I just had to write this e-mail after my first real test of my 31 cabo.

I have been boating in South Florida for 12 years now. I make a lot of runs to the Bahamas and decided to upgrade my boat. When I first started looking I did not think I could afford the CABO brand, so I looked at the Luhrs 32, Albermarle 31, Topaz 36, Blackfin, etc. I was having a hard time finding a boat that had everything I wanted, so I decided to stretch and looked closely at the 31 CABO. After really looking closely I decided that I was going to go for the CABO and spend a few more bucks.
The fit and finish would be worth it as well as the resale.

So to the real story. With the southeast wind blowing at over 20 knots and gusts over 25 knots for days, on May 2, 2004 we decided to go to the annual Ft Lauderdale Air and Sea show. I figured that it would be a real test/ seatrial for this boat. I read a lot of stories about the CABO ride and figured if it got to bad I could always come back in. Just before hitting the Boca inlet a tow boat towing a 30 express boat passed us and urged us not to go out in the ocean that it was like a washing machine with the strong outgoing tide. We looked at eachother and said " well this is why we purchased a CABO lets try anyway". The inlet had marine patrol, tow boats and coast guard all waiting for an emergency. We passed them and saw a ton of white water I said "hold on here we go" It was 8' and sloppy with some 10' mixed in. We cleared the inlet no problem and started our 17 mile run south to Ft. Lauderdale. I was running at 2200 RPM and into a strong north current (the gulf steam was less than 2 miles offshore) with a nasty 6'-8' head sea cruising 20 knots. I set the auto pilot and cruised no problem with no banging or rattles, it was solid as a rock!!! We crossed the Hillsboro inlet and in front of the inlet it became 8'-10' and I did not even have to touch the throttles. As a matter of fact I did not touch the throttles the whole way. On the way down we passed the few boats that would brave the conditions with ease, a 54 Sea Ray, 50 ' Hatteras motor yacht, 36 Luhrs you name it we were better than everyone out there. (there were very few boats out there last year over 10,000 boats this year maybe 100-150 boats). I was actually laughing at one point, it was so impressive I called my friend with a 48' Hatteras Sport Fish to tell him (He wouldn't come out he stayed inside). After the Show we could have just gone into Port Everglades and up the inside but it felt so good we decided to stay out and ran a 6'-8' following sea home. Boatpix.com was on the scene and got awesome photos of us running. Buy the way my out of town guest from New England is a vintage auto restorator ( a real artist ) and loved everything about my CABO, he can not wait to tell his New England friends. Keep up the good work.


R. Michael DeMella