Reviews
& Articles 40 Express
Cabo 40 Express: High Desert to High Seas
Power & Motoryacht
By Capt. Patrick Sciacca
 Building a sportfisherman at 3,000 feet above sea level, where the mercury
spikes 100°F for weeks in the summer and hangs below freezing in
the winter, might seem strange to an outsider. But Cabo Yachts calls
Adelanto, California's high desert and birthplace of the builder's flagship
40 Express, home. Cabo recently took its new launch to Florida, and it's
here that I meet Cabo's delivery captain Peter Tinkham.
The 40 is easy to spot behind Hutchinson Island's Marriott Marina Resort
in Stuart, Florida. This is due to the 40's optional J&J tuna tower,
her wide 15'9" beam, and the fact that her hydraulically lifted
bridge deck is wide open, revealing a pair of optional 700-hp MAN D2876LE
401 diesels complete with optional gold-plated valve covers.
 Tinkham is tinkering and tweaking the 40 as I hop aboard and am drawn
to the Midas touch in the engine compartment. I easily step down into
the area and have near walkaround room. All regular maintenance items
are inboard for easy access. The standard 10-kW Westerbeke genset just
aft of the powerplants is powerful enough, but it doesn't have a soundshield.
On an express boat, aural comfort is tough to achieve with big iron sitting
below the bridge deck, so every sound-attenuation tool is welcome. Tinkham
tells me subsequent boats are being fitted with genset soundshields.
Tinkham and I untie her lines and let the 40 out of the stable. Soon
we're running the channel behind the Marriott with the MANs singing in
symphonic synchronicity at 2270 rpm as my radar gun displays a breakneck
43 mph and my decibel meter reads a stentorian 92 dB-A. The 40 has Secretariat
like speed, but she's loud. The MANs' digital readouts show a fuel burn
of l34 liters per engine, which translates into 71 gph. (Prepare to convert
lph to gph if you opt for the MANs, since they only display liters.)
At 2000 rpm, the 40 easily cruises at 37.8 mph with a fuel-burn of 52.3
gph. This boat can move.
 Tinkham offers me the wheel, which features Hynautic hydraulic power-assisted
steering that seems, at first, almost too smooth. For an unfamiliar helmsman,
it's easy to oversteer, but the advantages are worth the minimal learning
curve. Once I aim the 40, she tracks as if on rails. I put the single-lever
Glendinning electronic controls, which oddly are located to the left
of the wheel, in synch mode and push full forward on the right control.
The 40 nails 2270 rpm as I put the wheel hard over to port, and she cuts
an unusually tight circle (about a boat length and a half) without excessive
heel. Sightlines are good from the standard Stidd helm seat, although
I wish the large electronics console was lower. Considering I'm 5'7",
which means telephone books at more than a few helm seats, an overhead
electronics box would allow for a height reduction of the console
and even better visibility forward.
The 40's handling and performance are each a reflection of her hull design,
which features a Carolina flare with a knife-like entry. Her entry. aims
to minimize banging while in a head sea, which I can't attest to on this
test day, as I have flat-calm conditions in front of me. Her flare, in
combination with lifting strakes, is geared to keep the 40 dry in most
conditions. Sadly, I have no spray to deal with either. A 20.5-degree
transom deadrise and deep prop pockets help with stability and reduce
roll. In addition, the 40' s keel, which runs aft from the turn of the
forefoot and reaches its deepest point several feet forward of the transom
before tapering back, provides some serious bite while she's underway.
 Her basic hull shape is courtesy of well-known naval architect Michael
Peters. Cabo's own design team took Peters' hull and developed the "deck,
structure, machinery, and interior," says Phil Arnold, Cabo's chief
engineer, in a phone interview after the test. Arnold adds that to optimize
space and weight distribution, Cabo used 3-D modeling.
But a well-designed boat is only as good as her build, and as far I can
tell, Cabo's is first-rate. My test boat, like all Cabo 40s, features
a vacuum-bagged, solid-fiberglass hull and hull sides cored with PVC
foam from the upper chine to the sheer. Even with the coring, the Cabo
40's no lightweight at 28,000 pounds (dry).
 I maneuver the 40 to head back awards the marina as a large group of
minous storm clouds appears on the horizon. I give the wheel back to
Tinkham and seize the opportunity to see if the fit and finish match
her performance. I step below decks, and it seems the 40 has all her
I's dotted and T's crossed. The first evidence of her fine detail is
the joinerwork. The teak, which has a warm, blemish-free satin finish,
is fit snugly and evenly. The wood is complementary to the standard beige
carpet (teak and holly is a $3,675 option) in the saloon, which has 6'6" headroom
and a leather L-shape lounge (a $5,800 option).
But first you'll have to rouse your crew out of the lounge,
as it serves as guest quarters with an upper and lower berth. Since they're sleeping
nearest the galley to port, they should have no problem starting the morning
coffee with the coffee maker atop the Corian counter (also standard). If coffee
isn't enough (why wouldn't it be?), the standard Kenyon two-burner cooktop and
Panasonic microwave/ convection oven are available. I can tell Hull NO.1's owner
would rather fish than eat as I peek in the standard Norcold freezer (there's
a refrigerator, too) and see a frozen pack of squid where the ice cream should
be. It doesn't even look like he has slept on the queen-size pedestal berth in
the forepeak master yet. However, no matter how intensely you fish, nature will
eventually call, so the single head with VacuFIush MSD is just abaft the galley.
With the comforts of home below decks, the 40 reserves the cockpit for the fisherman.
At 100 square feet it's complete with two five-foot-long fishboxes rigged with
macerators, an in-transom livewell, a bait-prep center, an insulated icebox,
and another icebox with optional ($3,680) freezer plates. Apart from the numerous
rocket launchers on the tower, this owner has also ordered custom swivel rod
holders and underwater lights to attract bait (squid love lights). I think he
may need some more freezer space soon.
Tinkham tells me that the day before our sea trial, the owner raised a blue marlin,
several king mackerel, and some mahi-mahi on his inaugural outing. That's not
a bad haul for the first trip out of the box. Cabo is about 19 hulls out on the
40 Express (not a bad haul, either) , and if it keeps building speedy, well-constructed,
and highly finished boats like the 40 I tested, there will be many more Cabo
owners and tales of successful fishing trips on the way. Even if they are built
in the desert.
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