Our boat is a 1997 Carver 445
The Story of how we found our boat
If you would have told me in 2018 that we would buy a boat sight unseen and would have it delivered out of Canada with delivery captains, I would have laughed heartily and told you that you were nuts. Because we were not that crazy to buy a boat unseen and we were the people who like to check out every nook and cranny ourselves. Yeah, guess who’s nuts.
In 2017 we were lucky enough to travel part of the loop with a captain who needed crew to complete his loop. This was the perfect opportunity for us to check out if doing the loop was something we really wanted to do. Ever since we experienced that part of the Great Loop (from South Haven, Michigan to Alton, Illinois) we were looking for a loop boat. There was a lot of researching involved as well as traveling to various places to see what was available. We traveled to Maryland and down to Houston looking at possible candidates. We had plenty of time to check out boats to see which would suit our want and needs. I did not want to purchase a boat much before my plans to retire in 2020. That gave us lots of time to geek out with our decision. One engine or two? What make of engines? How much space? Flybridge and/or pilothouse? Two helm stations? And so on and so on…..
Slowly we were narrowing down our options. The first time I stepped on the Carver model 445 I knew that this was the boat on which I would be comfortable traveling the loop. We just had to find the best boat for us that ticked off items on our must have list. We found a good candidate but it was up in Canada where we were not able to see it. I suggested to Michael that we should put in an offer and when the seller told us “to take a hike”, we could check out some of the Carver 440’s that where stateside and still available. The Carver 445’s and the 440’s are similar in style with some minor differences, either model would be fine. To my surprise the seller countered our offer. So I knew the seller was motivated. We worked with the sellers broker to have virtual tours and have him run through any issues he was aware of that would need immediate attention. Along the way we had wonderful help from some local Canadians that we met on-line through Facebook groups and the AGLCA harbor hosts in the area lent a hand as well. After some back and forth and input from our Canadian “eyes” , as well as a sea trial, we settled on a price that the seller accepted.
And that is how we came to purchase our boat in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2020). This made the process that much harder. With the help of the seller’s broker, the harbor hosts, and our Facebook friend, we knew that we could get the boat into the US. It was going to take some work but we knew we were up to the Challenge.
We were put in touch with a delivery captain and his mate and they were able to bring the boat from Canada to Port Clinton, Ohio. This was now October of 2020. We spent a short few days on the boat before we had to leave for home and send the boat to warm winter storage to await our adventures in the Spring of 2021.
Here's some pictures of the boat before we bought her.
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Pictures of the interior.
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The aft stateroom is a nice space with a walk around bed. The previous owner liked it very dark, what I call “cave person”. I am a “cloud person”, I like light! As in, I like to see where I am going without turning the lights on. Couldn’t do that in this stateroom. Don’t know where they got all the lights to lighten up these pictures! The closest picture to the reality of how dark the stateroom was—is the picture of the sink area and it still shows up lighter than it really was to the naked eye. We were always making negative comments about the brown in the head (bathroom)…hint…something referring to what’s in the toilet. Yep, that brown has gotta go, we said. It was a shame to replace the dark fabric because the fabric on the valances and blinds were of high quality. They were just oppressively dark (though the lining of the blinds in the aft stateroom were suffering from sun rot and were in need of replacement).
My 2021 projects: lighten up paint in aft head and above backsplash in the galley (kitchen). Lighten up the valances and blinds in aft cabin. Harder projects than I thought they would have been. But, I was up to the challenge. I will include pictures with the blog post detailing the changes to lighten the boat up. And while you’re at it, check out our boat project blog posts to see how we keep ourselves amused.