Tested By Capt. Chris Kelly

Cobalt’s attention to detail goes way beyond the obvious and visible. The 343 is going to send chills up the spine of her competitor’s and a thrill through your body as she attacks the water with a vengeance. The 343 is built to deliver high performance style and delivers with attitude. She stays stuck to the water on the straightaway and clings to the water with ease through the turns.

Down Below

The door to the cabin is more like that of a mega yacht or aircraft, no sliding door here! Inside is a port to starboard V-bench. In one corner is an optional flat panel TV for your movies at night. The enclosed head is made up of a portable toliet, sink and vanity.

Cockpit Features

Rear facing bench seats create a large conversation pit at the stern. The seat is double hinged with cavernous storage below. Cobalt leaps to the future with its helm station. This center console is more like an airplane cockpit with a bank of rocker switches to the left and two rows of gauges. Water/air temperature and depth digital gauges are next to the rocker switches. Gaffrig instrumentation and Lavorsi precision engine controls will keep you in charge. The seats have electric lifts that take you from a seated driving position to standing in just a few seconds.

The side decks are wide for easy movement and even the fender locker has gas assist lifts. All the deck water trails down the sides and passes through the fender locker and out the bottom to the keel.

Transom

Two individual sun pads and two stern benches are divided by a large walkthrough. Double hinged seats also have storage below. An inflator for your water toys is in one, and you have a tool kit in the other. Under the port bench is the battery switches, main breakers and space for canvas poles. Everything has its place on this boat, and each side has cup holders and a horizontal grab rail.

The two level transom and swim platform get you close to the water while the wraparound stainless bar protects the boat from the dock and is a great handhold. Flip a lever and the dive style ladder is deployed with ease. Stainless steel vents and fins bring fresh air to the engine while inside the starboard compartment is the swim shower and water hookup. When it comes time to get the engine the hatch lifts easily with one hand.

Power Plant

These 496 V-8 engines deliver 425-hp each. Everything is easy to reach with one hand, and the oil filter is on top. Closed cooling is standard. The oil dip stick has an easy oil drain system connection, and the water drain system has an air-actuated single point drain system which had an air pump included. A single serpentine belt drives all the parts. The engine control module uses a Motorola microprocessor and optimizes the fuel mixture, knock control and ignition timing independently for each cylinder resulting in improved, precise performance.

Specs

The 343 is 35’4” overall in length and 9’8” across the beam. Draft is 28” with the drives up and 37” with the drives down. She weighs in at 10,200 lbs with twin stern drives and carries 200 gallons of fuel and is yacht certified.

Performance

The 343 cruised most economically at 3500 rpm traveling 40.9 mph for a fuel burn of 31.5 gph. At wide open throttle she was turning 5100 rpm and delivered a top speed of 62.4mph. At cruise you can expect 234 miles on a full tank of fuel.

• Top speed for the Cobalt 343 (2004-) is 62.4 mph (100.4 kph), burning 69.2 gallons per hour (gph) or 261.92 liters per hour (lph).


• Best cruise for the Cobalt 343 (2004-) is 40.9 mph (65.8 kph), and the boat gets 1.30 miles per gallon (mpg) or 0.55 kilometers per liter (kpl), giving the boat a cruising range of 234 miles (376.59 kilometers).


• Tested power is 2 x 425-hp MerCruiser 496 MAG HO.