Early 90's Larson Cabrio

sh2053

Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2007
RO Number
25733
Messages
23
Hello,
Going to look at 2 of these this weekend.
One with 5.7 and the other with 5.0.
Anything I should know about these boats?

Thanks,

Steve
 
Sorry,
1991 31' Larson Cabrio. Looking at 2. One with 5.7 and one with 5.0.
Thanks,

Steve
 
If you think this is the boat, I load it down with a bunch of people for your sea trial. I think you would want something beefier for a 31' boat...
 
I had a 1988 Larson Contempra, whis was the forerunner to the Cabrio. That boat has twin 260 HP mercruisers, Alpha outdrives and ran beautifully. In all truth, the boat was quite fast, topping out at about 48 MPH by GPS. Fuel-burn was also quite good at 3,000 RPM (about 16 GPH at 28 MPH by GPS).

I agree that 5.0 Liter engines may be a bit underpowered and the boat's performance will not be as satisfying. If it were me, I'd go with the 5.7L engines if all else was equal.
 
Thanks for the replies gents.
Going to give them a good look over before we even think about survey/seatrial. Any known structural issues?

Steve
 
Steve,
The Contempra was built by Hattaras and the Hull was designed around a fiberglass box structure which had the Stringers ending at the engineroom bulkhead. It was a very rigid design but ours developed a leak that allowed sea water into the bilge, which went undetected for 2 years. Unfortunately, the entire fiberglass box section got soaked and with 2 freezing cycles the hull got very mushy. Ultimately, the boat was a total loss. For what it's worth, the damage was initially caused by a "Marina" who patched the damage improperly. But this is the short version.

The only thing we didn't like about the boat was the Maroon Gel coat they used in that year for the upper part of the Hull, which faded badly and was impossible to keep bright. Truthfully, we would have bought another but the Cabrio series didn't have the center island berth and dual entry Head.

Check to see if the boats you are looking at are of the same construction or if they changed to full length stringers.

3 words:
Survey, survey, survey.
 
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