1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Hello all,
This is my first post here, so I hope it's in the right spot!

I'm working on buying my first boat, and I'm narrowing my choices down. My two favorites are a 1990 Doral Prestencia, and a 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870. They're both about the same size, similarly powered, and similarly equipped. They're both fairly well maintained. I think the Doral is better looking, and it's cheaper, but I'm worried that the asking price may be too good to be true.

Basically, I don't know much about these boats aside from what I can see with my admittedly untrained eye. I do plan to get a survey done for the one I end up choosing, but I'd really love to hear from anyone who's owned either of these boats. Are there any trouble areas that I should look for? etc..

Thanks!!

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Post pics of both. That'll help us know what you're dealing with.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

:welcome: to iBoats!

Post links to the sales ads, or at least some pictures and detailed information. We enjoy looking at boats and helping people spend money!

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Thanks for the warm welcome!

This is the link for the Cruisers:
Used 1991 Cruisers Yachts 2870 Express, Union Springs, Ny - 13160 - BoatTrader.com

And here's the pic I snapped of the Doral

I've gotten the full tour of the Cruisers, and it looks pretty well cared for. The upholstery is a bit shot in the cabin, but that's the only real negative I could see. I haven't seen inside the Doral yet.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Doral is out of business, but they did build some nice boats. The Cruisers may have a cored hull, so have that verified with a survey. A neighbor at our marina had a 2870 for many years, and it was a good boat in big water, lot's of room in the cabin too. If the Cruisers checks out after a survey, I would rather have that myself.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Hi Dave! Welcome aboard. I got your PM.
Obviously, I'm partial to the Cruisers, we've had her for 3 years and have been very happy with her. We have twin 5.7L engines with the Volvo-Penta Duo-props and she is quick, responsive and quite nimble for her size. We get about 1.3mpg, hit about 48mph WOT and get on plane in I guess about 6-7 seconds. I've never actually timed it. Obviously the one you are looking at has 4.3L Mercs instead.

Slip Away is correct, there's plenty of room in the cabin and she handles rough water quite well. We've been out in 3-4 foot waves on Lake Winnebago which is quite shallow and gets closely packed waves that can really beat you up.

The only big problem we had was leaking bellows that trashed the gimble bearings which required removal of the engines to fix, but that would be more of a Volvo-Penta and poor maintenance problem.

There is only one thing that I would say is an issue with the boat itself. The built in swim platform is really small. So small that I personally would almost consider it a hazard. I'm pretty big (5'11", 250lb) and had trouble moving around on it without an extend platform so that is something that you should check out.

On my boat the previous owner home built an extension that added about 2 feet and really helped. Here's the thread for my rebuild of the platform after it started rotting.
http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...ue-extended-swim-platform-rebuild-548797.html

Another more professional/expensive option would be to get an extended platform from http://www.swimplatforms.com.

Other info online, Cruisers Inc has most of their old brochures scanned and posted on their facebook page. Here's the link to the 1991 gallery.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199157096826167.49180.174887045919839&type=3

And the Cruisers Yachts Owners Club has an active and very helpful forum, http://www.cruisersyachtsownersclub.com, that factory reps actually participate on.

Hope that helps.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

bekosh said:

The only big problem we had was leaking bellows that trashed the gimble bearings which required removal of the engines to fix, but that would be more of a Volvo-Penta and poor maintenance problem.

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Just to clarify - this is an owner/poor maintenance issue, nothing to do with Volvo.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

In 1990, Doral offered either Mercruiser or OMC engines. If that one has the OMC package my vote goes to the 2870.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

h2odick said:

Just to clarify - this is an owner/poor maintenance issue, nothing to do with Volvo.

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Mostly. As far as the leaking bellows themselves, yes. I wouldn't have had a problem at all if the previous owner had taken care of the bellows or if I had realized that first season that I had a problem and changed them myself.

The Volvo issue is that the transom holes are to small to get to the bearings so you have to pull the motors and that really increased the labor cost. I believe that on the Mercury drives you can get to the bearings through the transom holes by pulling the drives. If I am incorrect on that, please correct me. Other than that one thing I love the VP Duo-props.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Thanks Bekosh!

The Rogue actually just had both it's bellows and gimble bearings replaced. So that's something I wouldnt have to worry about (hopefully.) I also noticed that tiny little swim platform. it's shallow and it's got that big slope on the after edge. I damn nearly slipped off it yesterday. Wouldn't have been bad if it was in the water, but it was up on the hard... ow.

Another thing that i noticed was the lack of vertical clearance up in the forward berth. I can see myself hitting my head quite a lot up there... haha

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

r.j.dawg said:

In 1990, Doral offered either Mercruiser or OMC engines. If that one has the OMC package my vote goes to the 2870.

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I think the Doral has the OMC engines... Are they junk?? I know nothing about marine engines.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Dave0549jv said:

I think the Doral has the OMC engines... Are they junk?? I know nothing about marine engines.

