Owned a 40 convertible w/Man 800’s.. love to get another. Noticed that the same hull w/pods are listed for a lot less and tend to sit on the market for substantially longer?? Do the pods affect ride quality and balance or is it just the maintenance of the pods that scares people away in the sportfishing community? Thanks for any insight and/knowledge.
Pods were an afterthought on that boat. Boat handled ok in my opinion with them but they had to raise the cockpit sole to accommodate them, the motors had to have custom brackets made to because they didn't sit on the engine liner beds, the whole thing didn't reflect the Cabo design or philosophy. The boat would not spin like a traditional shaft driven boat was my experience. Full disclaimer I only ran the first 40 when they splashed it to test for the first time (favor to Brunswick since we had a 40 and lots of time on it) and I wouldn't have traded our C12 boat for the pods even after they had the pods dialed in.
thank you on your insightful information.. i know a few owners of another brands boat (tiara) one having pods the other straight shafts. The complaint i got from the pod boat owner was, they use smaller engines with less horsepower/torque to achieve similar cruise but just did not have as much torque when loaded and it effected performance negatively.
I've run at least 6 different Cabo 40's with Pods, they performed better than the shaft boats. The Man 800 boats cruised at 31 knots at 63 gph, the pods 33-34 knots at 45 gph (80% load). You could move the boat so fast sideways with the joystick the rub rail would be at the water, and could also spin them very fast with the joystick. I didn't notice much speed loss with them loaded. Full fuel/low on fuel was maybe 1 knot same as the other boats. Maintenance is more complex and higher, but the fuel savings are very real. People are afraid of the maintenance what-if's. Also less noise, less vibration, less smell with the pods........I really liked the 40' HTX but ran I think it was 2 of the FB boats. One was hull #1 that was over here for a while in South Florida as a demo I think it was. They all ride about the same.
thanks Capt J.. sounds like boat/hull runs and performs well. it is the “unknown what ifs”.. coupled that it’s a brunswick boat vise Cabo
