New member, shopping for my first Carver

[shawngraham]

Live in Washington DC and have recently discovered boating and Carver Aft Cabin line. When I found out a used Carver yacht was in my price range, I was elated! I've found a marina that will take me and I now need to find my first boat. I'm very interested in the Aft Cabin range, around the 40' range.

My purpose with yachting is to have a weekend getaway boat I can have a friend or two on, some venturing out into the water, but mostly a "floating weekend apartment" if that makes sense.

Please help me with:

1. What are the key questions to ask a seller about a Carver yacht?
2. What are the top 2-3 things you wished you'd known before you bought one?
3. If you were to talk me out of buying a Carver yacht, what would you say?
4. Whenever I buy a used car, I have a mechanic look at it to tell me what might be wrong. How does that work in the boat world?
5. What are the ways people can get a yacht delivered? And what are the pros and cons of each?

That's it for now. Thank you so much!

[tomschauer]

Welcome!
1. make sure the boat has the space and layout you need. This applies to any brand.
2. Any brand will have pros and cons, Carver makes a pretty solid boat for the money.
3. No reason to talk you out of a carver, unless maybe you planned ocean voyages. A Carver aft cabin is not the boat for that.
4. Make sure you hire a surveyor to do a pre purchase survey.
5. If your in DC, I would assume you have water access to the Chesapeake. There are 100's of boats for sale up and down the bay. You can run it home or have it water delivered by a captain service.

[bud37]

Welcome to the forum.
1....the questions you ask are to see the maintenance history if any ...the real answers will come from the survey of the hull and topside structure and the mechanical survey......your surveyor not the brokers.
2.. I have always had boats and worked my way up as do most until this pandemic.
3... At this point nothing.....but I would ask you a question.....HOW much are you considering as a yearly dollar amount to keep the boat.....that is dockage, repairs, fuel and storage/winterizing/summerizing. This will be above the purchase price assuming you pay cash.

Good luck with your search

[Cooler]

All good advice in previous posts. Be especially careful if a boat you find has been in salt water for much of it's life. This creates an entirely different focus due to maintenance and corrosion possibilities. I would suggest you try to find something you can cruise to your location. While truck transport is available, it is expensive, and vessels in your size category need to be dismantled for transport compliance. Sounds like you are primarily doing the floating condo function. A lot of people intend on cruising, but then end up doing that instead. One question I would ask if you are dealing with a dealer/broker is,..can I talk to the owner? The dealer/broker job is to sell the boat. The owner will be able to tell you how the vessel was used, how hard he ran engines, history of handling, who did the maintenance work, hours used, type of water, etc. Most owners in the 35 to 45 foot range are happy to talk about their boat and experience. Good luck. Come back to this forum when you target something and we can weigh in at that time also. Love the DC area. Could spend weeks there once things get back to normal. Had some crab cakes in Alexandria once that brought tears to my eyes, they were so good. er

[buster53]

Since you are a boating newbie...
Take a boating safety course from either the Coast Guard Aux or the US Power Squadron. These classes are available online but I strongly suggest taking an actual class. You will get a lot more out of it. BTW, the boating safety course is required in a number of states.
After taking boating safety, please take the Seamanship class that is offered by both organizations. The class is well worth the time and effort.
You will still need help with your boat. 40’ is a lot of boat for a newbie. Either hire a captain to get you started or if you have any buddies who are savvy boaters, ask for their help.

[RGrew176]

Welcome Aboard. Good luck in your Carver search. Lots of good advice already posted here so I don't think I could add much to what has already been posted.

[ColRon]

Welcome aboard and good luck on your search. Lots of good advise on here. Since your new to boating one other thing I might suggest is to look at other Carver models too. They each have their pros and cons. When we bought our first Carver we thought we wanted an aft cabin, then we looked at a Mariner, a CPMY, and a Santego. After looking at those we decided we didn’t want an aft cabin, as we preferred the open areas of the Mariner and the Santego. We also decided we preferred a boat with a cockpit as they were easier to board. Everyone has their own personal tastes, so there’s no better or worse, but what you prefer. So don’t be afraid to explore there’s a lot of different models for the different tastes that are out there.

[g36]

Welcome I have a 405 aft cabin it has stairs leading from the swim platform instead of a ladder. This was one thing my wife insisted we had. The ladder on earlier models is harder for her so that helped in what we looked at. We also wanted a normal bed preferably queen size that you can walk on both sides of and not crawl over or a difficult one to make up in the am.. I love my layout. I also have a ton of space in the engine room to access the engines and genset. If you are going to maintain your boat yourself make sure you check that out too.but as mentioned you need to explore all kinds of models because each has its good and bad points. Dont jump on purchasing until you've looked. its a big purchase you sure don't want to regret right after you purchase.

[shawngraham]

Thank you so much every one! I am so glad I found this forum. The 2BR 2BA layout of the Aft Cabin is exactly what I'm looking for, but I will look at others as well. I am just one person, maybe soon with a dog, and I do want space for guests to come over, but I want my own bedroom and bath.

Any tips on hiring surveyors, approx price, and how long that usually takes?

I know this question is hard to answer without a solid boat to look at, but what are the big "gotchas" regarding engines? For instance, how does one really know they are due for overhaul or big maintenance? Is that in the maintenance schedule? For instance, does Carver talk about maintenance after 500, 750, or 1000 hours? Or do they leave it to you? I wonder as there are widely varying hours on these boats and some are priced higher with more time, and others lower and vice versa. One really can't tell.

Also, what's the one biggest expense one would possibly expect to encounter "shortly" after buying a boat, only to discover "Oh, it needs this!" I can imagine something engine-related, but maybe there's something else.

Thanks again for all your awesome comments!

[Viper]

Welcome aboard.

What you're looking for initially on engines is hours. This will give you a baseline only on whether a concern is warranted about how much more life can be reasonably expected. Having said that, engines are tricky to read as an engine 1500 hours may still have more life in it than one with 500. There's too many variables involved that affect their longevity, the way they were run or not run, and proper maintenance play a huge roll here. A visual inspection of external components can tell you a lot about whether they've been maintained regularly. I recommend having an engine mechanical inspection done in hopes of catching clues that there may be a lingering problem. How detailed that inspection is really depends on you but at the very least, a compression test would be a starting point, then go from there based on results. The condition and cleanliness of the bilge and engine compartment will also tell you if previous owners took pride in maintaining things in general. The same can be said about everything on board including the condition of the gelcoat.

After a purchase, it's a good idea to start with a maintenance baseline and change all fluids, filters, and impellers. An ignition tune-up is a good idea too unless they're diesel engines. Unless you have a record of when all this was done last, it's best to do it shortly after you take possession, this includes the generator if applicable.

Regular maintenance schedules are issued by the individual machinery manufacturers, not Carver. Look on board for a literature package of user manuals, these will be a helpful read for understanding the equipment on board. Failing that, Google searches and posting a thread here will get you answers on just about everything. I say just about because sometimes there is no explaining what previous owners have done!

Good luck with your search and don't be shy about posting questions before pulling the trigger. In any case, keep us posted.