CARVER OWNERS CLUB
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to Carver owners.

Featured Article

Our featured article this month deals with Sanitation System.  Scott and Millie Holland did much of the research for this article.  Thank you so much. Next month, we will look at computers on board.  We’ll try to have a feature each month of topics of interest to our members.  If you have a suggestion or would like to write an article, please let me know.

Florida Rendezvous

We still have some slips available for the West Coast Florida Rendezvous and we have plenty of room for those of us who can’t take our boats, but would like to spend three days in the sun, partying with a great group of Carver Owners.  Go to the web site or call me or Patsy at 800-835-1996 to make reservations.  Regardless of how many slips we have reserved, we will do everything possible to not turn anyone away. 

Great Circle Cruise

I recently received a 24-page article – a log – of a member’s Great Circle Cruise.  I’ve not had an opportunity to read it all, but what I have read is interesting.  I’ve set up a place where you can open the log with Acrobat Reader and save the file to your computer and/or print it out.  If you are a mail member, please contact me and I’ll mail you a copy.

To download the article, go to PelicanLog.pdf. 

Here’s Peg’s note that accompanied the log. “It was a terrific trip and we had quite an adventure.  We were featured in the Spring 2001 issue of Waypoints when we took the Carver we bought in FL to Marquette thru the TransSevern(Highway to Heaven page 7)- in the article I said we were  looking forward to getting back and that I was retired and ready...finally got my husband to agree and we were off. .  Most important for members: the trip down the Ten Tom  is very doable and as I mention in the log we all need to make good use of now rather then wait for a 'good' time to do our cruising. We will be taking Pelican back home to Michigan this spring and would of course love to have cruising buddies in case anyone wants to make that trip. Last but not least I have often thought that it would be neat to have a sort of exchange program among Carver owners....perhaps a Carver owner from the West coast who wants to cruise Lake Superior etc.  Would sure save time and fuel!   Regarding the boat feature let me see what I have available on my computer of pictures of Pelican.  Calm seas and fair winds...Pete and Peg Frazier

European Members

We have a handful of European members and get a couple of requests from outside North America each month about the Club.  The following note came from a prospective member that you may find interesting. I especially liked the comment about spending vast amounts of money.  By the way, if you have any insight with this, please let me know.  Here’s the note.  “I wonder if you could point me in the right direction, I live in the UK and have owned a 1982 3607 for just over a year now, back last April I ran onto the edge of a sand bank and have not been able to fix a vibration since.  I have spent vast amounts of money on trying to fix the problem but to no avail, one of the things I had replaced was the "p" brackets I had these made of stainless steel as it would have taken 6 to 8 weeks for a local foundry to make a new cast of the old brackets, but a surveyor suggested having the correct bronze ones fitted. Do you know of anywhere in the US where I may be able to pick up these brackets off the shelf? Any help you can give me would be appreciated.”

Crusader Engines

We're in the middle of an interesting (to put it mildly!) experience with [boat name] - problems with fuel supply to the engines - and although it's still not resolved, Carver, Crusader, Shady Oaks and our local Crusader yard, Drum Point Marine, have been exceptional.  Although the boat itself is several months out of warranty, Carver has thus far picked up the cost of a $1600 bill with Drum Point for diagnostics and replacement of the valves that switch the fuel from the main tanks to the auxiliary tanks, another several hundred to Washburn's Boatyard to do some cabinetry repair, and today their chief warranty man called to authorize further diagnostic work.  Pleasurecraft/Crusader flew their Vice President and their Warranty Manager in their private plane from South Carolina to replace fuel filters and fuel lines on both engines.  The Vice president of Pleasurecraft has now taken a personal interest in what's going on and he's come on the team as well -

we're on a first name basis with all of them, plus Crusader's wonderful concierge, Debbie.  Mike Genna, the General Manager of the Crusader Warranty Dept. in Michigan has also been a very active team member.  It's a 4-state effort between South Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Maryland.  They've all been terrific! 

We're not to home base yet, but what has made a miserable experience of the last 2 1/2 months endurable is how much support, both emotional and financial, we've received from Carver, Pleasurecraft, Shady Oaks, and Drum Point Marine. 

Insurance Recommendations

I recently received a request from a member concerning a recommendation for an insurance company.  His rate jumped about $500 in a year and he is shopping around.  Let me know if you have any suggestions or things to avoid in the insurance area.  Thanks.

Accessories Marketplace

We now have three items for sale in the accessories marketplace.  As you prepare for the new year of boating, please feel free to list an item on the marketplace for sale.  With your permission, we’ll feature your item on eBay.  You pay when and if your item sells.  Please note, we do not take worn out husbands, no matter how much you want to get rid of them.

