Unfortunately the weather is starting to turn as the winter sets in slowly. This weekend was great, warm temps and little wind. Many boats at the marina have already disappeared for the season. The islands and waters were boat free with the exception of boats moving down to their winterization destination.

This was our last weekend on the boat as Monday we brought everything back with us. I just need to do my oil changes and bring her to my winter storage area which is about a 2hr run from home port.

Pictures were taken Sunday, weather was nice enough to be in swim wear, no wind.

Hello all. I am a new owner of a used Carver. I recently purchased a 2000 Carver 45 Voyager with 480 Volvo Penta's. I am trying to get a feel for my fuel consumption rates at 9-10 mph vrs 20-21 mph. Any ideas?

Would love to obtain 5 mph increase in cruising speed. I know it would be difficult if not impossible. We have a 440 MY with CAT 3126s rated at 420 hp each, ZF transmissions with a 2.9:1 ratio and 30x33 propellers.

We can reach 15 mph at 2250 RPMs.

Is there any way to obtain a speed increase without excessive drive train wear and to do it economically?

First year to winterize this boat, can anyone tell me where the raw water seacock intake is for the 454 crusaders on this boat? Found a seacock under salon floor next to the v-drive that goes into the drive and out of drive appears to go back to engine. Is this the raw water intake for the engine or is there another seacock located somewhere i havent found yet?

Any other information or procedures regarding winterizing the above boat would be appreciated!

Thanks.

So here is the problem. The bed in my 1999 Carver Mariner 350 sucks - well, the mattress sucks. The shape and position against the wall sucks too, but more about that latter. The block of foam that came as the stock bed is very firm and we wake up with a sore back. To help solve this issue, I put a 3" queen sized memory foam topper on the bed. It's a little better but it's still kind of firm and as you sink into it all night, you back hurts in the morning. The queen sized memory foam is unruly, to big and overhangs the bed. So, I've decided to add another 3" of memory foam, full size this time, to help soften things up even more. Now the bed is a little hard to get into being even higher off the ground. In addition to being to tall, the full sized memory foam is to narrow for the stock bed.

I have not mentioned the large wedge shaped space at the top bed, between the mattress and the chain locker. The mattress is flush to the wall on the starboard side and is about 12" away on the port side. There is a shallow fiberglass wall (hump) that hold the mattress in place but is large enough to loose some pillows in at night. We sleep with our heads at the bow and end up stuffing some pillows in there.

I'm out of my mind....

The plan is to make a new mattress over the winter. My questions are as fallows...
1. Is there a minimum foam thickness or foam layer formula for building a foam mattress? For example so many inches of foam #, then so many inches of foam #, then...

2. Do I make the mattress go over the fiberglass hump at the top of the bed? If I do, I'm going to need custom made sheets.

3. It's a custom shaped bed. The starboard top corner is rounded to I'm going to have to trim the corner off. Also the starboard edge is tapered. The thicker the bed is, the more space (gap) there is in the starboard side.

What have you done to make a comfy nights sleep? Any make a custom mattress for their Carver? I don't want to put a sock twin mattress in there. It will not match the contour of the boat.

I own a 2003 Carver 444 with a Volvo QL bow thruster. Volvo Penta no longer offers QL bow thruster oil (part # 41100129) and they recommend using Castrol Alpha SP 150 or equivalent gear oil. I cannot find Castro Alpha SP 150 or what an equivalent product might be. Does anyone know what oil to use and where to get it?

So - bad news taking the boat out this year. The bow started to buckle at the lift points. We know we had some water issues over the last few seasons ( long story ). So between the soft hull , propeller shaft issues and 2 pumps to replace we have decided it's time to stop the money drain. We are looking for forum input on the value for a 1982 Mariner that is at end of life. Yes , we could fix the fiberglass and probably have the marina pull the engine and replace the shaft but there are too many other things wrong with the boat for us to continue to put money into it ( engines are at 2000 hours, subfloor in the salon needs replacing etc etc ). If I were to part it out on ebay - there are two engines and transmissions that alone would be in the 10,000.00 range

Any thoughts on a value for an end of life carver ?

Thanks in advance

Hello all, I need to replace all three oil change hoses [pt, stb & genset] on 1991 3607 aft cabin, w/twin Cummins 6BTA. The price for hoses is all over the chart, i.e. ranging from $2.75 to $15 per foot. Need help specifying correct hose and recommendation where to buy.

2003 356 windless won’t work. My question is: how much should the red switch under the stairs label windless pull up? In the process of buying this boat and the windlass doesn’t work. Owner said earlier in the season he let all of the chain out then in to exercise the system. Now it won’t work at all. The red switch barely moves up and down at all and there is no power indication at the helm on the windless control head. The foot controls at the bow do not work as well. Just trying to get a rough idea if I should hold things up over this. An inspection of the anchor locker doesn’t reveal any signs of anything amiss all wires appear connected and no corrosion at all. Opinions?

So I finally got my 98 405 in my slip and it has 30 amp outlets. Marina has given me permission to install 50 amp and they will reinburse me.

In the meantime, can I convert the 50 amp using a 50 amp female down to a 30 amp male converter and it work? So I dont have to run my generator all the time.

I have 2 16k btu a/c units currently and I plan on adding a 3 16k btu unit next summer.

Electrical is not my strong point, so if I run separate convertors from the 2 connectors on my boat will it power everything from the 30amp connections? I have two separate connections on my shore power pedestal I can use.

I havnt even started adding my large screen tvs, so i appreciate any thoughts or suggestions ya have