There’s a new player in our game.
On second thought, the term “new” is misleading. Cobalt Boats has been making boats for over 40 years and now are breaking into the pontoon market with the Marker One.
Cobalt makes these boats in Neodesha, Kan. — 100 miles east of Wichita and 20 miles from any sizable body of water. It’s made up of less than 2,500 people. Have you heard of it?
I hadn’t. But since I’m a tad bit of a rebel on the dock, I went ahead and asked, “You guys make thousands of boats a year in a town no one has heard of? How is that even possible?”
Well peeps, I got to the bottom of it and now I’m going to pass on the story to you. Here goes nothing!
Paxson ''Pack'' St. Clair, was in the lumber wholesale business in Chanute, Kan., in 1968 when he got excited about building giant kiddie slides.
But kids started breaking their arms on the slides and, as you can imagine, insurance companies don’t like that and dropped them. So St. Clair, a passionate boater on Grand Lake, Okla., turned his fiberglass workers into boat builders and moved the operation to Neodesha.
After a few years of less-than-stellar sales, the elder St. Clair had the revelation that there was a high-end niche not being filled.
The rest is history as they say. What started in 1968 has transformed into a culture of quality that lets the company price boats 15 to 20 percent above its competitors.
If you are paying more, you expect more. This is where Cobalt quality comes in.
Oh my goodness, I spent so much time on the Marker One, I know all the marketing points.
Since I desperately don’t want this to sound like a sales pitch, I’m going to move on to the facts.
Cobalt makes nice boats. I mean, REALLY nice boats. Even before you get on, you can see the difference from the dock. If you can afford one, you should absolutely look into the Marker One. Since I write for a living, I may never see this dream come true.
From the rubrail up, the Marker One has the fiberglass Cobalt runabout look with sleek curves, molded diamond non-skid and expensive vinyl. The fiberglass construction eliminates traditional pontoon fencing.
Below the decking, the Marker One sits on a three logs which have lifting strakes, chines and a keel. The pontoons are bolted to the fiberglass deck.
Cobalt has integrated many of the features they’ve found popular on their traditional line into the Marker One Platform series. I love the swim platform. It has a molded-in swim step that gets you right down to the water. The picnic table is on a slide-in side mount instead of the standard pontoon pedestal, which makes it easier to sit around. The helm chair includes a comfy flip-up bolster seat which I have never really seen on a pontoon but thoroughly enjoyed.
When we saw the Marker One, they had just barely released it to their dealer network the week before.
More than 400 Cobalt Boats dealer participants from across the US, Canada, and other International locations traveled to The Chateau on the Lake Resort on Table Rock Lake in Missouri as the company unveiled its 2015 boats, including the Marker One.
“We are fortunate to have almost 100% attendance from our dealer partners and we appreciate them taking a few days out of their schedules to attend our meeting,” said Paxson St. Clair, CEO of Cobalt Boats. “We would like to thank our host, The Harbor Marina. The Harbor owns multiple marinas on Table Rock Lake including the Chateau Marina providing a perfect venue for Cobalt. The meeting was the world premiere of three new Cobalt models and two new Marker One Platform Series models. Our dealer partners are enthusiastic about the prospects of the upcoming selling season including the addition of the Marker One brand.”
Cobalt also recognized its top dealers with several awards.
The Top Ten awards are based on a combination of the CSI score and annual sales volume. The World’s Largest Cobalt Dealer and the number one spot in the Top Ten Dealer awards, for the third year in a row, went to Singleton Marine Group in Buford, Georgia. Singleton Marine Group is a family owned business and has been a Cobalt dealer since the 1996 model year.
The remaining Top Ten Dealer awards:
Arrowhead Yacht Club & Boats Sales
Parks Marina
Gordy’s Marina
Premier Marine
Village Marina
Boats by George
Seattle Boat Company
Slalom Shop
Walker’s Point Marina
So if you are in the market for a new pontoon and are highly considering Cobalt, getting in touch with one of these dealers would be a good start.
