New to Carver - 1995 Carver 380 Santego

[mcanarelli]

Hey All!

I'm about to purchase a 1995 Carver 380 Santego. Survey will be within the next week or two. I believe it has the original 454 Crusader engines. Manifolds and Risers about 6 years ago. Does anyone have any ideas how much longer I can get before I have to do a manifold/riser job? How about the life of the Crusaders? They're coming up on 20 years... I think that's about their life? Should I be expecting to repower soon? Last question... they are carbureted - my last 3 boats were all fuel injected - is this a concern?

Very excited to move up in size from a Sea Ray 270. Two guys at my last marina had these boats - theirs were 2002 and 2001 (both fuel injected 8.1 crusaders).

Thank you all!

[Ramsport47]

Congrats on the 380 Santego...it WILL BE our next boat! The Crusader engines should last quite a while. Rather than actual age, they are judged by how many hours they have on them. Our 1998 310 has Merc 350 MAG MPI's...16 years old, but only 345 hours when we bought it. Are you in salt water?

[mcanarelli]

Hey Ramsport47 - Thanks for the reply! The boat is in brackish water and the engines have 466 and 456 respectively. They're suppose to bring all maintenance records to the survey. Hopefully that will shed some light on the longevity.

[Ramsport47]

Brackish water isn't nearly as harmful as saltwater. Those engines should theoretically last to between 1800 and 2000 hours or more with proper care and maintenance. I really don't know about the manifolds need for replacement as we are in a freshwater area, and ours typically last the life of the boat. The best way to check is to remove the exhaust hose and look to see what kind of scale is present. The hours are really low and you should get plenty of enjoyment out of the yacht!

[mcanarelli]

Great - thanks for the help Ramsport!

[THEMIKEHYDE]

Hi, new to forum and just looked at a 94 380 Santego. Love the room on this boat. Our current boat is a 289 Sundancer. I see you moved up from a 270. Would you mind sharing any thoughts, afterthoughts about this upgrade?

Thanks,
Mike

[mcanarelli]

Hi Mike - I've had the boat since May and I absolutely love it. The space is even better than you think after you get settled in. Tons of storage and high ceilings. We've really been using the boat a lot more than we used to - cooking, grilling, anchoring out and cruising with our dog - all things we couldn't really do with the 270. It is really our second home. Our 270 was like camping.

We use a lot more fuel, can't anchor in shallow water and it's a little more maintenance. The bilge is huge so it's pretty easy to work on things. The floor compartments are great, although it's not super easy to reach all systems and hoses. I see the one you're looking at is a 1994... ours is older as well. Expect to deal with maintenance. So far we've replaced the shower sump, aft bilge pump, resewn the canvas, replaced the AC control panel and display, repacked both shaft seals, replaced a belt and changed the oil. Your boat may be different, but mine keeps me busy

Occasionally we think it would be nice to have a real second stateroom, rather than a curtain. The couches are a little narrow for an adult to sleep really comfortably but they work. The main stateroom is very comfortable. The bed is great, a little high, but comfortable. The second AC unit makes it very comfortable at night. The salon AC is not big enough to cool the entire boat, I have found if I close the forward stateroom door it works fine.

We've tried to mount our inflatable but we're finding it difficult without expensive davit systems. The cleats are REALLY high on the gunnels which makes mounting the inflatable hard. Speaking of aft cleats, where they're mounted it makes it inconvenient to get on and off. I'm going to mount two new ones lower by the middle step to make it easier to get on and off the back.

Do you have a link to the one you're looking at?

[THEMIKEHYDE]

Thanks for the reply. The boat we are looking at has been undercover for at least 7 years and serviced by the marina. They have reportedly replaced the fresh water pump, holding tank (increased size and added a monitor), new carpeting and a few other things.

Funny you mention a dingy. There is actually a mount on the port bow where some sort of davit lift fits in. If we get back to the boat, i will get a picture for you.

I see the ad for the 97 on carver states a 24gph at 24mph at 3200rpm. That seems a little to good to be true. Last cruise we did showed 22gph at 30mph at 3900 rpm, according to the floscan. Have you done any calculations?

Here is a link to the one we are looking at:
http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/ ... olversons&

Thanks for any input
Mike

[mcanarelli]

Hi Mike - I'd love to see a pic of the dingy mount on the bow. I've pulled our dingy up on the bow (without a mount or winch) - it's a pain and makes the bow filthy.

A larger holding tank with monitor is a huge bonus! Last week our toilet wouldn't flush anymore and of course I thought it was clogged or broken so I kept flushing and messing around... All we had to do was empty the tank

I don't have a floscan and haven't been recording my fuel consumption until my last fill up so I can't really say what we burn with any accuracy. I downloaded an app called Boat Manager that helps track and manage fuel, trips, maintenance, etc. It's pretty comprehensive actually. When we plan trips I usually estimate 30 gph. I'm told the 454 Crusaders (Fuel Injected ... technically throttle body) burn 24-26 gph regardless of the boat. I think carbureted burn a little more - not positive though. I think it would depend on maintenance, condition of the engines, hours on the engines, weight, rpms, etc. I also know temperature has a lot to do with fuel consumption. Based on my research these engines do better at higher temps (170-175). My port engine will get as low as 160-165 whereas the starboard engine runs consistently at 170-175.

We have a pretty long no wake zone getting to and from our marina so it's hard to factor the fuel consumption, but my guess is 26-30 gph is pretty close.

When I first bought the boat we cruised at, what I thought was 3400-3500 RPMs... I though that was pretty high so I replaced the port tach (it was jumping around and had inconsistent readings). After replacing it both tachs now read almost the exactly same. I can cruise around 18.5-21 knots at 3200 RPMs. Depends on tide, wind, current, etc.

Occasionally I'll run wide open for a few minutes to check the top end RPMs and speed. Normally I get 4200 RPM and 25-26 Knots (29-30mph). I'm not sure how accurate the floscans are... I've been told they aren't accurate at all. They get gummed up and need to be serviced (cleaned) regularly. But, I have never used one. I will say 22gph at 3900 RPM seems very low. I would expect well over 30gph at that

I see in your pics that they have mounted additional cleats on the swim platform - this is great news! It looks like you have storage in the sides of your master stateroom - that's nice too. We don't have that. The rest of the pics look great. I think you'll fall in love with the boat. The shower is amazing compared to our 270!

[THEMIKEHYDE]

Thank you for all the great information. We are headed back to look at the boat again today. I will snap some pics for you. I want to check out the cleats. I think one of the biggest dislikes is the lack of a second enclosed staterooms, especially for a boat this size, but we will check it out.
Thanks,
Mike