390 Carver Cockpit

Source: Tom Ohaus, Sea Magazine

What do you add to a boat that seemingly has everything? As the question applies to the Carver 350 aft cabin motoryacht, the answer is a cockpit.

To be specific, it’s a three foot, 11 inch by 13 foot, three inch wide platform for fishing, swimming and hanging out close to the water level. When Carver added it to the 350, the result was the new Carver 390 Cockpit Motor Yacht — a multi-use cruiser that oozes liveaboard-style comfort, while delivering pure waterfront recreation.

Sundance Yacht Sales, a Carver dealer with locations in both Seattle and Portland, provided our test boat. Dan Wood of Sundance describes the 390 as a “mini-yacht,” despite the fact that there’s nothing mini about it.

He clarifies the characterization, saying “I use the term mini because this boat does everything a 55-footer will — and it’s 39 feet.

“She has two heads, two showers, two well-separated staterooms and sleeps seven people. She has a cockpit for fishing, an enclosed area for year-round cruising and two-station steering. It’s an all-around boat.”

The cockpit, while spacious, is not intended to satisfy a hard-core sportfishing purist. You’re not going to mount a fighting chair on this boat. You can, however, quite comfortably wet a line or walk through the transom door and dive off the swim platform for a dip. The cockpit also functions as a private deck off the aft master stateroom, which you enter through sliding doors.

A mere four steps up from either the cockpit or the main saloon, you’ll find the aft deck. On the boat we tested, this area was fully enclosed and had an optional hardtop.

Even on a chilly March day in Seattle, the sun was able to warm the aft deck to a comfortable temperature. In summer, you can open the clear panels to let air in.

The View From Command Central
Up a few more steps, you’ll arrive at the flybridge: command central. Here, the captain can sit at a comfortable helm chair

and enjoy a full view forward, to both sides and aft.

With the transom door open, the skipper can clearly see the bow and the trailing edge of the swim platform, for ease in docking. Docking this boat does not require guesswork.

The flybridge helm on the 390 is an island arrangement with two bench seats — one to the side of the skipper that seats two

and one forward that accommodates three. The island design allows anyone in any seat to come and go without forcing the captain away from the wheel.

Both the flybridge helm and the lower helm station feature full VDO instrumentation, including a synchronizer, a tachometer and gauges for oil pressure, water temperature, voltage and fuel levels. An engine hour meter is provided at the flybridge.

In addition, our test boat featured an Impulse Matrix scanning sonar, a Raytheon 10x raster scan radar, a Raytheon Ray Chart 600 GPS chart plotter and a Standard Horizon Omni VHF.

To test the boat’s performance, we took the Carver 390 onto Seattle’s Lake Washington on a blustery, late winter day. The flybridge, fully enclosed by Barrett canvas, was comfortable despite outside temperatures in the upper 40s.

The boat tested was propelled by a pair of Crusader 454 XLs. Other power options for the 390 include a pair of Volvo Penta 740s or MerCruiser 7.4 liter gasoline inboards. Diesel power options include either twin KAMD 41 or 42 Volvo Pentas or Cummins 210 or 250s.

Our Crusader XLs pushed the 390 on plane in less than five seconds. The take off was flat and fast.

The conditions on Lake Washington were anything but pleasant: We had a 20 knot southwest wind blowing and a two to three foot chop with white caps. But you wouldn’t expect these conditions to give a 39-footer problems — and they didn’t.

We ran with the seas, quartered them and powered into them without any performance flaws showing up in the modified-V hull. From the flybridge, I felt some bounce when going into the chop, but I went below and found that in the living quarters, the chop went unnoticed. Sound levels in the saloon and staterooms were quite acceptable at cruising speed.

Wood suggests keeping the 390 at about 3,200 rpm for sustained cruising. At this engine speed, you’ll go roughly 20 mph, give or take a little, depending on current, wind conditions and load.

We maxed out the 390 at 4,500 rpm, which yielded a speed of about 31 mph — quite respectable for a boat with an overall

length of 41 feet, five inches, when measured from bow pulpit to swim platform.

Accommodating Accommodations
The aft stateroom features a full-size double berth, two hanging lockers and a cabinet with shelves. On the boat tested, a television/VCR was installed in the cabinet on a shelf pre-rigged with 110v outlets.

The aft stateroom has plenty of space and is well appointed with teak and fabric trim. If it has one shortcoming, it’s a lack of drawer space. The two-drawer arrangement Carver offers in the 350 is lost to a door leading to the cockpit in the 390.

Going forward and up a few steps, you enter the main saloon. This area, with its ample windows, is open and spacious. Whether you raise the louvered blinds or simply adjust them, you can bring in lots of outside light.

Immediately to the right as you enter is a stereo cabinet with shelves. To the left sits a full settee that folds out into a bed. The settee has two large sliding drawers built in. A comfortable armchair rounds out the furnishings.

The lower helm station is situated in the saloon, forward of the settee. The arm of the settee serves as the helm seat.

The lower station is fully appointed with VDO gauges. The electrical panel for the boat is mounted on the wall, to port. A huge back-sloped, three-panel windshield provides plenty of visibility for running the 390 from the lower station.

A step down from the main saloon, on the starboard side, you’ll find a dinette that seats four and converts into a double berth.

A few more steps down and you’re in the galley. Both the dinette and the galley areas benefit from the windshield, which brightens up the area like a skylight. The entire dining and food preparation area is remarkably open and naturally lit from above.

The galley, while not huge, is certainly roomy. Its standard features include a dual voltage refrigerator/freezer, a three-

burner electric stove with oven and a polished stainless steel kitchen sink.

Ample teak is used around the galley, including an exceptional parquet floor. A head with shower and vanity is located nearby.

The 390 has 70 gallon water tank and an 11 gallon hot water heater, giving it a total of 81 gallons of water stowage capacity. Each head has its own 18 gallon holding tank.

All the way forward, the boat’s second stateroom features a double berth, four drawers for clothes and a hanging locker. Overhead light enters through the deck hatch above. Carver also added ample electrical lighting.

With the separated staterooms fore and aft, this boat makes an idea cruiser for two couples. The 390 offers a lot of privacy, while providing plenty of room inside and out for social activities.

Short Trips or Long Cruises
The Carver 390 would be an ideal boat for a trip up the Inside Passage or cruising Alaska. It comes with a standard 280 gallon fuel capacity, and our test boat had an optional fuel tank that increased capacity to 340 gallons.

In decent sea conditions, at a cruising speed of 20 mph, the fuel consumption rate is roughly 22 gallons per hour. That translates to a cruising range of more than 300 miles with the optional tank.

With that kind of range, lots of liveaboard comfort and a cockpit for fishing and socializing, you’d be unlikely to run out of destinations and activities to enjoy aboard this boat.