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The problem with OMC is that they have been out of business since 2000 and finding parts for their older drives can sometimes be a challenge. They also used Ford based motors (5.8L V8 and a couple of others) sometimes and they have been out of the marine engine business even longer.

There is some overlap between OMC and Volvo in the 1990's when they had a joint venture, so if the Doral has Chevy based motors and Cobra outdrives parts should still available through Volvo-Penta dealers.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

bekosh said:

Mostly. As far as the leaking bellows themselves, yes. I wouldn't have had a problem at all if the previous owner had taken care of the bellows or if I had realized that first season that I had a problem and changed them myself.

The Volvo issue is that the transom holes are to small to get to the bearings so you have to pull the motors and that really increased the labor cost. I believe that on the Mercury drives you can get to the bearings through the transom holes by pulling the drives. If I am incorrect on that, please correct me. Other than that one thing I love the VP Duo-props.

Click to expand...

I believe its a matter of model/year, some volvo outdrives didnt even have gimble bearings. The later Volvo outdrives you just pull the leg, yank the gimble out (slide hammer/bearing puller) and replace. Reinstall outdrive, done. Not sure in your case, someone who knows more about Volvo may chime in.

Before purchasing/during inspection of an I/O boat the bellows are one of the first things I look at on an outdrive, its easy to tell if the bellows are cracked/dried up generally - and it adds to the bargaining power when talking to the seller if they are in need of replacement. Bellows are a consumable item. I would almost just replace them on any I/O boat I was purchasing before putting it into the drink. The outdrive needs to come off for yearly inspection anyways, and since I'm somewhat anal I would have replaced at least the u-joint bellows at this time to give me a maintenance baseline for a boat I just purchased. (cheap insurance..)

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

h2odick said:

I believe its a matter of year, some volvo outdrives didnt even have gimble bearings. The later Volvo outdrives you just pull the outdrive, yank the gimble out (slide hammer/bearing puller) and replace. Reinstall outdrive, done. Not sure in your case, someone who knows more about Volvo may chime in.

Before purchasing/during inspection of an I/O boat the bellows are one of the first things I look at on an outdrive, its easy to tell if the bellows are cracked/dried up generally - and it adds to the bargaining power when talking to the seller if they are in need of replacement. Bellows are a consumable item. I would almost just replace them on any I/O boat I was purchasing before putting it into the drink. The outdrive needs to come off for yearly inspection anyways, and since I'm somewhat anal I would have replaced at least the u-joint bellows at this time to give me a maintenance baseline for a boat I just purchased. (cheap insurance..)

Click to expand...

I wonder if I'm getting the terminology wrong. I have the older 270/290? based Duo-Props and there were 2 sets of bearings that had to be replaced. The problem set were pressed into the back of the motors and they couldn't get to them through the transom.

I agree that if you don't know when the bellows were done last you should go ahead and do them before your first launch. That is something that I should have done. Expensive mistake and lesson for me.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

bekosh said:

I agree that if you don't know when the bellows were done last you should go ahead and do them before your first launch. That is something that I should have done. Expensive mistake and lesson for me.

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Thank you for letting me learn this the easy way!

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Dave0549jv said:

Thank you for letting me learn this the easy way!

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You are quite welcome. If I can serve no other purpose in life, I can always be a bad example. :laugh:

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

bekosh said:

There is some overlap between OMC and Volvo in the 1990's when they had a joint venture, so if the Doral has Chevy based motors and Cobra outdrives parts should still available through Volvo-Penta dealers.

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Careful here- the Volvo-OMC overlap only applies to OMC Cobra 'SX' drives, which are the same drives as the Volvo SX and were NOT available yet in 1990. An older Cobra drive is iffy because it's obsolete and, as mentioned, parts and mechanics may be in short(er) supply. If it's a Ford engine, too, the obsolesence problem is that much worse.

My .02

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

bekosh said:

I wonder if I'm getting the terminology wrong. I have the older 270/290? based Duo-Props and there were 2 sets of bearings that had to be replaced. The problem set were pressed into the back of the motors and they couldn't get to them through the transom.

Click to expand...

Yep. The engine has to be pulled on those as the seals and bearings are in the flywheel housing and the engine must be pulled in order to get to those. Bummer, I feel for ya.
(Sorry Dave, didn't mean to get off topic in your thread!)

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

Double Whammy..... Doral out of business, OMC out of business. Pass on the Doral.

Re: 1990 Doral Prestancia 30 Vs. 1992 Cruisers Rogue 2870

h2odick said:

(Sorry Dave, didn't mean to get off topic in your thread!)

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It's no problem at all.

Slip Away said:

Double Whammy..... Doral out of business, OMC out of business. Pass on the Doral.

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Yeah, that's how things are beginning to lean. I do like the layout of the Doral better, and it is about four thousand less, but that just makes me wonder if it's too good to be true. Certainly sounds that way. I'll be heading down there to take a look this afternoon. I doubt i'll have any fingernails left by then!