CARVER OWNERS CLUB
This site is owned by, managed by, and exclusive to Carver, Californian, and Trojan owners.

April 2009

Headlines - Click on a Headline to see the Story

Ritz Camera, the owners of Boaters World, declared bankruptcy in March and immediately sold the retail stores to liquidators.  All of the Boaters World retail outlets expect to shutter their doors before summer.  This leaves West Marine as the last nationwide retail boating supply store in the US.  Of course there are many on-line boating supply stores.  We've found that the on-line stores are very mixed in terms of customer satisfaction.  Some, like Defender, have a good customer service and honor their return policy.  Others, not so much.  There is not a good way to determine which on-line retailer is a good, honest supplier. 

One of the biggest problems is the poor selection for many West Marine locations.  We've found that most of the parts we need for the larger boats can be found from other sources, usually for a lower price.  For example, we buy toilet treatment chemicals from RV stores.  We buy engine parts directly from Cummins (with mixed results - sometimes they are correct; other times, the parts require significant modification to work).   We buy Plexus cleaner from http://www.skygeek.com.  If you have suggestions for where to shop, please pass them along.

Website Changes

We've been working on the website since the first of the year.  We should call this version of the website, Kansas City (everything's up to date in Kansas City - they've gone about as fer as they can go - Oklahoma!).  We've tried to make the website easier to use.

The main part of the website remains unchanged.  Boat Talk still offers a great place to discuss ideas and suggestions.  We have four monitors who read Boat Talk frequently to answer any questions posted.  Not all of the answers are what the person posting the question wants to hear, but we do try to give a reasonable answer.  Again, please note that the answers posted should not be considered an "expert opinion" in any way. 

We've tried to spruce up the Owners Album by changing how you can search for a similar boat or others near your homeport.  A photo of your boat appears on the Album List, if you provided a photo, and the actual page itself looks much better.  We've set it up such that you can email your boat's web page to others.  Some people list the web page on their "Boat Card".  A future improvement is to offer space for additional photos.  Another improvement, if requested, is to provide a link from your album page to a cruising or activity blog.  We'd really like to see the Owners Album become a central part of the website.  Most of the information in the Owners Album was converted.  Most of the information is out of date.  Take the time to update your owners album page as soon as you can.

We've also extensively modified the Boats For Sale feature.  Here, you can list your boat for sale with us for no additional charge.  The boats for sale page offers a link to other, more widely available websites, such as yachtworld.com.  We've also made the task of listing your boat's distinctive features much easier by providing a list of common features along with a way to add brief descriptions.  This list of features appears on your boat for sale page.  We have also added the ability to show multiple photos for each boat, for example, showing the different, attractive areas of the boat.

The website now has a section called Boat Info.  Back in the old days, we required that owners provide information about their boat as they joined the club.  It helped us understand who was joining and it helped the owners because we could contact them if we received information about their particular boat model.   We got away from that for many reasons.  It's back.  You can add your boat's information by clicking on the Add Boat Info icon.  That way, we get needed information and you can retain your privacy.  Let me give a quick example, we recently received a request from a national boating publication asking to interview owners of Trojan boats.  We couldn't contact the owners because we don't know who owns Trojan boats.

The Club added james.wolfe4 as it's Skype username.  This lets you send real time video to us for more information.  To minimize garbage - we don't need to talk to naughtyninasexy - you have to ask us to be added to the contact list.  The Skype username is james.wolfe4.  We're usually on-line between 7 and 9 pm Eastern time or you can schedule another time that's more convenient to you.  If you are using Skype, you may find this interesting.  Can Facebook be far behind?

Finally, we've extended everyone's membership.  If your membership expired in the last year or so, it's been updated to expire towards the middle of May 2009.  If your membership expires in the next year, we've added two months to your membership.  We hope that you'll take the time to renew your membership as we approach our tenth anniversary.

If you have any problems with the website, call me at 800-540-2926.  Thank you for your patience and your help.

Maintenance Idea

If you use a computer based calendar system, here's a tip you may find useful.  Enter the maintenance tasks you need to do periodically into your calendar as a recurring task.  That way, you are reminded when to check the water in the batteries and so on.  This is also important for some of the less obvious tasks, like checking the pencil zincs and so on.  Use the checklist on-line to set up the tasks as needed.

The Club has several events scheduled or in the planning stages.  Here's what we have so far:

Chesapeake Bay Rendezvous, June 5, 6, and 7, Baltimore.  We're going to the Anchorage Marina in Canton this year, still trying to avoid the construction in the downtown area.  The Anchorage Marina is located near Canton's O'Donnell Square within easy walking distance.  The Saturday night dinner will be at the Bay Cafe - a nice beach themed restaurant.  Per person cost this year is $100.  We are limited to 25 boats or about 50 people.  Make reservations as soon as possible by calling Patsy at 800-540-2926.  Refunds are available until May 11, when we cannot accept further reservations.

Florida East Coast Rendezvous, TBD, Harborage Yacht Club and Marina, Stuart, Florida 34994.  Several years ago, we had a successful Rendezvous on the West Coast.  We'd like to plan this get together during the winter season - please suggest the best times for you.  The Harborage Yacht Club and Marina has as many slips as we can use and there are two restaurants on site - one a more formal, table cloth restaurant and the other a more casual, larger restaurant.  We'll have a potluck dinner on Friday night and vendor presentations on Saturday morning.  Contact me with the best dates for you.