Sold!!!

[Baker]

I just am a little giddy about today's events!! If you notice in my signature, the Carver just closed and she is gone!! It was an absolutely great boat. We used the hell out of it and it took good care of us!! But she is on to make memories with her new owners! And now we can concetrate and making the new-to-us boat, Meridian 411, ours...and make new memories on it. Bittersweet to see it go but onward and upward!!!

One of the things, ok 2 things, that are cool about the new boat.....1)...Cummins 6CTAs. I'll just leave that there although OC Diver Ted has some strange aversion to them!!!..... 2) The engine ROOM!!! Probably the reason I bought the boat although it is a nice boat. I have never seen a boat with so much interior and exterior room AND have a nice engine room. It borders on DeFever grade(the space in engine room...not build quality)....not quite but close. Anyway....looking forward to new adventures. I was a two boat owner for about 3 months!

Baker

 

[Comodave]

Congrats on your new boat or maybe even more congrats on selling the old boat. Have fun with your new baby.

 

[healhustler]

Naturally, we’ll see some pics of that spacious ER, yes? I want to know about every spacious ER on sub 50 ft. vessels. It’s Half fetish and half dream, I guess. Some day I want a great ER, perhaps big enough for a workshop, TV and lounge chair.

 

[Jeff F]

Enjoy the new boat!

 

[Baker]

Naturally, we’ll see some pics of that spacious ER, yes? I want to know about every spacious ER on sub 50 ft. vessels. It’s Half fetish and half dream, I guess. Some day I want a great ER, perhaps big enough for a workshop, TV and lounge chair.

It is not the greatest thing ever...but pretty close. I mean we are talking about a mass produced ho hum sedan...right? I will see what I can do about pics. I will say this. I had a raw waterpump fail on the delivery trip....I had it changed in about 30 minutes!!!

 

[Art]

I'm posting to say congrats. And... to see the ER photos!!

 

[O C Diver]

I just am a little giddy about today's events!! If you notice in my signature, the Carver just closed and she is gone!! It was an absolutely great boat. We used the hell out of it and it took good care of us!! But she is on to make memories with her new owners! And now we can concetrate and making the new-to-us boat, Meridian 411, ours...and make new memories on it. Bittersweet to see it go but onward and upward!!!

One of the things, ok 2 things, that are cool about the new boat.....1)...Cummins 6CTAs. I'll just leave that there although OC Diver Ted has some strange aversion to them!!!..... 2) The engine ROOM!!! Probably the reason I bought the boat although it is a nice boat. I have never seen a boat with so much interior and exterior room AND have a nice engine room. It borders on DeFever grade(the space in engine room...not build quality)....not quite but close. Anyway....looking forward to new adventures. I was a two boat owner for about 3 months!

Baker

Congratulations on the new boat and selling the old one!

Nothing wrong with a pair of 6CTAs. If you're making money with them, they're great engines. If you want to go fast they're great engines. If you want to pass a fuel dock, maybe not the best choice. For cruising in displacement mode, I found a more fuel efficient choice.

Ted

 

[johnrupp]

Congrats on your new boat.

 

[greysailor]

Congratulations John! Hope to see y'all down South before long.

 

[BDofMSP]

Baker,
I looked at a couple 411s before I found the Silverton I'm buying now. Can't agree with you more about the engine room space. I almost couldn't get past it when I stepped into the 410s engine room. But it's acceptable. Mostly.

Congratulations!
BD

 

[JohnEasley]

Congrats on the sale and on the new boat! Now, let's see dem engine room photos!

 

[Baker]

Congratulations on the new boat and selling the old one!

Nothing wrong with a pair of 6CTAs. If you're making money with them, they're great engines. If you want to go fast they're great engines. If you want to pass a fuel dock, maybe not the best choice. For cruising in displacement mode, I found a more fuel efficient choice.

Ted

You know I was just poking fun at you Ted!!!! You know what is amazing about the new boat....41 feet....twin 450hp diesels....20 knots I am burning about 25gph. I think I could get a solid 1.0 at 17 knots. Not bad for a planing bigger boat. I run the engines about 2000rpms yielding about 18-19 knots. Those things aren't even breaking a sweat down there.

For those wanting pics of the engine room....I am gonna have to find a wide angle lens lest my pictures look like all the other pics by brokers in listings. My dockmate has the new iPhone pro....that might work. I'll see what I can do.

 

[Art]

You know I was just poking fun at you Ted!!!! You know what is amazing about the new boat....41 feet....twin 450hp diesels....20 knots I am burning about 25gph. I think I could get a solid 1.0 at 17 knots. Not bad for a planing bigger boat. I run the engines about 2000rpms yielding about 18-19 knots. Those things aren't even breaking a sweat down there.

For those wanting pics of the engine room....I am gonna have to find a wide angle lens lest my pictures look like all the other pics by brokers in listings. My dockmate has the new iPhone pro....that might work. I'll see what I can do.

What does WOT get for knots per hour??

Don't even worry about stating nmpg at WOT... too many numbers! - LOL

 

[Pete Meisinger]

You have a history of over 6,000 posts and haven't learned to include pictures ? What is this world coming to?

pete

 

[South of Heaven]

Congrats OP

 

[angus99]

Congrats, John! Getting a boat you like and selling off the old one is the two-fer everybody dreams of. Enjoy!

 

[O C Diver]

You know I was just poking fun at you Ted!!!!

Yes, and so I poked back.

Ted

 

[Baker]

What does WOT get for knots per hour??

Don't even worry about stating nmpg at WOT... too many numbers! - LOL

WOT is 28-29 knots. I was just looking at the fuel/prop curve charts yesterday but I failed to look at the WOT number. If I had to guess it would be in the mid 20s per engine....so about .5

On another note....a buddy of mine has a 36 aft cabin Meridian...for some reason that thing does not do well on fuel. The only thing we can think of is hull shape....short and fat. He burns about 28gph at 18 knots(.65)....AND he only has 250 gallon capacity!!!

