CARVER 38 SUPER SPORT - BOATPOINT REVIEW (SEPTEMBER 2005)

Words - David Lockwood
 

The versatile 38-foot all-rounder from Carver is a feast of family and entertainment space, fishing features, and on-water liveaboard comfort. David Lockwood gets a taste and leaves satisfied

 

America's biggest boatbuilder, Genmar, has a new Carver cruiser that's the boating equivalent of ordering a hamburger with the lot. The 38 Super Sport, the first of Carver Yacht's new flybridge boats to be launched Down Under, is a maxi combo with the some deft dealer touches served on the side. You are left wanting nothing, not even the icing on the cake.

Released at the Miami Boat Show earlier this year, the Super Sport range spans three models - the 33- and 38-footers that debuted at the Sydney International Boat Show - and a 42 that's in the wings. Incidentally, the two Carvers were sold at the show and, at the time of writing, three of these new 38 Super Sports had been sold.

The new flybridge boats complement Carver's range of Voyager motoryachts to 65ft and its often visually challenging Mariner models. But while some might consider that Carvers are no oil paintings, the 38 Super Sports has less confronting design lines and boasts a welcoming layout arranged for on-water living.

Carvers were traditionally found on the intercoastal routes, the canals that bisect the North American continent, if not the Great Lakes like Michigan in the state of Wisconsin, where the factory is based; but the 38 Super Sport is a warm climate export kind of boat. It has just one helm station and on an open flybridge with foldout bimini and covers for protection.

But for Australian purposes the importers have ensured the 38 Super Sport is set-up as a real all-rounder, a boat that can do a bit of everything away from the dock. The aftermarket outrigger poles can be fixed to tempt a marlin in summer, while the Aussie-sized cockpit will just as comfortably cater for a long lunch. Indoors, the saloon ranges right to the sides of the boat and is wide and accommodating.

"A big selling point is its space and we're seeing a big trend here where people walk out of their house and expect as much on their boat. I mean, they deserve it," explains James Mark-Anthony, one of our industry's chirpy characters with the unique ability to talk above and below water.

 "Our buyers look at a weekender and say, hey, I need $2 million to buy a weatherboard whereas this floating home that I can take to Pittwater, Port Stephens or wherever costs about a quarter of that price," James says, adding that the boat is bundled with everything right down to a two-year engine service, slip and antifouling.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Like a lot of boatbuilders, Carver believes in less weight and more strength, which it derives from knitted rovings and solid fibreglass running surfaces, a composite stringer system laminated to the hull, with no timber below the waterline, and cored decks and hull sides. The hull and deck are joined with overlapping joints for strength and, I assume, to reduce the risk of a gunwale leak.

Carver's signature curvaceous one-piece deck, house and cockpit moulding gives the boat a bow-to-stern, bridge-to-keel feeling of unity. All furniture is structurally integrated and the flybridge is reinforced with aluminium form work, while the radar arch is painted aluminium that one hopes will stand the test of time. A bimini with clears adds protection around the helm station up top.

Inhouse joiners make the high-gloss cherrywood furniture with dowel joints and all the cabinetry is drilled, glued, screwed, and even tongue-and-grooved where added strength is needed. The woodwork is finished inside each boat for consistent texture and colour, say the Carver spin-doctors.

The styling statement is daring. The layout is contemporary, with a moulded staircase instead of a ladder to the bridge, walkaround (narrow) sidedecks backed by rails, and a nice big cockpit topped with snap-in carpet. And with the agent's enhancements the 38 Super Sport fills an interesting niche in the market - that of a jack of all trades.

The boat was fitted with a Sportspack including rocket launcher, plumbed livebait tank, four Perko rodholders, and even a strengthened floor for a gamechair. The dealer added outrigger poles in case you want to get really game and there are two underfloor fish or bait wells should you be successful in your fishing endeavours.

For outdoor entertaining there is an excellent Australian-made stainless-steel 240V barbie, but you'll need to supply the table and chairs. And if you want to carry a duckie, you'll need a pair of Weaver Snap Davits on the transom.

SOUND ENGINEERING
Every Carver comes with a generator for at-call power and reverse-cycle air-con. The 38 Super Sport's 325lt of water and 95lt holding tank will cater for a family of four for about four days on the anchor. The 1265lt fuel capacity will let you range to about 200nm.

In the cockpit I noted dual 15A Shorepower connections, a hot/cold handheld shower, inward-opening transom door, a decent boarding platform and some storage in sidepockets and the lazarette, where the 6kVA Kohler was parked. While there isn't a watertight bulkhead aft you can at least make a sight inspection of the sea strainer.

 The electrical side to this boat is really quite impressive. There are separate house batteries and engine-start batteries for each motor, a separate battery for the generator, and two battery chargers including a 60A unit and 15A for the gennie. A diode is fitted so you can't drain the engines-start batteries and all 240V outlets have their own trip switches.

