1990 45' Californian

Hi All!

Tom and I are going to look at a 1990 45 this weekend. What (if any) issues should we be on the lookout for?

Appreciate your input!
Bess&Tom

Dang Bess, turns out you guys had ten foot itus. Good luck in your pursuit.

The Californians are very solid sturdy boats. AS with any boat it's the systems you need to pay attention to but I have had mine 3 years and I have had no surprises. I have Detroit 6-71 Ti's and they are extremely fuel efficient for DD's. At 8-9 kts I'm burning about 7 gph and at 14 kts only about 18 gph and that is with the generator 15 KW running. I know that sounds like a lot to a lot of members here, but I was extremely surprised after taking delivery on mine. I was thinking like 15 and 30 gph.

CPseudonym said:

Dang Bess, turns out you guys had ten foot itus. Good luck in your pursuit.

Click to expand...

Tom wishes it to be more!! We knew there would be a second boat, which is the only reason we sold the first boat! Just starting to shop, so it's hard to tell what will actually happen!

knotheadcharters said:

The Californians are very solid sturdy boats. AS with any boat it's the systems you need to pay attention to but I have had mine 3 years and I have had no surprises. I have Detroit 6-71 Ti's and they are extremely fuel efficient for DD's. At 8-9 kts I'm burning about 7 gph and at 14 kts only about 18 gph and that is with the generator 15 KW running. I know that sounds like a lot to a lot of members here, but I was extremely surprised after taking delivery on mine. I was thinking like 15 and 30 gph.

Click to expand...

The one we're looking at this weekend is the Cat3208s. Do you happen to have a picture of your bottom out of the water that you could post?

This is one of the Carver years. Were there any major construction or design changes we should be aware of? Were they still solid fiberglass hulls or did they switch to cored? What about fuel tanks? We read a few things about the aft tank having issues.

Don't know how to upload photos but it's a semi-V. 14 degree deadrise no keel but very stable and with the detroits she pops out of the hole very nicely. Yes have a pressure test done on the aft tanks. . Best 300dollars I spent. There is an interconnect that usually has issues between the 2 tanks. I had that problem but got the bank to build me a new tank, there are two. One under my third stateroom and the second under the aft bed. Mine is a Carver version also and the hull is solid as a tank. Haven't drilled any holes to see if solid or cored but like I said SOLID. I do not have one spidercrack on the entire boat. They were layed up properly.

I had a 1989 California 45 with 6-71 TIB's for 8 years and know of no inherent problems. Solid as rock. I agree with knot's fuel numbers. I took mine from Texas to Maine and back in 2001. The only thing that I would recommend is to be careful of is bumping the bottom. There is nothing to protect the props. Early in my ownership I bumped and after that bought a set of spares which I never had to use.

She jumped out of the hole with ease and was very good in a chop.

Your 3208 boat will be slower.

Wow... So NO prop protection at all? I mean, Maybe around the ICW and Neuse River that wouldn't pose a huge problem because the bottom is just muck. Also, I went 5 years without ever even touching bottom. So while that may make me unadventurous by some standards, it did mean I didn't suck as a captain. ;-) Still, that is a bit worrisome. How long are the prop shafts? What do spare props set you back?

Here is the bottom on a 48'.

Wheel shot.

I was more careful after I bought the spares. As you can see from Capt. Jon's picture the shafts are pretty long and one piece. I think that I paid 2 grand for used props.

I carried them in the engine room laying flat...one on top of the other in the step down space just in front of the battery boxes and made a new plywood floor to put on top of them. I also put a short piece of PVC pipe in the holes to keep them from moving around.

Don't let this issue scare you away from a fantastic boat. Many a day I wish that I had mine back.

seasalt007 said:

I was more careful after I bought the spares. As you can see from Capt. Jon's picture the shafts are pretty long and one piece. I think that I paid 2 grand for used props.

I carried them in the engine room laying flat...one on top of the other in the step down space just in front of the battery boxes and made a new plywood floor to put on top of them. I also put a short piece of PVC pipe in the holes to keep them from moving around.

Don't let this issue scare you away from a fantastic boat. Many a day I wish that I had mine back.

Click to expand...

Awesome idea! I've been carrying around ours in the lazerett on a pair of boards. Takes up so much room there. Going to give that a try!

is there engine room access in addition to the galley stairs? Like salon floor?

Salon floor came up on mine. I had the carpet cut around the hatches for easy access. No metal pulls, however. Would pry it up with a tool of some sort. I only pulled the hatches for oil changes, etc. to reduce the claustrophobia if I was going to be down there for a while.

The pictures make it look pretty roomy in there. Is that true? Can't wait to see it tomorrow!

Yes, it does have good living space. The engine room is not standup. But a stool will allow you to sit upright and do many maintenance task. Not sure on the 45' but the 48 CPMY has decent room outboard to work on the engines. Things like valve adjustments, etc are not bad. I have certainly worked in much tighter engine rooms!

At least on this boat you can put a squirrel cage fan in front of the raised stairs and with the A/C on not have to work in a killer hot environment.

Thanks for the pics and input.

Those are some tiny ass rudders. How do they handle?

Wish they were much bigger for the speeds we run at.

