# 31 contender



## gil5077 (Jul 29, 2010)

how wet of a ride do the older 31' contenders have? late 90's- early 2000's? Or any other flaws? I'm looking at maybe repowering an older boat. i havent heard very many bad things about them.... anyone have any pros and cons?


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## aggieangler09 (Apr 11, 2009)

the 31 open contender hull was the same from late 90's till 2007 when they designed the Tournament hull. 2 completely different hulls and rides. But still 2 awesome fishing machines!!!!


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## sureshot840 (Mar 3, 2009)

gil5077 said:


> how wet of a ride do the older 31' contenders have? late 90's- early 2000's? Or any other flaws? I'm looking at maybe repowering an older boat. i havent heard very many bad things about them.... anyone have any pros and cons?


2 types of boats

Wet boats

Wet boats with curtains

With this being said - any boat can & will get you wet in the right conditions.

I would look at getting one with the K-plane tabs & wedges. Or plan on installing some on an older 31' Contender - makes a big difference in the ride.

The 31' is an awesome hull - you will not be dissapointed - some great deals out there too.


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## Konan (Jul 13, 2009)

We have the 2007 and really like it. We looked at 2008's 2009's and 2010's, we found that when Contender started puttin the 350's on the 31' it was to much weight and power, hulls were not holding up. We found prolly 10 that had this problem. With the 250s or 300's its perfect.


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## bkb7777 (Dec 12, 2009)

had a 2006 and there wet riding boats but it was my favorite boat. especially when it was slick calm runnin 45mph on the way out up to 55 headin in


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## bjd76 (Jan 12, 2008)

I am *not* a Contender owner but when shopping around I heard that the hulls rode a little heavy in the stern with 4 strokes of 250 and above - know I heard it on the 27 model, don't know if it would apply to a 31. Also heard that they came out with the Tournament model to help alleviate that problem (moved CC forward a bit to better balance weight plus other things). Just what I heard - actual owners can verify or dispute as bs. Good, solid boat with a great following - gotta be something to it.


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## JohnHumbert (May 21, 2004)

*I have a 1996...*

...that I've had for about 12 years. When I got it, the Contender was THE boat to have. They are a solidly built hull - mine has no issues. I just repowered last year.

HOWEVER, they are NOT very maintenance friendly. I look at them differently now and would NOT buy another (older) one. Here's why. My boat developed a gas leak - a very common problem. Especially once they reach about 10 years of use.

The all-glassed in tanks and decks seem like a great idea - and they are initially - until something goes wrong.

In my case, I knew I had a gas leak but it was darn near impossible to determine where - because the older contenders have NO inspection ports whatsoever into the hull. Some folks ended up putting them in. I ended up have to add some just to find the problem. Nothing like shelling out $1K just to look  . The "pre-dimpled" areas for putting in ports make NO sense on the early contenders (like in the tail sponsons). What you REALLY need is a way to visually inspect the tanks. There should be a maintenance port directly over the tank fittings - duh!

My issue turned out to be a leak in tank fittings on top of the tank. Not too bad a deal - but it took a LONG time to find someone in Texas willing to do the work - and it involved cutting out a portion of the deck.

Truly, with the older contenders you could have something as simple as a hose slipping off a tank fitting - and you will have to cut up the deck to put the hose back on. 

I talked with the Contender folks when this happened - and they were VERY helpful. Even offered to do the work, if I brought boat to Homestead. They also readily admitted to making some big mistakes in terms of design for maintenance that (at that time) they were only beginning to discover since their fleet was only beginning to age to that point. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that the long conversations I had with them (which were VERY pleasant) resulted in design changes that I saw in the hulls the very year AFTER I had the problem.

But the older boats are NOT maintenance friendly. If you have to end up replacing a gas tank, you are going to have to cut large portions out of the hull to do so and it will be MAJOR league expensive - for the side tanks.

God forbid that you have a problem with the center tank - because on the older boats THERE IS NO WAY TO REPLACE THE TANK WITHOUT CUTTING OFF - THAT IS *CUTTING OFF* - THE CENTER CONSOLE. Marty at Contender confirmed this. That means cutting all the wiring, tubing, etc. and basically rebuilding the innerds of the boat.

The cost of doing this on an older hull is probably 4-5x the worth of the boat. Contender will do it cheaper (if you are in the Homestead area), but even they admit it's not worth it - better to just buy a newer model by a few years.

So be very, very careful in buying an older Contender - make SURE the fuel tanks are not fixing to have a problem - or you just bought a large chunk of worthless fiberglass. Even if the hull is solid.

