I've been riding Harley's over 40 years and in fact am the co-founder of a very nice (if I do say so myself) on-line Harley community forum. I won't name it so it doesn't look like I'm here to promote my bike site. I mention it because I want to point out how aware I am of the potential helpfulness and camaraderie found on sites where people are gathered with a similar passion!

I'm new to boating. Always wanted a boat but there were always other bills to pay and boating is an expensive hobby, that I knew from the many friends who gave it up as a result over the years!

But now, at age 60, I'm feeling like it's "now or never" and opted for "NOW!"

I did some homework, looked at a LOT of boats, decided on a budget and the style of boat my wife and I both liked, and the result is our recently acquired 1991 Carver 3807 Aft Cabin, a one owner boat who took delivery new with gas engines and genny but immediately pulled them and installed new Cummings diesels and Westerbeke diesel generator. For some reason he had to replace the port block about 50 hours ago, but the boat has about 1100 hours total on the rest of the vessel, about 1/2 that amount on the genny.

We got a survey done, and as a result, there was a lot of "deferred maintenance" discovered that resulted in about a 15K repair bill to the sellers, which they paid to get the deal done.

Aside from the large bill to give the boat a clean bill of health mechanically, it's had NO upgrades and/or improvements cosmetically, and while it's "clean" and doesn't look like it's been abused in any way at all, it sure could use a fresh and modernized interior.

That's where I am hoping you guys can give me some advice!

I'm spending about 12K as we speak on a Garmin 7215 and with a few extra gizmos (new radar,VHF AIS combo radio, digital sounder, transducer, back-up cams) to tie into it's network, so the electronics will be made current.

But the salon has the same furniture and carpet it was delivered with in '91, and it looks clean but tired. The problem of course is how to get new stuff into that tiny little doorway. I know the sofa comes apart but we haven't been able to find ANYTHING new that will go back in. Advice? I suppose we could have what's there reupholstered but that cost is high enough to buy new furniture, IMHO. If we can find any! We also want to change out the floor covering, at least in the salon....my wife likes the look of hardwood floors, I can live with new carpet.....thoughts?

Another question......

We had my new best friend, the mechanic who did all the work to make the deal happen for the sellers, do some additional work for us and he's installing all the electronics, and he also had a stairway built on the dock so we can walk up and step onto the side of the boat, avoiding climbing the ladder on the swim platform at the back. I've seen a few boats like mine retro-fitted with a spiral stairway but haven't been able to fInd anyone who sells them. Any advice on this? We'd sure like to get rid of that ladder for the times we'll dock somewhere other than our home marina where the stairs are now built and securely attached.

I'd appreciate any and all advice you Carver owners can offer with respect to my questions and any other thoughts you may have, especially any specific to my model. I had three sea trials on it before we did the deal and shortly after that we winterized it, so I have literally had ZERO time at the helm to just enjoy it! We're excited about it and can't wait for Spring, which seems a hundred years away right now in 19 degrees of bitter cold and ice and snow in my driveway!