As for the yard, make sure that they take proper precautions during the haul out, such as using the right number of slings for your boat and tying those slings together. (For a story on proper hauling procedures, see link below)
REMEMBER THE INSURANCE COMPANIES
Tom paid $200 for the haul out. The boat, still wet from pressure washing, was up on the slings and the salesman said it looks good. Tom has a checklist he copied from the do-it-yourself book, but it was slow going. The yard allowed him only 30 minutes on the lift without charging extra, and the salesman was talking in his ear the whole time. He would have needed four or five hours to complete the survey suggested by the book. Pressured and euphoric, Tom signed the papers without completing his inspection as planned.
He then decided to have the boat yard paint the bottom, because the boat was already hauled, and he began calling marinas to find a slip. The following afternoon, after contacting several marinas, Tom learned that none would accept the boat unless it had a minimum of $300,000 liability insurance coverage. The second morning he called a few marine insurance agents. By noon he had discovered that all of the underwriters required a survey before a policy could be issued for any used boat longer than 24 feet or more than 10 years old. Moreover, they wanted a complete out-of-the-water hull survey performed by a surveyor already recognized by the insurance company.
Hoping to delay the launching long enough for a surveyor to look at the boat, Tom called the boat yard but they had already re-floated his boat. Later that afternoon Tom phoned me to set up a survey, and he arranged to have the boat hauled again.
During the post-purchase survey, I discovered several reasons the boat was priced so low, and no one else had thought it worth buying. For example, he missed the fact that the engine bed strongers, made of fiberglass-encased wood, had completely rotted out and required repair. This involved jacking up the engines, re-bedding them and completely re-aligning both shafts.
If Tom had done the survey first, it may have lowered the price by many times the cost of the survey – or changed his decision to buy the boat. Either way, he would have avoided thousands of dollars in added repair costs. What at first appeared a smart way to cut costs had now cost him much more.
A HOT DAY AND A COLD START
A proper survey takes a few hours - a surveyor may work 8 to 12 hours on the entire job - and covers a great deal of ground. If you have scheduled a "noon hang" with the boat yard, the survey should start about 10 a.m. Noon hangs are less expensive because your boat occupies the lift while the crew is at lunch. Starting well before the yard's 11:30 a.m. lunch break lets you get the topside and interior survey finished prior to the haul out. This allows you to finalize the entire thing after a look at the bottom.
CAPT. ALAN HUGENOTBy pressure washing a fiberglass hull and examining it wet, common paint blisters can be differentiated from more troublesome gel coat blisters. A surveyor will know the difference, and be able to tell if the blisters are recent.
Wear old clothes to your survey, because you will be examining the greasy engine, the filthy bilges and the dirty bottom of the boat. And don't keep the surveyor waiting. He will charge you handsomely for wasted time.
Before the haul out, the surveyor will want to see the topside in the bright sun, if possible. This is when you can see the problems in the best light. Your surveyor will inspect the interior structure with a good flashlight, looking in every compartment. He will also want to start the engines cold and observe the exhaust smoke to see how it changes as the block warms up. This will determine much about the engine and its internal condition, without doing compression checks, oil samples or other expensive, complicated diagnostics. (For stories on inspecting a diesel engine and reading exhaust, see links below.)
Oil samples are often overrated in this application, unless you are buying a large yacht where the ship's engineer has kept oil sample records over the life of the engine. All oil samples contain trace elements of metals that show engine wear. Without prior samples to document the engine hours, however, we have no way to determine if engine wear is increasing. There is rarely any reason to spend money on oil samples. Too many times I have seen engine surveys that included oil samples, but told me nothing of value about the engine.
