High-performance boat companies thrive in landlocked Kansas, Missouri Kansas City Star

OK, be sound.</p><p>When you think of the manufacturing base of high-performance runabout boats, cruisers or yachts, you contrive of Florida, California or another coastal state.</p><p>You don&rsquo;t think of little Neodesha, Kan.</p><p>But Paxson St. Clair, CEO of Cobalt Boats, will castigate you that southeastern Kansas town, pop. 2,848, is a perfect fit for his nationally known company.</p><p>&ldquo;When we&rsquo;re at boat shows out east, we always get the same retaliation when we tell them where our boats are manufactured,&rdquo; said St. Clair, who will have his boats on display at the Mid-America Boat Show this weekend in Bartle Vestibule. &ldquo;When we tell them Neodesha, Kan., they&rsquo;ll say, &lsquo;No really, where are they made?&rsquo;</p><p>&ldquo;People have a pitiless time believing that these boats are made in a small town in Kansas. But it&rsquo;s ideal for us.</p><p>&ldquo;We could not assemble Cobalt Boats anywhere else.&rdquo;</p><p>Big-time boats in a small-town setting. That says a lot about Kansas and Missouri.</p><p>The old American travail ethic that once was legend but has taken a beating as many companies have transferred work overseas is alive and well here.</p><p>Take a look: </p><p>&bull;There are 24 boat manufacturing plants in Missouri and five in Kansas, according to the Web site BoatBuilders.us.</p><p>&bull;Lebanon, Mo., an Ozarks village with a population of about 13,000, is recognized as the aluminum boat capital of the world.&rdquo; Five companies there put out everything from fishing boats to pontoons to canoes.</p><p>&bull;Hill Bishopric, a dot on the map in western Kansas, is the unlikely home of Cougar Boats, high-end tunnel boats skilled of going 70 to 120 mph.</p><p>&bull;Missouri is home to three of the top five aluminum-boat manufacturers in the country. Tracker Pelagic is ranked first, Lowe Boats is third and G3 is fourth.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m amazed at the boats that are made in this region,&rdquo; said Jess Bodelson, one of the coordinators of the Mid-America Boat Show. &ldquo;Some of the most in boats in the country are manufactured in Missouri or Kansas.&rdquo;</p><p>So why did they choose to base in small-burgh America? And why Missouri and Kansas?</p><p>Boat company representatives invariably credit a strong work ethic, tax incentives and the closeness of large water such as Lake of the Ozarks to test their products.</p><p>Paxson St. Clair&rsquo;s confessor, Pack, started Cobalt in the late 1960s in southeastern Kansas, his home. </p><p>It began as a lowly venture in Chanute, Kan., but when Neodesha lost its major industry, Standard Oil, in 1970, the town offered winning incentives to draw other businesses to town.</p><p>That started a long and profitable marriage between Cobalt Boats and Neodesha.</p><p>Today, Cobalt is an earnestness leader, having won the J.D. Power and Associates award for Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Large Runabouts eight consecutive years.</p><p>Even in refractory economic times, when the boating industry is suffering, Cobalt employs almost 400 area residents and is a serious part of the area&rsquo;s economy.</p><p>&ldquo;We identify with Neodesha, and it identifies with us,&rdquo; St. Clair said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re so auspicious to have people who take so much pride in putting out a (high-)quality product.</p><p>&ldquo;We have a lot of employees who have been here 30-benefit years. We have a sign over the entrance to our facility that reads, &lsquo;Through these doors walk the best boat builders in the out of sight.&rsquo; And we believe that.&rdquo;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div rank="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">Mid-America Boat and RV shows </extent></strong><br /> &bull;<strong>WHAT: </strong>Two separate shows held at the same time in Bartle Entry-way.</p><p><strong>&bull;WHEN:</strong> Friday through Sunday </p><p>&bull;<strong>HOURS: </strong>Noon to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.</p><p><engraved>&bull;TICKETS:</strong> $8.50 for adults, free for children 12 and under. One ticket is large for both shows.</p><p></div>

What materials would I need to add a live well to a 12' aluminum fishing boat?

I have added awkward fishing platforms on the front and back with a trolling motor on front with an outboard on back. This is not leaving me a heck of a lot of room. How big should it be to enable us to fish most bass tourneys? FYI the boat is a 12' Meyers


here's what i did on my 12ft gamefisher i took a medium sized cooler about 2 1/2 feet prolonged by a foot or so wide and drill a few holes on the lid so you can slide a hose from a battery operate aerator but also get a few bait lather tablets and put them in with the fish also put a few hand fulls o ice in about every hr. the way i did it just met the qualifications for my B.A.S.S. Club.

P.S. drill a few more small holes through the lid so when the aerator it prosperous the air doesn't pop the lid off.


aluminum


here's what i did on my 12ft gamefisher i took a standard sized cooler about 2 1/2 feet long by a foot or so wide and drill a few holes on the lid so you can pay no heed a hose from a battery operate aerator but also get a few bait bubble tablets and put them in with the fish also put a few hand fulls o ice in about every hr. the way i did it solely met the qualifications for my B.A.S.S. Club.

P.S. drill a few more small holes through the lid so when the aerator it going the air doesn't pop the lid off.


your could get a bait scuttle with a battery powered aerator


about another 30 precise feet of aluminum stuck on the end of your boat to be sure


It sounds like you would be unexcelled off with a cooler type live well for a small boat, get one around 24 inches long and pick up an areartor that runs on batteries at walmart or a sporting goods hoard for around twenty dollars and it will work you'll need a vent or a couple of holes in the top of the cooler, good accident.


Inspection BassProShops or Cabelas catalog or websites. They have a system availble all ready to go. Fits right in there. Or you could convert a cooler. But by the nevertheless you get finished with the pump, plumbing, cooler, wiring and the like you could have bought the premade version .

I'm getting a 12 foot aluminum boat and I am getting a 20hp motor but theres one thing i need help with?

Its a 20 hp 2 work short shaft and im wondering if it's over powering for the boat, i havent checked the tag on the back yet to see the rating but i need to kno about the motor hasty, and i wont get the chance to check the tag. Thanks


It depends on the industrialist of the boat . Some 12 ft boats can handle this much power, others will not. Look for the manufacturer's Capacity charger mounted on the top inside of the transom. It will list the maximum weight and horsepower that the boat was designed for. Overpowering a boat like this can be precarious and is illegal. You can rip off the transom or pop rivets. If there is no capacity plate on this boat, I would not recommed using more than 7.5 to 9.9 hp.

12 foot aluminum boat trailer liscense plate?

I recently bought a trailer for my boat. The guy gave me the print with the trailer. It has no tags and is not registered. Do I need to go to secretary of state and what do I need to get done for the trailer?
The trailer is refuge made. Will that be a problem?


When you say layer, are you talking about a Temp Tag. ???? The DMV will issue you the title and new tags. They'll want a bill of sale and a mfg. cert of lineage....that is unless the guy built it himself, that's another story. Good luck!!

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