Fuel is carried in two tanks, the main one living aft between the lazarette and engine room, with a switch on the bridge for the manual transfer pump. You access the Yanmars via a hatch in the saloon floor. There isn't much space in the shallow compartment but pre- and post-passage engine checks are aided by the clear inspection bowls of the sea strainers. The PSS dripless shaft seals and Racor fuel filters are aft near the access point.

It will be more of a squeeze topping up the batteries as they are forward. The main battery breakers are also forward, but near the centreline. Strangely, the Yanmars weren't paired, so one of the dipsticks was outboard and hard to reach. Better features of the Carver 38 are the underwater exhausts and quiet engine installation. The supplied manuals go so far as to list every single component in the boat.

FLYBRIDGE LIVING
I trounced up to the bridge via the moulded staircase without needing a grabrail. The bridge is vented and there's storage in the brow, a cold water sink, and a U-line icemaker that should be a fridge.

Seating exists on a forward-facing lounge for three people before a wraparound windbreaker and a pullout table on which you could do breakfast or let the kiddies colour-in. There are twin pedestal seats but no quasi daybed where you can grab a catnap.

The driving console has mock-walnut dash panels, searchlight controls and a remote for the Clarion sound system. Yanmar supplied analogue engine gauges and there were separate shifts/throttles - while taking some getting used to they are more foolproof than combo shifts. There's even a truckie's knob on the wheel for single-handed circuit work, a separate switch panel near the helm and room on the dash for your choice of aftermarket electronics. The clear view to the cockpit and bow made for a relaxed drive and an easy park, even without a bowthruster, which you can add later.

ON-WATER LIVING
The sliding saloon door, with insect screen, level floor and aft galley make the transition from outdoors to indoors pretty seamless. The galley has a small Amtico mock-timber working floor area, Novakool side-by-side fridge and separate freezer, a basic microwave oven, two-burner stove, sink, appliance and pantry storage, and food-prep space.

 Opposite is a saloon sofa with storage beneath or which can be ordered as an optional sofa bed. The television can be viewed from here, but the side windows and subsequent views are above eye level.

The dinette up front on an upper mezzanine level has seating offering 360-degree views out the windows. The dinette, mounted on an Italian Besenzoni pedestal base, is big enough for four.

The lovely finishes included buff-coloured carpets, headliners, curtains and Ultraleather upholstery, solid black Corian-like counters, African burlwood table inlays and American cherrywood walls.

Windows are oversized, flow-through ventilation is derived from a special forward venting system and air-con, while there is an innerspring mattress on the island berth in the stateroom and a Vacuflush loo as part of the two-cabin-one-head layout... see what I mean about a maxi combo with the lot?

The accommodation is down a set of stairs leading off the starboard side, past the AC/DC panel and water gauge in the quasi foyer. Guests get a transverse mid cabin with two single beds that transform into a big double with the supplied infill. There are cupboards and a big slot for a carry-on soft sailbag full of weekend attire. Air-con outlets instead of opening ports or hatches are provided.

The portside head features easy-clean moulded surfaces, an opening portlight and extractor fan, mirror-fronted cupboards, moulded sink and supplied Carver towels. There is a generous shower stall and Vacuflush loo in the, well, shower stall. So expect to have to wipe down the lid.

Last but not least is the master cabin in the bow, with its island double bed topped with a supplied blue bedspread, hanging lockers and surrounding cupboards. The cabin is well ventilated by opening ports and a deck hatch with flyscreen, but check for a privacy screen to save the bedspread from fading.

DRIVE TIME
The demo boat sported a pair of Yanmar 315hp inline six-cylinder turbo diesel engines. The base boat is fitted with V8 petrol Crusader motors, which just won't appeal to our market. However, the imminent option of 310hp Volvo D6s and IPS, that is, forward-facing propellers, is bound to have sway.

I didn't have to call on trim tabs, which is a reflection of the boat's great efficiency. The 38 Super Sport glided to a 9.5 knot plane at 2200rpm, held a low cruise of 14.6kt at 2800rpm, and carved an everyday passage-making speed of 20kt at 3200rpm. Fast cruise speed was 22.5kt and I clocked 25.3kt flat out, which is plenty fast enough for a family flybridge boat.

 Carver Yachts brands its boats as being all about smart (on-water) living and the local agents have what they call "lifestyle offices." The pitch seems to be paying off and there are new Carver dealers in Queensland and Fremantle, but I can see this boat working equally well in Melbourne and South Australia as it did on Sydney Harbour, too.


HIGHS

• A cruiser with the lot
• Good headroom throughout
• Indoor and outdoor areas flow
• Moulded staircase to the bridge
• Big cockpit
• Good finish
• Impressive electrical system

LOWS

• Styling not to everyone's tastes
• Narrow sidedecks and no foredeck seating
• Dumping the holding tank at sea necessitates climbing into the lazarette
• Loo in shower stall
• Generator in lazarette with no watertight aft bulkhead
• Difficult engine access
• Manual transfer pump on fuel tanks