Hello Captains,

Just joining the group and excited to learn and grow my Carver knowledge. I'll be retiring in just over 2 years and my wife and I are currently looking for our liveaboard boat. We have owned a couple sail boats and one power over the last 20 years and are currently boatless. We would like to purchase soon so we can get everything ship shape in the next 2 summers for our next planned adventure, i.e. the Great American Loop. We rent now and are simplifying our lives in preparation of a July 2022 departure from our home port near Rochester, NY. I have been looking mostly at single diesel with bow thrusters in the 35'-40' range. My wife, I'm sorry, the Admiral, has her eyes on all these beautiful Carvers. So, happy wife/happy life, I need to "get my learning on" with twins, possibly no bow thruster, and gas engine??? I'm open to anything as long as I'm on the water. We just looked a beautiful 356 with 7.4 Mercruisers. Wow! Very nice. I now see what my wife (sorry, the Admiral) has in mind and I'll need your knowledge to make this happen. So far I/we like the 356, 405, and those with cockpits for the extra storage space. My biggest concerns are fuel consumption. If anyone can provide me some numbers in GPH for the 7.4 Merc or the Crusaders while crusing at around 6-8 knots. Also, is there any problems with going this slow, plowing, for long distances? There's lots of canals/locks, etc. in our planned route. Also, I know Carvers come in diesel too but I don't see many of them. Just collecting data for now. Thanks in advance. Fair winds to all.

Captain Poppy