Hi everyone,

I’m the proud new owner of a 1996 325. We just closed on it and are very excited. I’ve been reading a lot on this forum throughout the buying process and have already learned a ton.

The boat is structurally in great shape, aside from a wet (but not yet soft) swim platform, likely due to the deck box fasteners leaking. Our surveyor thought we caught it in time if we remove the deck box and re-bed the screws in epoxy, as others have done. Aside from that, the surveyor said it was “surprisingly dry” for a 1996 boat, which I was happy to hear. Also both engines were pulled and totally rebuilt in 2021, and the new engines only have about 50 hours on them. However, the boat has been a bit neglected the last couple years and doesn’t have much in terms of optional equipment, so there is already a long list of projects/updates I am excited to get to work on!

Growing up, my family had a Gibson houseboat that we spent the better part of every summer on. I’ve also owned a small boat (18’ bowrider) for many years. But I have a family of my own now and it was time for us to upgrade to our first “big boat”. I have a lot of boating experience but zero Carver/yacht experience so this is a big change and I have a lot to learn. I know I’m going to get a lot of value out of this forum and I hope I repay the favor by sharing some of what I learn along the way.

We live in Wisconsin and I think it’s pretty awesome to have a boat that came from our home state.

I’ll be posting about some of the projects as I start to dig into my list over the next several months.

Excited to be here!

Tony