Carver 26 Santa Cruz 2667 Questions

[Cooler]

Hello Eggbert, your issues are totally relative to the design of your vessel. All normal. 8' beam, single I/O, distribution of weighted components, elevated center of gravity from bridge, and 5400lb total is the perfect storm for that tippy feel and wandering bow. You could use ballast bags that are used on wake board boats, but that will only help at moderate speeds and be negative on fuel consumption. When you hit that 40mph speed, you acheived maximum hull speed. Certain power set ups can deliver more speed, but the hull will only displace so much water. You experienced a porpoise effect. That is nerve wracking. I had a 26 ft Express cruiser, 8.5 beam, and you described that ride to the tee. It was a Cruisers model. Regarding seaworthiness, just find someone with a moisture meter, and check your hull & stringers in various spots. Check transom a lot, especially around any cutout areas. I am not sure if Carver used coring below the waterline on your model, but they did stay away from coring below for the most part. If your hull is not wet, integrity of the hull is good. Having a boat that delivers on your personal style for use, is more important than slamming 3ft waves with 2 ft swells. Sounds like you have a good relationship with her. When you do decide to look for something else, you will be shocked at how much more stable a 10 ft beam and twin engines will be. Direct or V drives will also help a lot. This is a great time to look because twin engine boats are selling at depressed prices, ( Notice I said selling, not listing ) Saw some crazy transactions this past season. 1989 SeaRay 34 sold for 6,000 out of Traverse City. Friend of mine bought it so it is true. Owner was done with boating, and did not want the slip expense any more. Boat was in great shape, needed a water pump only. Single engine boats are still doing well. Good for you. Happy motoring! Cooler

[Eggbert]

Yes, the fact that my boat is “tender” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe… or it could be. I’ve been researching stability a bit and have found a couple different methods of determining a stability factor based on beam and timing of the roll period. I think I‘ll try that next year when the boat gets back in the water. I’ll do it twice; once empty and the second time with two people on the bridge.

I sort of suspect the more it rolls, the more the force to return to upright will increase. To a point. It’s really not feasible to find the angle of ultimate stability without high risk.

Anyway, if it achieves nothing more than making me feel better, I’ll enjoy the physiological piece of mind!

When I first saw the boat it was out of the water and I suspected at that time it would be tippy however the owner played that down quite a bit. He was partially right, but when it does heel, it’s often very unexpected and on the bridge, it feels downright scary.

On the speed, I never had any intention of humming along at max throttle on any sort of future basis. I just wanted to see what it would do. If I remember correctly, I sort of bumped the max speed up to 40, but it may have been more like 38 to 39. This was based on a waterwheel based speedometer, which may not be that accurate. Calculations from charts indicate a max. speed to be 37.4 mph, so it’s in that range somewhere. I don’t think I’ve ever had it over 20 mph since then.

I have had it out in open ocean a few times and one time was quite bad, although the boat handled it quite well. I had everybody down below as I didn’t want weight up top, but mainly because if anyone fell overboard I couldn’t turn around to get them. I would have tried though, and that would likely have been the end of boat and passengers considering the rocky coastline. Hmmm…. I should have known considering the water was like a mirror on the way out…. The calm before the storm. Front third of the boat coming clear and the bow pulpit tip just skimming the water on the next wave. Wipers going due to spray and once home, I noticed the whole boat coated in a layer of salt.

Turning back up the river wasn’t much fun due to a following sea, but wasn’t terribly bad.

I really like my boat for a whole lot of reasons… I just don’t trust it 100% yet.

As for the structure, the hull is solid fibreglass but the transom has a wood core which I think is plywood. You can kind of see it with the exhaust removed. Everything is sealed tightly outside, but is a bit open to bilge water inside. As far as I can tell, it’s still solid though.

Thank-you for your post.

