Carolina Classic

[Sea Frog]

My current boat is a 21 Parker and for some time I have been eying the 25 Carolina Classic or a 28 if I can find a good deal. I AM NOT READY TO BUY NOW. I have looked at many different boats for sale and I noticed one thing a lot have in common. If it is a 2000 or 2001 it almost always has rebuilt motors in 2005 or 2006. I am just wondering why one would need to rebuild motors that are only 5 years old. I am very new to anything but an outboard and would appreciate any and all feedback as to reliability etc. Also, go diesel or gas. I don't care about speed...only economy and reliability.

[Bay Fishin]

Great Boats- Good ride and heavy. I would go with the 28 more fishbox space. The tower would be nice and more cabin. The 28 with twin diesels get 1.4 nmpg. I wish I could give more help.

Graceland has a 25 Im sure he could chime in.

[Bite Me]

If you can find a deal, definatley go with the diesels. Gas motors are shot after 2000 hours or less that's why you are seeing all of the rebuilts or repowered in boats 4 to 5 years old. So many more things to break and maintain on the gas not to mention the trips to the pumps.
If most of your fishing is inshore gas may be an option. If you are running more than 30 miles, and fish once a week or more diesel is the only way to go and you will recover your higher initial investment soon . On the resale side gas powered boats are getting harder and harder to move. When gas hit 350 a gallon here last summer they were impossible to sell.

Just my 2 cents.............

[Bodie]

It could be you are seeing the 25' owners repowering with the new 8.1 engines over the 7.4. The 25' is a very solid boat but no fish box room. Lots of people fix the is by addiing a swin platform and placing a big cooler for fish box.

[Sea Frog]

If you can find a deal, definatley go with the diesels. Gas motors are shot after 2000 hours or less that's why you are seeing all of the rebuilts or repowered in boats 4 to 5 years old. So many more things to break and maintain on the gas not to mention the trips to the pumps.
If most of your fishing is inshore gas may be an option. If you are running more than 30 miles, and fish once a week or more diesel is the only way to go and you will recover your higher initial investment soon . On the resale side gas powered boats are getting harder and harder to move. When gas hit 350 a gallon here last summer they were impossible to sell.

Just my 2 cents.............

If I go diesel should I go I/O or Inboard. I have no rationale, but somehow I am afraid of I/O. Please Advise

[Logan9581]

The I/O will get you more speed and better range. We are getting 3.9 mpg with our 27 oceanmaster, diesel with a jackshaft to the I/O.

I/O is easier to manuever and can go shallower too...

[Sea Frog]

The I/O will get you more speed and better range. We are getting 3.9 mpg with our 27 oceanmaster, diesel with a jackshaft to the I/O.

I/O is easier to manuever and can go shallower too...

Cool, is there more maintenance with the I/O. Also, right now I take my boat in for an oil change after about every 50 hours or so. What are the typical maintenance items for the diesel and apx. cost. Thanks so much.

[gofshn]

it is not only the carolina classic boats you speak of with motor problems, it was the engine manafacturers/marine companies who were converting the gm big blocks for marine use. the main problem lies in the overlap of exhaust/intake on the lobes of the cam which will allow saltwater intrusion. you will find scuffed cylinder walls and many more problems internally from this problem. there have been many modifications to risers, manifolds and water trap mufflers to no avail. mercruiser, and volvo were the main ones to have problems, but others were also guilty. these problems occur only in the raw seawater cooled engines and not ones with a freshwater closed loop such as with the Crusaders design. the reason i know this is we are currently repowering a CC25 that had this problem with the 7.4 mercruiser. we are changing it over to the bad-boy EFI 8.1 freshwater closed loop Crusader. some of the engines with saltwater intrusion problems lasted 700 hours and some lasted 1700 hrs, but i know of two friends who have lost their engines due to this problem at less hours than 700. the most recent fix for this is a prevention method found by trial and error with a clear hose set-up and a stroboscope. research and design found small droplets of water entering and also forming condensation when engines were instantly dropped off of high-speed runs down to low speedsor stopping. it was found better to slowly lower your rpm than just shutting down hard. the reason for this is not to overcome the design of the3 water-trap style muffler with an onrush of water as you instantly fall off of plane hard. it has also been found that if you run your engine in neutral at 1500-2000 rpm for a minute or so prior to shutting it off it will cause any significant amount of moisture in the to evaporate from the problematic areas which will later trickle down into your powerplant/engine.

[Graceland]

What's up Frog. What is a boy from Winstom Salem doing wanting a blue water boat? Originally from Wilkesboro myself, and went to Wake Forest.

What are you planning for the boat? Offshore? The Yanmar and Volvo 300 diesel I/O's will get you around 3 nmpg, the gas motors 1.25 to 1.5 nmpg. I run the Yanmar/Mercruiser Bravo IIIX set up. I have a buddy with the new Volvo 300 I/O and all electronic controls. She's sweet.

Inboard Vs I/O: I/O is about 10% more fuel efficient and faster and a little more manueverable. I wouldn't want an I/O if it were to be docked. On a trailer I am comfortable with it. You have bellows, U-joints and gimbal bearings to worry about with the I/O. You've got the transmission and stuffing box to deal with on the inboard. If it were my choice I would go with the inboard. They handle the diesel toque better, and have less maintenance, and are cheaper to buy than the I/O.

The Yanmar and Volvo diesels are both great engines. Both have very pricey parts. I wouldn't go with the Volvo 220 or 240 diesels, they are a bit underpowered for this hull. The hull likes 25 knots or better to plane out really nice. Like previously mentioned, some of the older gas models had water ingestion problems. If you go with a new one you don't need to worry, Mac has changed over to the closed loop cooling to remedy the problem.

The hull is a tank, period. Mine is a 2001 and has no stress cracks anywhere, and looks like she just rolled out of the show room, other than a beauty mark I put on the bow.

As previously mentioned, there are no fish boxes on the boat, only the transom live well. you can place a cooler on the optional swim platform. I usually carry an Icey Tech 270 on the deck, and still have plenty of room to fish. My buddy left off the optional tackle station and helm cooler and carries his SSI up on the helm deck, which seems to work well for him. I also carry a 6 ft tuna bag for those really good days offshore.

Last year you could get a basic gas inboard for $70k with a 300 diesel I/O running about $90k rigged out pretty nicely. Used, about all you are going to see right now is the Yanmar I/O set up, they run around $70K usually, with some of the 220 and 240 Volvo diesels, there are planty of gassers out there for sale also. Let me know if there are any more questions you'd like answered.

[gofshn]

as Graceland will tell you, the Carolina Classic owners website is a definite go-to for your Carolina Classic questions. Hope to see ya on the water in one soon frog!