43 vs. 47 Ride, performance

Brian,
I have a 05 43 that I've owned since 08. It has Man CR900's. Some 43's have the 6 cylinder man 800's. The boat rides well in all seas especially a head sea. It will roll some at anchor because of the deep vee. Cruise at 1850 is 25knts 1950 27.5 knts with full fuel and water and a couple of people. Fuel burn is 60gph at 25knts and 64gph at 27.5. Not much difference. The boat does not like to run below 1700rpm as again with the deep vee it will squat.
I love the boat.
Skip

The 47' is a better riding boat and has better tendancies in a beam sea. However, the 48' was a big improvement over the 47' and 43' both. A 40' FB is a better running boat than the 43' as well.

43 Cabo bottom is the 43 Bertram design without the lifting strakes, designed by Napier. If you see the two in a boatyard, you would notice the similarity right away. Good head see boat, can wander a bit down swell coming back from Catalina to NB. The Michael Peters 47 (stretched to 48) is just a better but costlier option, and is just plain more boat.

Luckily, plenty of "in the know" SoCal owners have them rigged ideally for local and Mexican waters. If Gaudalupe/Mag Bay are on your agenda stick with a 47/48.

+1!
47' seemed to have no market after 48' was introduced.
I would also look at 45' Viking, that was introduced in 2003.

CaptJ,
I can't speak to the 47 and 48 but I have ridden on a friends 40 FB many times and it is a fast boat (cruise 30 knts), but very rough riding boat. Nice boat other than that.

I believe the deadrise is 24 degrees.

I believe the Classic 46 Bertram has a transom deadrise of 19 degrees, the newer version was 17.5 degrees. You won't find any 24 degree sportfishers over 40' unless it was a converted Magnum. Even the 31 Bertram had "only" 23 degree deadrise at the transom.

The Cabo 43/Bertram 43 have a Transom Deadrise of 18.5 degrees, while the Cabo 47/48 is 11.5 degrees, pretty close to a west coast Pacifica.

Go to Cabo San Lucas and charter a few of them first to get a real feel for transom deadrise and what it feels like underway/at rest or on the troll...

The 47 isn't a Michael Peters hull. It was originally a 45 flybridge until 3 weeks before the Ft Lauderdale show. My dad went and chopped the transom off at 7pm, told the boys to add 2' to it the next morning. It was originally based on the 45 hull. The hulls on the 47 and 48 are identical, the only difference is the house is 14" longer.

The 47 is going to be a little slower than the 43 but overall I believe it will be more efficient. Both boats have no prop pockets so they will both have very clean wakes and both fish very well. The 47 has a MASSIVE cockpit, perfect for so cal fishing.

I've run both boats down to Cabo and if I had to choose between the two I would take the 47. The 43 is a great running boat but it's sensitive to weight. The 43 leaves one heck of a hole in the water and likes to drink fuel but it's a great head sea boat. The 47 is all around a great running boat. The 43 has a nicer interior but the 47 is a very comfortable boat.

47 with 800 MAN's is a great combo, you will be very happy with that combo.

To me the 48' rode even better, it holds more fuel and the weight aft helped with the ride and mainly the ride attitude. I really liked the 45' express hull and ride, especially with C18's, and it rode and performed best keeping the aft tank full as often as possible by transfering the fwd tank and I've run them many hours. I also ran a 45' that was built with series 60 DD's and that had a great ride and handling characteristic. But I would definately take the 47' ride over the 43' which to me doesn't handle in a sea like any of the other Cabo's in a beam, aft sea or on the troll. Also I didn't like the 52' express that I ran with Cat C32's, it pounded a lot with the heavier engines over the MAN 1550's. The 43' handles more like a Bertram which I've never been a fan of their ride characteristics, nor the NC custom boat ride characteristics either. I'd much rather have a Jim Smith ride in that arena.

Both '45 and '52 Exp. (if possible even better), are to me real tanks!
I was on '52 during a sea trial when the boat was shown for the first time at '06 MBS and I was shocked, how fast and straight she was capable to go backward.
Then Brunswick got involved...

The 43 is an interesting one that's for sure. She can spin fast on a dime but is slow coming out of the hole. Put too much weight in the galley under-sole pantry and she doesn't like it. We experimented with adding strakes to the hull but eventually decided to leave it as it was.

The 47 and 48 were modified variations of the Lou Codega designed 45 hull. She will be a little wetter than the newer hulls but she is a solid boat. My personal opinion is the 47 was the fishiest hull we ever made. Every 47 I've run gets bit really well. And, all the cockpit and fishbox space make it really nice for the crew and anglers to get around.

I did the week of seatrials on the 43' with the then new Man 800 common rails as Man N. America was dialing in fuel curves and such. They were the second set in the US at the time. MAN had me really put the boat and motors through the paces, 1fwd/1reverse at full throttle, backdown at full throttle....etc......The boat then ended up getting a massive tuna tower and going to the Texas dealer I believe.

The only hull that changed was the 35 and that was in 2001. The hull of the 43 and 47/48 were never changed.

I thought they did some changes to the hull on the 45' express around 2001 as well.

Sorry I was wrong on the 43 hull deadrise it is 18.5. You got some good feedback. When I was looking in 07/08 I looked at the 40 and 43. The 43 has been a great boat although I think the boat might perform as well with the Man 800s vs the 900s I have.
One issue some of the older Cabos have is with gelcoat crazing.