At the heart of the 343's response to a long list of owner requirements lies the hull. A stepped hull, and Cobalt was far from the first in the industry to bring such a hull into its fleet. Only when Cobalt engineers were convinced that their design could guarantee, without question, total safety and control to match the hull's obvious advantages, did the 343 come off the drawing boards. There came too longstanding Cobalt benchmarks: the matchless Cobalt extended running surface, a full-length keel pad for better tracking, reverse chines, a notched transom decreasing drag from the outdrive, and a gentle, gentle ride among all that horsepower.