[Cooler]

Don't beat yourself up for not seeing that storm. Take advantage of those calm sea days. It's impossible to catch the pop up cells, especially in your area. Water temp varies in pockets, warm air above that will production convection and mix with cool air, and bingo! Storm with 3-4 ft sea magically appears. We have all been caught, and we will all get caught again. I know what you mean about rolling, following seas. Once I thought I was going over the side on that express after I topped a wave and surfed down the front side. The hull swung me to port as I got to the swell, I thought the boat was lying on the starboard side, while my feet were in mid air. Anti-gravity effect. Scary as all heck. Regarding the wood core - Carver did use marine plywood in some transoms and stringers. The good news is that plywood was soaked in resin, so if it did get a little wet, the structural integrity would not be compromised. A friend of mine with an 88 mariner thought his stringers were getting soft. Decided to reconstruct, as he does know his way around fiberglass techniques. He actually worked for Carver for 5 years. He cut the top of the stringers and started to dig out the plywood. Found out there was so much resin in the wood, that he would not be able to increase the strength, so he aborted the job. For peace of mind, you may want to have someone take a look at that exposed area while the boat is on the hard. There is a lot of torque where the drive comes through the transom. They have moisture meters that shoot infra-red beams to measure moisture. If it were me, I would have someone use the traditional tap process for best analysis. They drill two small holes through the transom, put a sensor in the hole, and then take a reading. They should be able to get a moisture reading and determine the resin content in the wood, so you don't have conflicting data. Those holes are filled with resin and sealed, so the holes are no big deal. Trust the boat, respect mother nature.

[tomschauer]

Eggbert, if it didn't tip over in the first 33 years of its life, I would think with reasonable loading you should be good!

[Eggbert]

Source of the post Eggbert, if it didn't tip over in the first 33 years of its life, I would think with reasonable loading you should be good!

LOL.... I think I'd add "rap on wood" or respond with "famous last words"... remember the Bounty? 1960 to 2012 R.I.P.

I do agree though. I've only had a few incidents over the years and only one that truly scared me, although much of that was due to surprise. Open ocean, heading back in. Following sea. Trying to stay on back of wave, but accidently over-ran it. Surfing down other side boat tipped crazily, had to grab a rail, managed to throttle back, and boat came back to upright.

Since this older thread has been resurrected, I think it's worth showing a pic I just snapped this morning. The white spots are due to a few flurries.

Note the small area of the hull under the blue lines (which is where the boat sits when in the water). Of course, from the stern it looks fine, but from this angle you can see why I thought it might be tippy.

[bud37]

The broaching you described is a fact of life with boats in a following sea, not just yours..... staying on the back of the wave was the trick but not always possible.

[RGrew176]

In following seas it is my practice to try to travel faster than the waves. Yes that means climbing up the back side of the wave and surfing down the front. You must keep enough headway so that the following waves to not overcome your vessel. I actually prefer following seas as generally they provide a more comfortable ride. At least that has been my experience.

[km1125]

Source of the post
Note the small area of the hull under the blue lines (which is where the boat sits when in the water). Of course, from the stern it looks fine, but from this angle you can see why I thought it might be tippy.

I think the bigger issue with the area under the blue line is the beam measurement there. Compare that to the actual beam of the boat, and it looks 3-4' less!!

Maybe it's just the angle of the picture though.

[Eggbert]

I admit the picture is deceiving, although it looks just like that with your eyes. It's not just a 2D picture vs. a 3D view of being there.

So, I thought I better add a few more pics. Below is a view so you can see how the hull transitions bow to stern. The waterline meets the chine just at the front tie-down strap.



Here's a pic of the stern where you can see the 18degree dead-rise plus you can see where the waterline is as the lower ends of the two center swim platform supports have some barnacles on them.



Finally, you can (sort of) see how high she floats (compared to the bottom paint) in the following picture.

[Rweiss25]

Hello. I have a question. On an 83’ 2667 - in the head there is a pull switch next to the toilet. This seems to trigger a pump located the the engine compartmentZ. What is it supposed to be pumping and where? I can’t seem to follow the hoses far enough to figure this out. Thanks!