Carver Owners Forum

Hi,, I'm looking for a spiral ladder from the swim platform to the back deck for the mid '90's 370 aft cabin, Hope to replace the existing flat ladder. Anyone have any suggestions as to where to locate one either new or used? Thanks,, Kevin

I've been looking for one for some time and haven't had any luck. I contacted Carver and they don't have any either, not even one for a different model that I'd be able to modify. They used to build those themselves but they don't even have any blueprints now that they can share to get one built elsewhere. That's your best best though, source out a company that specializes in fabricating marine hardware out of stainless steel or powder coated aluminum. There are also manufacturers that specialize in DYI spiral staircases where you can provide specs and they will ship you a kit that you assemble yourself. I believe there are a couple of members here who've gone that route. I think one of them was 1000islands. Yet another option if you know a good fiberglass tech or can do it yourself, is to fabricate one out of fiberglass. If you do a Google search, you're sure to find a guy that had a popular thread about making his own. It might even be on this forum so try doing a search here for that thread.

Why do you want a spiral stair? When we purchased our 370 AFT cabin, we looked at a '96 with the spiral and a '94 with the flat ladder. Wife has had one knee replaced twice and will have other knee replaced this fall and she literally could not navigate the spiral stairs. Too much rotating on the ball of one foot as you traversed the stairs put too much torque on her 'bad' knee. Also flat ladder takes up MUCH less space on the swim platform meaning you can never tip a dinghy up on it or even install davits in the future.

Short of custom made, have you thought of trying a set of dock steps with 3 or 4 runs? Either full width or cut them down narrower and attach to the aft cabin outside wall? Few sets on E-Bay at a reasonable price too! Just a thought.