Carver Owners Club Expands

Several years ago, Carver Boats purchased Trojan yachts and continued to market them through an independent group of dealers.  Recently, Carver decided to stop marketing Trojan yachts.  This is similar to the situation with Californian yachts.  The club now accepts members who own or plan to purchase a Carver, Trojan, or Californian boat.  Some of the Trojan owners who contacted us weren’t sure why we were not changing the name of the club to the Carver/Trojan Owners Club.  The Club name will remain the same.  Sorry guys.  One other quick note.  The club originally was an Internet only club.  Now, about 8% of our members do not use computers or choose not to give us their email address.  If you have a friend who does not use a computer but might enjoy being a club member, please let them know.  They can call us at 800-835-1996 (my office number) and we'll sign them up.

Rendezvous
I promised that I would make a mess of things related to the Rendezvous and I sure did.  Let me try to make the corrections first, then I'll give you an update.

• The Tidewater Rendezvous is scheduled for late August, not late May.  My thanks to everyone who wrote to me with that correction.  While I’m here, apparently I granted Bob Rippel a pilot’s license, much to his surprise. Bill Jackson is the pilot.
• All Carver, Trojan and Californian boat owners can attend the sponsored events.
•  We started a conversation with Craig Duchow of Harborside Yachts in Milwaukee and Green Bay about Lake Michigan events.  Again, we do not have any commitment at all now.

 Here is the schedule of events that we have planned:

·         Florida West Coast Rendezvous, Palm Island Resort, February 27, 28, and 29, 2004.  Marsha and Ray Starsman are hosts.  Techguy and AnswerLady will be there, as well as Patsy and me.  Marsha suggested a new game that promises to be better than the ones I usually come up with.

·         Chesapeake Bay Rendezvous, location TBD, June 11 – 13, 2004

·         Tidewater Rendezvous, August 27, 28, 29; Waterside Marina, Norfolk, VA.  Bob and Ann Rippel and Bill Jackson are hosts.

 Here are the Rendezvous we are planning, but DO NOT have commitments for:

·         Florida East Coast, TBD (Daytona, St. Augustine, Jacksonville)

·         Outer Banks, North Carolina, TBD

·         Lake Ontario Rendezvous, late July, early August, Canadian side of the lake.

·         New York City Rendezvous, early August – Montauk Yacht Club, or Liberty State Park Marina, or Haverstraw Marina

We also have events that we would like to have, but have not planned to the point that we are sure they will happen.  These are:

·         Chicagoland Rendezvous

·         California Rendezvous

·         Mini-cruises, such as Norfolk to Mystic Connecticut

·         East Coast ICW cruise.

The mid-South Rendezvous will probably not happen this year.  None of the preliminary plans we started worked out.  We are looking for a volunteer for the mid-South and a new location.

If you have an interest in helping out with a Rendezvous or event, please contact Patsy at events@carverownersclub.com.  Patsy thanks all of the volunteers who have offered to help.  We are able to plan for so many events because so many people have stepped up to help.

Interesting Request

Every time I think that the web site and the newsletter is just too much work, I get a request like this.  Let me know if you think I should list this as a link.  Here’s the request.

I have recently come across your site and liked it very much.  I suppose that the visitors of our resources belong to the same social group and my site could be useful for your  audience so I suggest to exchange our links.

This will help both of us to increase Link-Popularity and accordingly get top positions in many searching system, Google for instance.

If you are interested in our offer, would you please visit the web-page of our resource and leave the link to your site.

Our site is

http://www.egypt-online-travel.com/?id=links - it's dedicated to tourism to Egypt

More Shameless Commerce

We just expanded the Club Store.  One of our goals is to offer sufficient savings to offset your annual cost of membership.  Thanks to a member who must remain nameless, we are able to offer an extensive line of marine supplies, including some parts and maintenance like cleaners and paints.  For example, the low end of bottom paints (no pun intended) comes in around $10 a gallon less than West Marine.  Even with the additional cost of shipping, you can still save more than your dues when you buy marine supplies from the Club.  If you need something and don’t find it, I probably just haven’t had time to add it yet – the lines offered are quite extensive.  One member spent over $1300 rebuilding his sanitation system.  He saved about $400 by buying from the Club.  Look at the Club Store as you prepare for the recommissioning.  Use the discount code coc to save 10% off the published prices.

Safe boating,

Dave Bishop, webdude@carverownersclub.com  

Picture of the Month