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Cabo Yachts, Inc.
Reviews &
Articles Cabo Yachts, Inc.
Deputies set to ride waves
Cabo refurbished boat for Sheriff's Department dive team at no cost
Victor
Valley Daily Press - September 16, 2004
By Leroy Standish
ADELANTO — Fourteen years ago, Cabo Yachts Inc. was nothing more than three guys and a dream.
On Wednesday, it was the benefactor of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office Dive Rescue Team.
The Adelanto boat builder typically produces 40-foot-long yachts costing more than $1 million. Three weeks ago it took on the job of refurbishing a rundown 28-foot-long Alamar boat. The aluminum craft had been in the service of the sheriff's Colorado River station for eight years. Battered and tired, the boat was due to be decommissioned. Instead it was donated to the county dive team.
The boat was not in the best shape. Hank "Henry" McGill, of the sheriff's civilian patrol, suggested taking the craft to Cabo Yachts. After all, it was he who suggested that the three founding partners locate in Adelanto.
"Fourteen years ago we were looking for somewhere to locate our company. We were a brand new company, without a home, without a name, trying to get established," recalled Greg Bourque, sales manager for Cabo Yachts. "But this guy said talk to the cities up here in the High Desert."
Bourque and his two partners, Henry Mohrschladt, president of design, and Michael Howarth, vice president of production, did just that and have been in Adelanto ever since. So when McGill came to the company with the beat-up patrol boat, Cabo Yachts was only too happy to help.
"It was trashed. It was a work boat," Bourque said. "It needed electrical work. It needed the police light bar. We completely reupholstered all the seats, made sure it was all mechanically correct — we sort of rehabbed the thing."
And they did it all for free.
"Basically they made the boat better than new," said Sgt. Jeff Morgan, leader of the sheriff's Dive Rescue Team. "This is a perfect example of the business community cooperating with public safety."
The boat now has police lights, a rack for dive tanks, a fresh paint job and a bubbling 460 horsepower, V8 engine that spits out a powerful jet of water instead of rotating a propellor, allowing the boat to operate in shallow water.
Prior to having its own boat, the dive team borrowed what it could. When on Silverwood Lake, deputies used a 16-foot inflatable Zodiac with a 40 horsepower outboard motor. At Lake Arrowhead, they borrowed security boats
"Now we will have a boat that we can actually operate," Morgan said.
The boat will be pressed into service this week on the Colorado River assisting in the search for a missing sailboat crew member. But it will see service throughout the county, usually with a crew of four deputies.
"It will be used anywhere it is needed in the county," Morgan said.
That means deputies will be towing the boat from Big Bear and Arrowhead to Silverwood and Lake Gregory and beyond.
Bourque said he hopes the generosity of the 461 employees of his company will spur others who have done well to reciprocate.
"There are plenty of companies that have prospered and we sort of are throwing this up as a challenge," Bourque said. "If you have done well, see what you can do to help out."
LeRoy Standish can be reached at leroy_standish@link.freedom.com or 951-6277.
| © Copyright 2007 CABO® Yachts• 9780 Rancho Rd. • Adelanto, CA 92301 • (760) 246-8917 • Fax (760) 246-8970 |