Carver Owners Forum

Just wanted to say hi. I am Gary and i am in contract with a 2000 carver 356 , going to be surveyed soon and sea trial. Any Advise of what to watch for ? Certain characteristics to look for on these boats?

Welcome aboard!
I haven't owned a 356 but there's plenty here that have. I don't recall anything but normal issues that one would have with a boat.
If the survey is good, you should be ok.

Hi Gary , welcome to the forum.

I just bought my 2001 last year. We really like our boat. My only complaint...there's a lot packed into a 35' boat which means accessing engines, systems, etc. can be very tight. My boat was re-powered with 8.1 Crusader's. When opened up, it will fly...35 mph.

Welcome Aboard. Good luck with the survey and sea trial. Hope all goes well.

Good luck and welcome

Thank you all for the welcoming hopefully sea trial goes good and i will be a Carver owner soon

You do know you have an aux fuel tank in the swim platform. To get a visual of it, pull out that aft cabin night stand drawer and the counter top should just pop right off - pulling straight up.
You will see a small panel in the back of the nightstand, maybe 6 x 20" that is held in by 2 screws.
I just had my 2 saddle fuel tanks polished, glad I did...and I want to do the aux tank as well, but to do it, I'm sure I need to completely remove the night stand which I think is doable.
Tell your surveyor, he needs to pull up the carpet in the aft stateroom. There are 2 hatches he needs to open up for inspection

About your AC units...my forward unit did not have a filter at all. After a good vacuum cleaning, I was able to put one in the grill.
Aft unit did not have one either according to my surveyor. After buying the boat, I did my own inspection. There was a filter, but it had become so clogged, it folded in on itself and dropped down in the airway. I really had to do some serious vacuuming of the AC unit as it was so loaded with dirt and dust. Get a strong vacuum and it's quite a reach under the aft bed, but well worth the time and effort to clean up. Got a new filter for that as well and all is good.
I bought one of those metal mesh filters, maybe 24" x 24" and it was enough to make both filters

Don't know if you surveyor will do this, but get him to drain the racor filters to see what's there. Wish I had. Had I done that, I would have insisted the seller get the tanks polished.