Hoping to join the Carver club!

[mjcnelson]

Hello!

My husband Jim and I are shopping for our "bigger boat." We love the Carver layouts, and would really like to get a 404 CPMY (we started out thinking Mariner, but our dreaming grew).

I joined to learn more about Carvers and hear from owners. We were part of a similar message board for our just-sold Yamaha jetboat, and benefitted greatly from the wisdom of other owners.

My main question now is about moving to a larger boat. We had our jetboat for 7 years and want a sleep-aboard now. We'd love to have the room of the 404, but is it reasonable to go from a runabout to a 45ft yacht? Or do we need to have a transitional boat first?

Thanks everyone!

[waybomb]

I see no problem with it.
Take some boating courses and practice docking, first in calm weather, then progressively worse.
The rest is easy.

[AaHubb]

Welcome from the Tri-Cities. You have excellent taste in boats! Of course my opinion maybe a little biased. I went from a 24ft to a 28ft to my 404 in just a few years so you should be fine. Your insurance co. may want some proof that you can handle a larger boat so you might consider hiring a captain for a day to give you some hands on training. Are you looking at a specific boat or just like the style/layout of the 404?

[Dpoelstra]

That is a big jump. I know guys who went from a 40 footer to 50 and regretted it, as just that jump made boat handling so much more of a handful, they rarely take the boat out of the slip.

Personally, I would recommend a transitional boat, but everyone is different. When you look, be very mindful of the increased difficulty and needed deckhands of the larger boats. This will vary depending on your intended usage, locality, etc...the added weight, windage, etc all need to be thought through carefully.