off of!).

Just our experience...

-David

plenty of other fly bridges and express boats in that size and price range that you should include in your searches and sea trials, why are you limited to JUST cabo?

Fishtales66. The tracking is kinda funny weather u are on auto polite or just holding the wheel. All the boat does is wondering left to right and. It's. More likely to do it on down sea or quarting sea. When u look behind u it looks like u had one too many to drink haha What power do u have and what your cruise. I have 3 blade wheels 22x23.5. 2400. 24 knot cruise Full. Load like 22 to 23 knots. Thought about 4 blade but don't know what size to get. I have. Cat 450s

try running in nav mode on auto pilot . auto mode puts you back on original course everytime the seas put you off course. Nav mode will just keep your original heading on average a 50 mile run you may have to readajust heading two or three times.