I agree small rudders but remember this boat planes, I also normally cruise at 8-9 kts but I really haven't noticed any handling issues at slow speed. The torque on the DD's are amazing and in gear at idle she's doing about 3-4 kts which can make it interesting in tight marinas but by bumping in and out of gear the boat is very responsive. I have a bow thruster but I try and limit it's use as I don't want to become dependent on it. Like SEASALT said these boats are awesome. Very roomy and livable I spent three months on mine last summer and hated coming back to the dirt house. I used the mid-berth stateroom as a walk in closet and it worked out nicely. I never felt cramped. The living space on the back deck is the real deal. The only thing I wish I had is SAT TV but I can buy a lot of diesel for the cost of those fancy KVH antennas.


I keep spare props also, but I have them in the storage space under the forward VIP Stateroom. there is plenty of room around the FWD A/C air handler. If your concerned about the running gear hanging out, I use 5 foot draft as a good rule of thumb. They say it drafts 4'8" but I think in normal cruising trim she's probably more like 4'3"-4'6".

Your right they are awesome boats. We live on ours 5 days durning the week right now and it's never felt cramped. We don't have the third stateroom or head like the 48 MY but for us and the occasional friends it has plenty of room! The sun deck is great place to spend time. It's what really to me makes this boat a great hanging on the hook machine.

The only two things I don't like (every boat has issues) are rudder size at displacement speeds and the ability to not see backing down. Since we only have fly bridge controls it takes two to get her in the slip. I certainly would not call either of those real issues. Guess the most important thing is we would buy the exact same boat again without hesitation!

We will be retiring soon and just can't wait to really spend an extended amount of time on her.

During the sea trial on mine I was also concerned about visibility aft. I do have the lower helm in the salon but I doubt I'd ever use it especially not for docking but any way the Captain that drove the boat on the sea trial said to me "look through the ladder well up to the bridge. If you can see the port corner of the boat which you can, you will always know where the starboard side is. After the first few times of doing that I have not had any issues docking. Even with the swim platform hanging off the back which I cannot see, I have managed not to mangle it yet.

For some reason the first owner of my 45 had an extra sliding hatch on the aft hardtop. Backing into a slip I could look aft to port past the bridge steps to the corner of the boat. Looking starboard I could look through an identical hatch and see the starboard aft corner. The factory had to have made the extra hatch. Sure helped in docking.

One modification that I had made was a real door to replace the slider into the main salon. I think a lot of owners have done this. Whoever dreamed up the slider must have been drinking.

seasalt007 said:

One modification that I had made was a real door to replace the slider into the main salon. I think a lot of owners have done this. Whoever dreamed up the slider must have been drinking.

Click to expand...

The previous owner did the same mod.

The original designer must have been tomb builder in a past life!

Yes I have a real door also, those sliders are ridiculous on that boat.

Soooooo.....we went to see it. It's beautiful. It's clean, it's well staged, the engine room is spotless......but it's HUGE! The freeboard is taller than me! How the heck am I supposed to tend lines and be first mate? on our 35' I could just jump to the dock and tie us up......that's not gonna happen on this boat. It makes me want the 42' Navigator more with the cockpit. Less boat, but more managability. What say you?

AND....If you have three fuel tanks.....where the heck is the third one?

Four tanks, 2 wing tanks in the ER. 3 and 4 underneath the aft cabin berth and forward of that one centerline in the bilge. my two holding tanks are outboard of the aft berth.
They handle very well around the dock. no need to jump off. I bought a landing loop to put a line on cleat if there is no help. Yes high freeboard not bad with fixed docks but a little tougher on floating docks like here in Jax where I'm at. I built a set of stairs at my permanent berth and I have a marquip ladder when elsewhere. I have to admit my engineroom isn't very clean, those Detroits leak but i'll take a dirty ER for the tried and true reliability of Detroits.

The boat handles so well around the dock that jumping off has never been an issue to secure lines. My wife and I have no problems at all docking.

As for the freeboard, it's why it has so much room inside. Much less freeboard than a Hatteras MY or LRC of comparable length.

As for tanks, some days I wish we had more than just two tanks. With us carrying 500 gallons total it takes a long time to empty. My opinion with 3 or 4 tanks fuel management is easier.

My 45 had three fuel tanks. One under the master bed and two saddles outboard the engines.

My DD mechanic once told me that if you hung a picture of a DD on the wall in your house that there would be drops of oil on the floor in the morning.

You get use to the high freeboard and line handling for my wife was not a problem. She would drop a line over the dodger board and reach through the hole...grab the loop end... and attache it to the cleat. Then toss the other end to the dock attendant.

We traveled on this boat for 8 years and never had a problem handling it.

Besslb said:

The freeboard is taller than me! How the heck am I supposed to tend lines and be first mate? on our 35' I could just jump to the dock and tie us up......that's not gonna happen on this boat.

Click to expand...

Met a gentleman recently that owns a Hatteras 70 and asked him specifically about line handling with high freeboard. His answer was he has never really given the subject any thought whatsoever. It just is not an issue. He brought it to California from Washington with just his girlfriend and to hear him tell the story that was akin to single handing. He docks his boat pretty much solo every time and he hasn't failed to get it tied up yet.