 

[rslifkin]

On another note....a buddy of mine has a 36 aft cabin Meridian...for some reason that thing does not do well on fuel. The only thing we can think of is hull shape....short and fat. He burns about 28gph at 18 knots(.65)....AND he only has 250 gallon capacity!!!

What engines? If he's burning that much with diesels, then either that's one seriously inefficient hull or it's propped very wrong. If he's got gassers (looks like both were an option in that boat), then 28 gph at 18 kts is actually pretty decent. With my older, carb-ed gassers in a boat of similar size and maybe a hair less weight, I burn somewhere around 30 - 32 gph at 18 kts.

 

[Baker]

What engines? If he's burning that much with diesels, then either that's one seriously inefficient hull or it's propped very wrong. If he's got gassers (looks like both were an option in that boat), then 28 gph at 18 kts is actually pretty decent. With my older, carb-ed gassers in a boat of similar size and maybe a hair less weight, I burn somewhere around 30 - 32 gph at 18 kts.

QSB330. It is dead on the book numbers!!! So we have to assume hull shape. He is definitely not overpropped as he gets Max RPM+. Hard to tell on electronic engines for underprop since the governor is electronic(fuel cutoff). But I think his props are very close to what they should be.

 

[rslifkin]

Looking at the published fuel curve for a QSB 330, WOT should only be 16.7 gph per engine. So at 14 gph per side, he's loaded pretty close to wide open, so something is definitely wrong.

I found a test of a Meridian 368 with QSB 330s instead of gassers and the test showed 20.1 kts / 17.9 gph / 2250 RPM with a top speed of 29.4 kts at 29.2 gph. https://dicksimonyachts.com/Brochures/Meridian/368/Meridian-368-Review-Motor-Boating.PDF

 

[Baker]

Looking at the published fuel curve for a QSB 330, WOT should only be 16.7 gph per engine. So at 14 gph per side, he's loaded pretty close to wide open, so something is definitely wrong.

I found a test of a Meridian 368 with QSB 330s instead of gassers and the test showed 20.1 kts / 17.9 gph / 2250 RPM with a top speed of 29.4 kts at 29.2 gph. https://dicksimonyachts.com/Brochures/Meridian/368/Meridian-368-Review-Motor-Boating.PDF

Trust me....that is nowhere near correct. That guy must have been operating in river rapids in a boat with mounted helium tanks!!!! I am not even sure he is on plane at 2200rpm. He is but likely doing about 13 knots. He has consulted with many owners of the same boat and they all echo the same results. His power setting is about 85%...so not WOT but definitely high power setting. Considering that same engine is rated all the way up to 425, he is not hurting it. It is also a trim issue. It rides bow how so he is really dragging significant amounts of trim tabs through the water.

 

[sunchaser]

Baker
Good choice and neat name.

It is too bad Meridian went out of business. Their new builds and designs from a decade or so ago were very well thought out. It seems they were able to successfully separate themselves from SeaRay's and Bayliner's good but aging designs from the past.

Regarding fuel consumption, do the engines' panel data read outs show fuel burn?

 

[Baker]

Baker
Good choice and neat name.

It is too bad Meridian went out of business. Their new builds and designs from a decade or so ago were very well thought out. It seems they were able to successfully separate themselves from SeaRay's and Bayliner's good but aging designs from the past.

Regarding fuel consumption, do the engines' panel data read outs show fuel burn?

I was under the impression that Brunswick(includes Sea Ray as well) stopped production of ALL big boats...not that they went out of business.

If you're referring to my boat, the are mechanical CTAs so no they don't. I was basing my numbers on the 1000 mile delivery trip. My friend's QSB powered 368 does display GPH.

 

[sunchaser]

You are correct, Brunswick stayed in business but Meridian shut their Arlington WA doors in 2009 or so. Several other plants around the US were shutdown at that time too, with about 1500 people losing their jobs as best I remember.


The financial meltdown of 2008 got them and many other well known builders as well. SeaRay got sold a few years later.

 

[Baker]

It might've been 2016ish. Because I know I have seen Meridians of that vintage. So not long ago at all.

 

[BandB]

Brunswick shut down it's Arlington WA plant at the end of 2008. Late 2017, they announced their intention to sell Sea Ray and to treat in their financials, both Sea Ray and Meridian as discontinued operations. They then failed to get decent offers for Sea Ray and decided to discontinue their largest boats including the entire L Series and the larger Sundancers. In June of 2018, they announced they were keeping and reinventing Sea Ray. Now, while the discontinuing of Meridian was announced late 2017, they'd dropped model after model and I don't believe actually produced any 2017's. They were down to two models and then it all just stopped.

I believe they only built 441's and 391's in 2015 and 2016, having dropped the 341's and 541's.

 

[Baker]

Brunswick shut down it's Arlington WA plant at the end of 2008. Late 2017, they announced their intention to sell Sea Ray and to treat in their financials, both Sea Ray and Meridian as discontinued operations. They then failed to get decent offers for Sea Ray and decided to discontinue their largest boats including the entire L Series and the larger Sundancers. In June of 2018, they announced they were keeping and reinventing Sea Ray. Now, while the discontinuing of Meridian was announced late 2017, they'd dropped model after model and I don't believe actually produced any 2017's. They were down to two models and then it all just stopped.

I believe they only built 441's and 391's in 2015 and 2016, having dropped the 341's and 541's.

HENCE..........my post that there were 2016 Meridians built...

 

[Wayfarer]

Congratulations on the new ship!

 

[Art]

Have I missed your RE photos??