Hello all,

My name is Scott Swaney. I've been boating on the Hudson River for 19 years. My prior boats were a 1997 Maxum 2100 bow rider for fun in the sun, and a 2002 Rinker 342 express cruiser that has covered from Lake Champlain to Long Island Sound many times.

My new-to-me boat is a 1996 Carver 455. Although I know a good bit about boats and boating in general, I am making the transition from gas to diesel power so I have a whole lot to learn. I look forward to hearing and sharing stories and helpful hints as I get to learn my new boat.

It's been an adventure getting her home from Boston to Catskill. One of the reasons I chose this boat was the reputation of the bullet-proof Cummins drive-train with only 700hrs. I spent a few $k on a certified marine surveyor and a diesel mechanic for a complete boat survey and dedicated power-train survey. Turns out they missed some important stuff...

2 weeks for a valve job turned into 6 weeks for a motor rebuild before I left Boston. Well, it is a boat... Kept her an easy 2000-2200 rpm the first day, eyes bouncing between the gauges and lobster pots, listening and learning the sounds of an unfamiliar boat. When I put her in neutral approaching the pumpout dock in Rhode Island, I heard a sound that I knew was not good. "Rocks in a can". No smoke, no vibrations, quiet in gear but expensive sounding in neutral. Started up early in the morning and it was much quieter after cooling down for 10 hours. Blessed with glassy water on Block Island sound and Long Island sound, I was cruising at 2200rpm doing 17kts for several hours. After 96 nautical miles the boat just turned right... no bang, no smoke, just no more transmission... So headed north to Norwalk on one motor for 2 hours, thanking the auto helm helping me minimize the zig-zag. The channel was quite narrow, but no wind=no problem.

A month later I had my new $10k transmission in the boat, ready to go boating! Forensics on the transmission said no signs of oil starvation or over-heating, likely just stress or a defect. (Shouldn't be stress with only 700hrs...) Had an uneventful trip from Norwalk to Haverstraw. The southern tip of Manhattan was a washing machine like it normally is, and wow was it so much nicer than battling through it on my old 34 express.

The next day was Haverstraw to Catskill. I had been keeping the engines below 2200rpm because the port temp guage was creeping up over 200 degrees if I went any faster than that. But when I got to Saugerties the port engine cooled right down to 180. I figured the fresh water flushed out some salt water buildup or something. So I figured a couple minutes at 2400 would be good for her.. but it topped out at 2250. No smoke, no vibration, just not enough power... Turbos. Turned off the synchronizer, it was only the starboard. Got her home to Catskill an hour later. Took the turbo apart the next weekend and it was a worn thrust washer, so time to rebuild them both.

So I took the mechanic out for a test ride after he put the turbos back on. Corrected a slight cooling oil leak then all was good. But I figured while he was there I would try to diagnose another rattling noise that I had started noticing. Uh, port transmission. Only thing I can figure is the prior owner or the broker grounded it and damaged the transmissions. It didn't show up until I put 10 hours of continuous cruising on it.

Hopefully next season I'll spend more $ on diesel than repairs on my 1996 boat with 2019 ZF transmissions.

Next I have to figure out how to work the stereo... There are speakers in the salon and the master stateroom, but I have no idea how to get the music to them. I found little volume knobs in the stateroom, but they don't do anything. I think this is a perfect application for the wireless Sonos speakers... I don't want to take everything apart to find the wires...

Happy boating everyone!

Scott Swaney