Hatteras Set to Revive Popular Cabo Yachts Brand

As an exclusive Hatteras dealer, Denison is excited to share that Hatteras CEO Kelly Grindle and his team are set to reintroduce the renowned Cabo line with the new 41 inboard sportfish later this year.

Inboard Advantages

Grindle told TradeOnlyToday.com that he has “no illusions” that the revived brand will “take over” the segment, but said Cabo will quickly find its place in the offshore fishing boat market.

“As the center consoles get bigger and they put more outboards on them, the price differential decreases,” Grindle says. “At the same time, the relative pros and cons between an outboard center console and an inboard fishing boat change.”

The Hatteras/Cabo CEO says that, as center consoles get larger, their “utility” as fishing boats decline. “The inboard has a bigger cockpit, with fishboxes and livewells, and you don’t have outboards strapped on the back to limit fishability,” he says. “There’s a big difference in being exposed for eight hours to wind and sun on a center console than being more protected on an inboard.”

Grindle said his company did market research before deciding to relaunch the 41. “We’ve also seen a migration of customers from large center consoles into inboard boats,” he says. “We’ve sold 30 hulls of the Hatteras 45 in the last two years and most of those customers had center consoles.”

The last Cabo was built in 2013. The 41 will be built on the 40 Cabo’s hull, with a different topside.

“Cabo hasn’t been around for five years but we don’t see any issues with reviving the brand,” he says. “Cabo has tremendous brand equity and ranks high in reliability and overall image. Used Cabos have held their values pretty well.”

Miami Boat Show Debut 

Grindle says that some Hatteras dealers will take on the Cabo line, and the company will be looking for other dealers with center-console lines who want to offer an alternative.

The first hull will be completed in December and shown at the Miami International Boat Show in February. “We’ll have hull two done before the show,” says Grindle, who declines to say what sizes the rest of the Cabo line will be.

“We’re not going to overlap our Hatteras yachts with Cabo,” he says. “They’ll have two different value propositions. And we’re building the Cabo on a separate line from Hatteras.”