Any Cobra opinions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alcyone
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Alcyone

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My missis and I are new to sailing, although we have many years of boating experience. We are looking to buy our first boat later this year, probably the autumn. We are both particularly taken with the Cobra 750/850. Any opinions from owners, or anyone who has seen/been on one? Good/bad, all your thoughts will be useful.
 
Hello Martin,I had a Cobra 750 for 4 years, good choice for a first boat although we had a Seawych first as it happens.Lots of room for a 25 footer and quite strongly built.Some were home finished so the overall fit out quality will vary between boats.Some were better than the factory ones,some not so good.Generally regarded as a well designed range I believe.
Bill
 
Great, thanks. We are more interested in cruising than racing, and will certainly try to get some experience of different boats before we buy, but we do like the look of the Cobras from what we've seen so far.
 
we looked at the cobra 750 when we were deciding on our first boat. we ended up with choices that involved cobra,centaur,albin and Jaguar. We ended up going for the Jaguar as you got a great deal of boat for the money. The windward performance is poor as she is a bilge keeler, however we picked up a good example for just over 8k
 
Really good designer, and good boats. Unfortunately Cobra had a bad patch and some of the boats moulded at Farlington were of dubious moulding quality.

None the less, they seem to be staying the course
 
When you say 'dubious moulding quality', what do I look out for, or do I let a surveyor tell me?
 
Difficult, if there is no visible damage then most surveyors would not see the problems. It would probably be best to trace the boat's history.

Sadly, the company found themeselves in trouble and skimped more and more on scantlings - eventually 2 directors were jailed.

Cobras were built in various different yards and most are absolutely fine, just be aware that some of the Farlington product was considerably less fine than others.

One symptom of which I am aware is the tendancy of the hull to deform or invert when under pressure from, say, a raft of other boats. This should show itself as a largish ring-crack/s in the gelcoat around or about the point of maximum beam where fenders would impose most weight.

Don't let me put you off, these are generally good value boats - but forwarned is forearmed. I owned another of David Felthams designs, very similar to his Cobra 850 and it was almost free from any complaint whatsoever.
 
Difficult one, unless damage was visible a surveyor would probably not know anything was amiss.

Cobra at Farlington hit hard times (or perhaps created their own hard times) and skimped more and more on scantlings - 2 directors eventually found themselves in jail.

One problem of which I am aware is that hull strength on the bad boats was such that, when under pressure from, say, a raft of moored boats, the hull would radically deform or even invert temporarily. This would show itself as a large ring crack/s at or around the point of maximum beam.

Don't let me put you off, I have owned a similar boat by the same designer and it was almost fault free. The Cobras are generally a good value boat and were built in a variety of different yards, just be aware that a few need to be considered more carefully than others.
 
Hi sailed one for two weeks 20 years ago on Flotilla (Company was called Falcon think it became Neilson's) in Greece. First yacht I was ever in charge of it. Loved it at the time, seemed very safe and had no problems. Would be interesting to see how I felt about it if I got on one now
 
Great, thanks, Maxi. Most of the people I've talked to seem to think the boats aer very good, so it's useful to have something to look for on the downside, as it were.

JB, it won't be our first boat, but it will be our first yacht, so it's good to know that you were fine in it as a beginner.
 
Following this post I've looked at the pictures from that holiday and an event which I obviously blanked from my mind came flooding back. It was a picture of me with a scooped out melon on my head.

The story was we were coming in bows to in a harbour some where in the South Ionian. As normal we put engine into neutral at 4 boat lengths away, at 3 lengths my now ex wife threw the stern anchor out and I went forward to tie up to the quay. As we got closer I asked ex to slow us up using the anchor. We did not appear to slow so I repeated the request, to which my ex replied to the effect of "I am but it's not working". Before I got back to the cockpit we hit the harbour wall at some speed.

Prior to this there seemed no one about, after we hit hundreds seem to come from no where.

My ex looked at me in some confusion, I looked over the stern to see the anchor lying in the dinghy we had been trailing.
After much embarrasment we got the boat sorted and surveyed the damge with the lead skipper. I was amazed that apart from damage to a piece of rubber protecting the bow, the boat itslef looked untouched. We sailed it for the rest of the time without any problems. Which must be a testament to the strength of that boat. From the pictures it was called Gardenia, just in case it is till out there.

I was awarded the melon at the end of flotilla party !
 
Right, so you wear a melon on your head. That's one opinion I can safely discount then..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously, I come from a backround in RIBs and the first thing I noticed when I helmed my mate's yacht was that it didn't go where tyou wanted it to, behaved with a will of its own when going astern and simply would not stop.

As I've said on other posts here, I have a lot to learn. Having said that, after nearly 20 years mucking about in RIBS, I still learn new things all the time, and hope it continues.
 
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