Marine Surveyors
Why pay for a survey?
When purchasing any previously owned vessel from WORLDWIDE CATAMARANS or in fact from any yacht broker ALWAYS HAVE A SURVEY!!!!! … and if any broker tells you that because the boat is only a year old, why would you need to pay for an out of the water inspection or sea trial, BEWARE!!!
What you pay out for a surveyors written report could go towards paying some extra equipment, yeah, right! WORLDWIDE CATAMARANS will always without fail, give you this advice: ALWAYS HAVE A SURVEY!!!!!
We want both the buyer and the seller to be happy and able to negotiate a fair deal for both parties. Many owners do not realise that they may have sustained damage on the reef, or have had bad repairs undertaken. Every buyer deserves to know the truth about what he is letting himself in for.
If some serious issues are uncovered by the surveyors report and if they are rectified by the seller or some adjustment has been made in the price to reflect these issues, then no problem is insurmountable.
Even modern vessels with the fairly new resin infusion process have had some serious osmosis issues only a year old out of the factory, which can be extremely expensive to repair.
Osmosis never sunk a boat, but it can seriously affect the resale value, if you want to sell in the future.
Having a good qualified marine surveyor accredited to a governing body such as MCA / MECAL / Bureau Veritas etc can most often save you money far in access of his fees and can aid in negotiation of the asking price.
The surveyor is normally covered by a fully comprehensive insurance policy which in the event of you later finding an issue which he has missed you may have some recompense!
A surveyor will normally offer three stages of survey, such as:
1: Full out of the water survey - checking moisture levels in GRP, checking for impact damage, rudder bushes, for excessive play. On a steel yacht the thickness of steel plate, electrolysis corrosion, propellors, anodes etc, keel bolts, bulkheads, and bad impact repairs. All systems check on /generators / electronics / tender /outboard / and all of the boats systems and also checking the running rigging.
2: Full out of the water survey and sea trial as above, but including a sea trial testing engines under load, testing the water maker, steering etc.
3: Rig inspection - A rig check is not always carried out by the marine surveyor, but normally done by an independent rigging company. This is to check for any excessive corrosion on the standing rigging, bottle screws, steel braided shrouds or bars. Wear can also be evident on the cross trees etc. BE AWARE! Most insurance companies will insist that if the standing rigging is over ten years old you will have to replace it before they will offer you cover!!! Or they may insist a rigger has given a report using ultrasound equipment. The cost of such a rig report can often be half the cost of replacing it anyway.
Most buyers of various nationalities prefer to have a survey done in their own language which is understandable, but some of the various surveyors from some European Countries just have a standard tick box survey report which is next to useless and does not go into adequate detail.
Also make sure that if it is a catamaran for instance that you are purchasing make sure that the surveyor has at least some catamaran experience. We have had surveyors checking boats that we have had on brokerage and they have asked us what ballast is on the boat, also tapping with a hammer stating that the boat is suffering from extreme delimitation, when they were hearing different sound variations from the bulk head positions.
Anyone can call themselves a marine surveyor and set up shop, but make sure they are accredited.
WORLDWIDE CATAMARANS can thoroughly recommend the following Surveyors:
UK:
Gary Webster / Marine Survey Solutions
Peter Wallis / Wallis Marine
USA:
East Coast - Robert Noyce / R.A. Noyce & Associates
