For more than 40 years, since it began operations as Carver Boat Corp. in 1954, the Wisconsin-based builder referred to its vessels as boats. The 1998 debut of the Carver 530 Voyager changed that, with the word yacht appearing in her brochure—and with great intent behind its meaning.
Indeed, the Carver 530 Voyager was designed from the start as a game-changing new flagship for the builder’s 20-model lineup. The goal? To start rebranding what we know today as Carver Yachts into a marque no longer synonymous with smaller family boats, but instead with luxury cruising.
Advertisements for the Carver 530 Voyager touted the era’s state-of-the-art features, including a “wireless” docking remote control and a helm seat that adjusted six ways plus had a tilt feature—comfort-makers that are standard today, but that so impressed one magazine reviewer at the time that he called the skipper’s seat a “kingly throne.” Interior headroom was nearly seven feet, with cherry cabinetry and leather upholstery liberally applied to elevate the sense of elegance, not to mention a master stateroom that had separate compartments for the head and shower, a luxury usually reserved for motoryachts. A second stateroom was standard, and a third space could be configured as an office or as a third sleeping space with bunks for the kids.
The Carver 530 Voyager’s exterior styling turned heads, too, with one magazine calling it a nice change from her boring predecessors. Another wrote that the 53-footer offered a hint of “European megayacht”—something almost unheard of when discussing boats in this size range, and a hint at just how revolutionary the model seemed on the docks when she premiered.
“We want people to recognize that we pay attention to detail,” Bob VanGrunsven, president of Carver at the time, told Motorboating & Sailing magazine. “We’re going upscale.”
Not only did boaters notice back then, but they continue to notice today, says David Rogers, a yacht broker with Myrtle Beach Yacht Sales in South Carolina who recently sold the Carver 530 Voyager Odyssey.
“I’ve probably sold a dozen of the Carver 53s and 57s,” he says, adding that clients looking at other brokerage models in the same size and price range often can’t believe what they find when they step aboard the 530 Voyager. “No other builder makes a boat that’s comparable in size in this range. A 56 Sea Ray will fit inside this 53 Carver.”
Standard power on the Carver 530 Voyager was a pair of 450-horsepower Cummins 6CTA diesel inboards, which generated a cruising speed of 23.5 MPH and a top end of 27 MPH. Larger MAN and Volvo-Penta engines were optional, producing faster speeds but also sucking down more fuel with every nautical mile cruised. A generator and air conditioning also were noteworthy options.
Base price for the Carver 530 Voyager with the Cummins engine package in 1998 was about $565,000. Today, those hulls range in price from $259,000 to $389,000 on the brokerage market, depending on maintenance and upgrades.
Perhaps most important is that the legacy of the groundbreaking model continues today. At the 2016 Yacht & Brokerage Show in Miami, Carver Yachts plans to unveil its current flagship: the C50 Command Bridge. The first line of her promotional copy states: “The new Carver 50 Command bridge offers three staterooms and two heads in one of the most spacious layouts of any boat in its class.”
Times and features may change a bit, but Carver’s goal remains the same. It wants boaters stepping aboard to think, That’s luxury cruising.
See current Carver 530 Voyager listings.
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