Reviews
& Articles 45 Express
Cat's Meow - CABO 45 Express
Motorboating and Sailing
By Peter Wright
 Inspiration, preparation and innovation all come together in the new
Cabo 45 Express sportfisher, the latest in an evolutionary sequence initiated
by Henry Mohrschladt, president of Cat Harbor Boats, whose earlier Pacific
Seacraft sailboats were given a Fortune magazine "top 100 U.S. quality
products" award.
Cat Harbor was formed to bring Pacific Seacraft's quality to a new market.
Without the unwanted baggage of locked-in design, style, or in image,
the people whose sailboats had been compared to top drawer products like
John Deere, Levi Strauss, 3M, and Steuben, started to design and build
powerboats, specifically sportfishing boats. Their 35 and 31-foot hulls
were huge successes driven to a large degree by the quality of construction
and finish. The new 45 is meant to keep Cabo owners who are looking for
that Cabo quality, but in a larger boat, safely in the fold.
 "More
amenities, more room for bait, fish, live bait and rod storage, but with
the quality of our smaller boats. That is what customers
told they wanted, and now that we have the first 45 build and available
for demos and sea trials, we're getting orders.
The response has been terrific," Mohrschladt told me as we started
our inspection and sea trial.
The fishing cockpit on the Cabo 40 is a deckhand's dream. I loved the
Carolina-style build-in transom fish box which also doubles as an above-deck
live bait well. A tempered glass window shows at a glance the amount
of live bait being held and alerts the crew to any seawater supply problems
that could endanger the bait's welfare. A turned-off switch, a blown
circuit breaker, or a clogged intake line will be noticed and the
problem rectified before valuable bait is lost.
Even the transom door is special. The large custom made stainless-steel
hinges caught my eye and I asked Mohrschladt if he would sell me a set
for a new boat I'm running in Australia. I also admired the transom-door
catch with a spring-loaded locking pin holding the handle down against
the closing cam. Other minor items, including gas springs on the tackle
bin/cockpit control recess, and the custom-made locking deck-hatch lift
that secures the fully gasketted lazarette hatch also reflect Cabo's
quest for excellence in all aspects of engineering.
Inside the lazarette area, a custom-build aluminum road or stock room
I'd phrase. There also is a large aluminum plate laminated into the cockpit
deck to ensure that heavy-duty fighting chair mounted on deck is there
to stay.
 At the forward end of the cockpit, the engine-room access door shares
the area, to port of the bridge stairs, with a large bait freezer that
has a clear plastic shelf to hold soft drinks and beer and a small recess
with a fresh water wash down nozzle.
The engine room itself is clean, tidy, and well-organized. The placement
of the filters is exemplary: the port-engine secondary fuel filter and
starboard-engine oil filter, which would otherwise be on the outboard
side of their big Cat 3196 diesels, are remote-mounted inboard for easy
access, as are the primary Rancor fuel filters.
All wiring is run inside conduit channels with pop-off lids for a tidy
installation that can be easily accessed for repairs or additions or
deletions to the wiring bundle. Engraved plastic labels identified every
valve, switch and component in an easy-to-understand system that will
allow any new owner or skipper to instantly feel familiar and confidant
in doing both daily and more complex maintenance checks.
Norscott dripless shaft seals eliminate messy stuffing boxes, and I particularly
like the small oil reservoirs that obviate the need for pressurized seawater
supply lines. Both main-engine's sea water supply lines have build-in
induction bilge pumping take-offs (with attractive plastic strainers)
suspended low in the bilge, should they ever been needed. A bilge high-water
alarm is standard and should eliminate the need for the high-capacity
capability the induction system provides. This is the neatest, most intuitive
system I have seen supplied on a factory-build boat.
To insure a quiet boat, even the exhaust mufflers have insulation blankets,
and the engine-room access hatches have sound-reducing gasket seals.
The Westerbeke genset is mounted in a fully enclosed sound shield.
The batteries are easy to get to and are held in individual fiberglass
boxes. There is even and engine-room heat alarm adjacent to the after
bulkhead.
 The twin 660-hp Caterpillar 3169 diesels I saw were the first production
pair of this series, and they were well showcased in this hull. In fact,
the only slight negative I could find was a tight squeeze between the
forward end of the big Cats and the forward engine-room bulkhead, which
would make changing a belt or servicing an alternator more difficult
than it would be on the other engine packages with shorter engine blocks.
Up on the 45's raised helm deck, three-drawer tackle center lies starboard
of the steps up from the cockpit. The drawers are constructed of King
StarBoard to avert swelling or rotting. The drawers compartmentalized
for maximum tackle storage.
An L-shaped settee to port with full length rod storage underneath, and
a smaller lounge to starboard, which also holds storage, provides maximum
seating. This also permits a soft joint in the helm deck, which allows
a large hatch to be removed for major engine repairs or replacement.
The helm station is well laid out with all analog gauges, as well as
provision for a full electronics package above, and surrounding, the
steering and control console.
When the morning's cold front had passed and the skies had cleared, we
headed out of Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades inlet into a choppy,
confused sea leftover from a wind that had come around almost 180 degrees
with the weather change. The Cabo well in all directions. With the bow
trimmed fully down to take maximum advantage of the boat's fine forward
entry in a headsea punch, there was enough spray flying to reduce vision.
I would have preferred the added height of the flying-bridge model. The
ride was easy both upsea and quartering, without the pounding you would
expect under these conditions.
The big Cats had both trolling gears and a low-rpm slow-troll mode. The
combination allowed us to creep ahead at an almost imperceptible crawl
in a simulated live-bait trolling pattern. Then, back in conventional
gear, we spun quickly and easily in both directions in simulated fish-fighting
situations. When backing up downsea, almost no water entered the Cabo's
transom door, with its starboard battens functioning as protective sills.
 In the salon, a large U-shaped settee is covered in a luxurious imitation
leather that's resistant to staining from the inevitable water and sunblock.
A double berth high-a-bed is positioned under the aft section of the
settee and a large space long enough to hold more rods and reels lies
under the outboard section. A stereo/TV/VCR entertainment center hangs
above and forward of the settee.
To starboard, a full galley is cleverly set up for maximum space utilization.
A two-burner stove, as well as large trash and dry-goods storage spaces,
lie under attractive and easy-to-clean, removable countertop panels.
There are seven varnished woodtrim storage cabinets above the countertop
and four drawers and a cabinet under the countertop and sink. A central
vacuum-cleaning system with more storage space lies under the steps from
the helm deck.
In the master state room there is still more rod storage above the queen-size
island bunk. Gas springs help raise and then hold the bunk open above
another large storage area. The six drawers below the bunk roll easily
have on fully suspended guide tracks. A cedar-lined hanging locker is
to port and another entertainment center is to starboard.
The head and shower and the entered from either the salon or state room.
The curved sliding shower stall door is a real space-saver. There is
still more storage above and below the large mirror over the hand basin.
With full vinylester resin and by-axial stitched fabric construction,
the Cabo 45 is a well-built, well-designed and superbly engineered boat
that shows the attention to detail that has become synonymous with the
Cabo line of sportfisher boats.
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CABO 45 Express