1981 Carver 3007 Aft Cabin

RGrew176

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Mar 20, 2002
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I have an accepted offer on this boat. Are there any things about this model I need to be concerned about. The boat is in very nice condition and really does not show its age. I will soon seatrial and get the survey so then I will know more about the boat. There is a lot of boat there for a 30' boat. A forward stateroom and aft stateroom nice sized salon. Really the only negative I see is there is no dedicated dining area. There is plenty of storage and it comes with the summer dockage inclluded.

Waiting for the seatrial and survey. Hope that my boat hunting days are over.
 

alldodge

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Mar 8, 2009
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I have an accepted offer on this boat. Are there any things about this model I need to be concerned about. The boat is in very nice condition and really does not show its age. I will soon seatrial and get the survey so then I will know more about the boat. There is a lot of boat there for a 30' boat. A forward stateroom and aft stateroom nice sized salon. Really the only negative I see is there is no dedicated dining area. There is plenty of storage and it comes with the summer dockage inclluded.

Waiting for the seatrial and survey. Hope that my boat hunting days are over.

Carver builds a quality boat and if taken care of will last. Main thing I would look for is hoses and the hull condition. Hoses due to many times they get overlooked thru time and the hull needs to be pulled out and painted every so often to protect it. If you have a good surveyor he/she should find those issues
 

RGrew176

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Mar 20, 2002
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I have the survey and sea trial scheduled for June 18th at 9 AM. Hoping all goes well. The surveyor says he plans to go on the sea trial and will spend at least 4 hours on the survey. My fingers are crossed that all will go well and there are no issues with the survey.
 

RGrew176

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Mar 20, 2002
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Update. I did have the survey on June 18th and the survey went pretty well. The sea trial on the other hand did not go as well. We took the boat out into Lake Erie and the broker was behind the wheel (not my boat yet). He throttled up and the starboard engine made 3700 RPM but the port engine would only make 2200 RPM. Tried a couple of things but it was a no go on the port engine. We headed back to the dock. I chose not to pay to have the boat pulled for the hull survey as I was not sure what was going to happen.

The seller was notified of the problem with the port engine. The seller scheduled the mechanic to find and fix the problem. A week or so goes by and I was notified by the broker that the mechanic found both fuel filters gunked up (his words) with the port filter clogged badly. He said he would sea trial the boat again at his first opportunity. Well we had a week+ of bad weather, lots of wind, rain and storms so it took a couple of weeks before he could sea trial the boat again.

Finally the weather cooperated enough for him to take the boat out again. Still the port engine did not make full throttle so it was back to the drawing board to find other causes of the problem. Got a call from the broker today that the both engines are running to spec. He did tuneups of both engines and something else to the port engine. He also did a compression check to the port engine and all cylinders are within spec. I will have to get more details but as of now both engines are running as they should.

Now I have to call the broker to get him back down to the boat to do the hull survey and we will have to sea trial the boat again so I can make sure it is running as it should. My fingers are crossed that all will go well and I will finally have a boat once again.
 

RGrew176

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Mar 20, 2002
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Update. Took the Carver out for a 2nd sea trial yesterday. What a difference. Both engines got up to 4200 RPM which is better for both. I spoke with the mechanic that worked on the boat and besides the changing of the fuel filters he also tuned up both engines. The engines do not have electronic ignition, its still the old points system. I inquired with the mechanic asking if I should consider upgrading to electronic ignition. His opinion was no, those engines (270 Crusaders) are better with the old style system. What say you!!

I will speak to others who work on them and get their opinions whether I should convert or stay. For now I should have no problems the rest of this season and next season staying with the present system.

Back to the sea trial. At full throttle the surveyor did have one concern as we only hit 23 MPH. That he said is a bit low. This boat should run 30 MPH or so. We came back to the marina to have the boat pulled for its hull survey. We found out why the top speed was down a bit!!!!!!!!!! The whole bottom of the boat had at least 3" of zebra mussels clinging to the hull. That would definitely chop the top end speed so I paid to have the hull powerwashed. It should perform a lot better the first time I take her out. The bottom paint is on its last legs so I will repaint the bottom either this fall at pullout or next spring prior to launch.

I asked several people which is the best paint for my area. They all said VC-17. The marina sells quarts of VC-17 for $58. Again what say ye. Consider I will be boating mainly on Lake Erie and the Detroit River.

If all goes well sometime next week I should be the proud and happy owner of a 1981 Carver 3007 Aft Cabin.
 

bradley39482

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Jul 24, 2015
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23
whoo hooo, yea buddy, good deal, im taking mine down the ICW to mobile bay Alabama and on over to gulf port Mississippi, 300 miles, wish me luck. most of my work is electrical which is right up my alley , ! my boat has the 350 chevy crusaders on it 240 hp, with carbureted engines. got to change out one oil cooler , and replace a head casket but that's it, mechanically. good luck bud!
 

RGrew176

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Mar 20, 2002
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2,088
Closing the sale on this boat later today. I did a final walk through yesterday afternoon. I am excited, this is an overall nice boat. Still have about a third of the season left so I will get some boating in before the long winters nap.
 

RGrew176

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Mar 20, 2002
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To close out this thread, I did finally buy the boat. I had a few small things to fix and now she is ready for my first boating adventure next week. Looking forward to some fun times.
 
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