Experience with Cabo 48, 50 Hat and 51 Bertram

I would skip the Bertram entirely in that build era for fear of it coming apart and disintigrating. They had many yachts that had major structural failures and personally know of at least a dozen. They run very bow high also and only cruise at 26 knots.

The Cabo and the Hatteras. I would take the Cabo over the 50' Hatteras everyday of the week and twice on Sundays. The Cabo has a better build quality overall. The cockpit is much more versatile on the Cabo, 2 fish boxes that you don't have to move the fighting chair from it's normal position to open, a livewell, tackle center, bait freezer etc etc.....The Hatteras cockpit is spartan. The interior is a toss up between the two and whichever you prefer.

The 50' Hatteras just runs as if it's too heavy for it's hull. Even one with just a hardtop and no personal gear, pounds and runs hard and a touch wet, especially with the 200 gallon bow tank full, but really doesn't start to run really well until you burn off half the fuel. The build quality is good, but the cockpit is spartan......It also has the station wagon effect. It does run 30 knots at cruise with C-18's. It's a little bigger boat all of the way around than the Cabo, but my preference would be the Cabo, it just has a lot more thought into storage and user-friendliness and finished off a lot nicer than the Hatteras inside of hatches and this and that .

If you can Spring it, I would skip all 3 and go for a 54' Hatteras, either with C18's or C32's, although C18's will be a lot more efficient. The 54' Hatt is an amazing running hull and good size all of the way around and twice the boat of the 50'.

No, 2003ish-2008 was exactly when all of the problem boats were made. One guy had 2 Bertrams in a row have serious structural issues and immediately put the 3rd (warranty replacement boat) up for sale as soon as he recieved it.

Why not run 80%? A 54' Without a tower and C18's absolutely...... A towered 54' with 1550hp C32's runs 32 knots at 80%, Without tower 34 knots. With c18's and no tower I would guess right around 28-29knots at 80%. 75% should only be around 1.5 knots slower.

I forgot to mention it was 1550hp C30's. I also ran a 52' Cabo SF with C18's, one of I think only 3 FB boats they built in the 52'. It was a good running boat also......cruised at 27 knots I believe......