Carver Owners Forum

Hello Forum,

I think I told you my 1987 3297 is my first boat, ever. Trying to figure out why the negative reviews online? I get a lot of compliments from my neighbors at the Marina who own Meridian, Silverton and a few other “higher” priced boats etc. who say they think my boat is a very good, reliable brand yet, there are some haters that say Carver doesn’t make good boats. I get it, it’s the Internet but still….my boat has held up well and I’m out there every weekend, cleaning, restoring and polishing to make it the best she can be.

Is it just the 3297 that has a bad wrap…I think it’s a phenomenal vessel and get a lot of compliments.

Hope everyone is well. Anyone is the Dallas, Texas area on here?

Kindly,
v/r,
Stephen

Carver is an excellent quality boat. There was an article years ago by David Pascoe, ( RIP ), that criticized the brand after an inspection of numerous vessels that had been through a hurricane. There is question on if the boat he poked fun at was even a Carver. It had balsa core in the hull, under the waterline, and a dock piling scraped through. When you compare how many Carvers there are in various marinas, you will see a large number of older Carvers, and very few of their real competitors. Enjoy your Carver! er

Carvers are nice boats. I enjoyed the time I spent on my 1981 3007 Aft Cabin model. I sold that boat and downsized to my current Stingray 182 SC.

They are no different than all of the other holes in the water where we throw our cash into.....

I have been owned a Chris craft, Sea Ray, Silverton and finally a Carver during the past 50 years. I had good luck with all of them.
The Luhrs was the easiest to service including changing the air conditioners and doing one valve job.
A friend of mine came to me a year ago and ask me to look at his Sea Ray 46 and a ask me why it was listing. The bilge was bone dry. For the heck of it we put 800 pounds of people on high side of the boat to level it out. It turned out a construction defect in the bilge allowed water from a sump box to get wicked up into the Balsa core on the starboard side. So I bought a Carver

I started with a ‘79 Searay that also had list. Now I’m on my second Carver aft cabin. Weirdly it has a slight list too but from what I’ve seen on others for sale of same year and model, this is just how they sit. Access to components is always a challenge on any boat but after having to rebuild both vacuflush pumps and the aft head, I’m honestly pretty impressed with the thought and design Carver builds into these. I saw pix and videos of guys dealing with much worse accessibility. And after drilling through the hull to mount new thrusters, I can verify mine is solid fiberglass well above the waterline.

I've enjoyed mine and would purchase it again. Three will always be critics on everything. Enjoy yours!

I don’t have much experience with boats or Carvers as we just bought a 1992 528 Montego as our first boat ever. However, when I had it surveyed, the inspector said that Carvers are notorious for having their stringers and transoms rotted out. Luckily, ours was bone dry and solid. Anecdote upon anecdote, I know, but it seems to me that every boat is its own story.

We had our 1989 4207 out in winds that were gusting 119 kph that blew our 700lb Rendova off of the hardtop and felt absolutely safe. When we brought our current 36 aft cabin up to Sidney, BC from Portland, Oregon we hit winds of at least 50knots between Destruction Island and La Push, Washington and also felt completely safe!
We’ve owned 4 Carvers in the last 20 years and loved every one of them. Carver boats have more room on them than any other boats of comparable size out there. Every one of them had hull blisters of various sizes, but they never put me off buying a Carver.
Every make of yacht has their problems, Carver included, but to me, you get the best bang for your buck with a Carver!

We had our 1989 4207 out in winds that were gusting 119 kph that blew our 700lb Rendova off of the hardtop and felt absolutely safe. When we brought our current 36 aft cabin up to Sidney, BC from Portland, Oregon we hit winds of at least 50knots between Destruction Island and La Push, Washington and also felt completely safe!
We’ve owned 4 Carvers in the last 20 years and loved every one of them. Carver boats have more room on them than any other boats of comparable size out there. Every one of them had hull blisters of various sizes, but they never put me off buying a Carver.
Every make of yacht has their problems, Carver included, but to me, you get the best bang for your buck with a Carver!