Since then, when I look at big offshore boats, I mentally check out how easy it would be to do common maintenance, like a fuel tank. This results of this have been eye-opening for sure. There are boat designers and manufactorers out there that CLEARLY were thinking correctly when they laid things out. Even Contender made changes. But I look at older Whalers, Cape Horns, Yellowfins - and I see somebody who built their boats to stay in service for 20, 30 years - not just ten.

Now I never had a complaint on how the boat performed - but when you buy an older hull - maintenance becomes a big factor.


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## JohnHumbert (May 21, 2004)

*Repowering*

Also, some thoughts on repowering...

I looked a LONG time at choices for repowering. After I had done exhaustive research, I decided NOT to go to 4-strokes. Here's why:

The fuel savings are real - but not really that cost effective. You need to do the math. If you are going to be using the boat a LOT and making long runs every time, *maybe* you recoup the extra cost in a few years. But if you are an average angler, and only use the boat 5 or 6 times a year, it will be a very long time before you get to the break-even point.

For me, it just wasn't worth it. I figured it would be years before I reached that point. At $4/gal, the extra $6000 for 4'-strokes means I would have to save about 1500 gals to break even. At 20% better mileage, and a typical trip of 120 gals, that's 24 gals per trip savings, or about 62 trips to break even. At 5 trips per year, that over 12 years to break even. For me, I'm lucky to get 3 trips a year, which makes the break even about 20 years!

Do the math for your situation - sure, 4-strokes sound nice and there are other reason to buy them - but don't get suckered into thinking you need them for fuel savings.

Also, the older 31's and 27's, the extra weight is defintely a draw back. I had some long conversations with Blackbird industries in PA (where I bought some rebuilt-from-ground-up motors), and he steered me away from 4-strokes. It was good advice.

I ended up getting a set of fuel-injected 2-strokes (I had old carburated yahamas) and couldn't be happier. Went up from 200's to 225's and they are more than enough. With typical cruising around 40-45mph (and how often can you comfortably run faster than that?) my engines run at 3/4 throttle and give about the same fuel consumption as 250 4's running at top end. For me, leaving 20 minutes earlier from the dock made more sense. For me.

Running WOT/top end still gives me acceptable fuel rates at 65mph - but it really has to be pretty flat to run at that speed.

Just food for thought....


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## Gap (Jun 4, 2004)

I have a 2002 31. After losing a motor several years ago I re-powered with 300 Suzuki's. I couldn't be happier with the performance, but agree with John that it's not an economic winner. I'll never get close to "paying for it" with gas savings. But, they are smooth, quiet, and I'm confident in them. Something I was not in my old Yamaha's.
Boat is a battle-wagon that has few real flaws as a fishing boat. Construction, storage, sea-keeping are very good for a center console. Over the years others have made design enhancements that made theirs more dry or fancy, but the original 31 Open is hard to beat in our Gulf. Where my day trips run 80 miles out, it's speed and good ride make that possible.

BTW - John's not whistling dixie on the fuel tank issue. I had a surge that I thought was a leak and did some research and found numerous issues similar to his. Mine was a primer bulb!
My $.02


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## 27contender (Dec 22, 2008)

I had the same issue with the vent hose on my 27 center tank. What I found was a tub liner in the console that covered the bolts that held the center console on. I cut a section of this off to perform the repair.  It did not lend itself to putting in an inspection plate very well because of the various layers at the site. With this new found knowledge I believe when the center tank goes I can cut the tub all the way around, remove the fastners lift up the console and remove the center tank (not that that is easy). When I "reinstall" the console Ill probably leave the lip off the tub.

Other people I know have cut the floor for the center tank.

All in all it probably adds quite a bit to the repair and just getting another one maybe the best option.

Kinda sucks.



JohnHumbert said:


> .
> 
> God forbid that you have a problem with the center tank - because on the older boats THERE IS NO WAY TO REPLACE THE TANK WITHOUT CUTTING OFF - THAT IS *CUTTING OFF* - THE CENTER CONSOLE. Marty at Contender confirmed this. That means cutting all the wiring, tubing, etc. and basically rebuilding the innerds of the boat.
> 
> The cost of doing this on an older hull is probably 4-5x the worth of the boat. Contender will do it cheaper (if you are in the Homestead area), but even they admit it's not worth it - better to just buy a newer model by a few years.


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## Ono Loco (Aug 4, 2005)

Pretty sure you have to cut the decks on almost all high-end center consoles with wing-tanks - Yellowfin and Seavee included.


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## TracyRene (Jul 16, 2009)

We have a 31, great ride takes the waves great, but YOU WILL GET WET. I love my splash curtains!


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