Buying a boat series [Part 3]
You wouldn’t hire someone for a job without first conducting an interview, right? And you shouldn’t “hire” a boat to safely transport you around the ocean without first conducting a survey.
Scheduling a survey date
After we had agreed upon an “initial” price for the boat and had it under contract, it was important to get a survey scheduled. A survey is a detailed inspection of the boat that is performed by a certified individual whose entire job is to inspect boats with excruciating detail. This is a very important step when purchasing a boat – there is no “boatfax” to tell you the history of the boat and what is working or not working well.
We coordinated with the sellers (via the broker) to agree upon a date to conduct the survey. This was much more difficult than it initially sounds given that we were traveling from Chicago, the sellers were traveling from Arizona, and the broker from Maryland. And we had only a couple weeks time to find a mutually agreeable date. Oh, and most surveyors do not work the weekends. If you are fortunate to find a surveyor that will work the weekend (like we did), know that many boat yards do not work the weekend.
Finally we came up with a date that would work for everyone, and so began the next tasks.
Hiring a surveyor
We knew that we needed a surveyor, a good surveyor, a good, accredited surveyor. The question was, how do we find a list of surveyors and then know who to choose? It was very important for us as the buyers to find a surveyor that we trust and that had our best interests at heart. This website www.marinesurveyor.com contains a list of US accredited marine surveyors along with details and contact information. We did a quick search by location, came up with a handful of names – still unsure who to go with, we turned to Facebook of course. We became members of the Catamaran Sailing Group on Facebook and asked numerous questions there during our boat buying process.
Three of the recommended names from Facebook suggestions matched those on our list, so we gave each of them a call. Out of the three surveyors: one said he would send an email with more information and never did, one ended up not being available for our date, and the other became our surveyor.
Scheduling a haul-out
As part of the survey, the hull will be inspected to make sure it’s sound (among many other things I’m sure). As such, it is necessary to pull the boat out of the water. For many sailboats, this isn’t a huge problem – but for catamarans, it is often challenging to find a boat yard that can haul out a boat that is so wide. The nearest place that could haul out our boat was Jacksonville, FL and in Jacksonville, there is only one boat yard that is able to do so.
Initially this all came as a shock and added complexity, but one thing about limited options – you only have one phone call to make. Or in my case 6 phone calls over 3 days. Why does no one return voicemails?
I finally got ahold of the boat yard, and they had availability to haul us out, but it had to be at a specific time due to the tides and currents in that area. Ok, no problem – that time was in the morning and a good way to start the survey.
Conducting the survey
We flex into Jacksonville the night before. In the morning, we drove to the boat yard to meet the sellers (who had to bring the boat down from Brunswick) and the surveyor.
Tangent: the sellers are responsible for getting the boat to the agreed upon survey location. For our boat, that meant a day long sail from Brunswick to Jacksonville and spending two nights at a marina. All time and cost related to getting the boat to the survey is the responsibility of the seller. For additional information on seller and buyer responsibilities related to the survey, check out our Boat Basics, “Marine Survey 101”.
Unfortunately, there was some confusion and we were supposed to meet at the marina across the river, but now we were running too late to be there on time. Of course this river has no easy bridge crossing, only a ferry that wasn’t running on a schedule that aligned. Minor hiccups – we trust the surveyor to inspect the engines starting up when cold (an important check!) across the river and just meet us at the boat yard.
We watch as the boat is being hauled out of the water (pretty cool!). Unfortunately, the lift’s hydraulic broke and oil started leaking all over the front of the boat. Back into the water it went. Now the yard has to try to find someone who can come fix the hydraulic (hopefully the same day!) before we can get the boat out of the water to be inspected.
The surveyor began his inspections inside the boat instead while we waited. This took a few hours, and luckily the yard was able to eventually fix the lift and pull us back out of the water for the rest of the inspection. After the inspection was finished, we decided to order some late lunch from the restaurant down the road. Matt and I went to pick up the food, but the restaurant claimed to never have gotten our order- strange. We head back to the yard and relay the information, confused how that’s possible. Turns out there is a restaurant by the same name on the west coast – only a couple thousand miles away. Eventually, we did get some food though.
Sea trial with dolphins
Next it was time to conduct a sea trial, where you actually take the boat out for a brief sail to see how she operates on the water. Our survey day had been a little rough so far (did I mention it was <40 degrees?!), but the sea trial was perfect! There were numerous dolphins swimming and playing along side us and a beautiful sunset as the backdrop. The sail was short but what I imagine every sail should be like.
The sellers took the boat back to the marina across the river where they would spend the night, and where the surveyor had parked his car. Unfortunately, our car was still back on the other side of the river. What else was on the other side of the river, you ask? My purse – with payment for the surveyor. Oops! He was a nice guy though and indicated that we could just mail him the check; I still felt awful.
Night cap
We hopped on the ferry which took us back across the river to our car. From there we headed to a nearby restaurant for a much needed drink and some relaxation. I also promptly wrote out the check and sent a picture to the surveyor, which made my guilty conscious feel a little better.
Let’s recap the survey process
- Schedule a mutually agreeable date with sellers, buyers, broker
- Find a surveyor available on said date
- Locate a boat yard that can haul out a catamaran; call six times
- Reschedule date to accommodate boat yard days of operation
- Broker can no longer make that date; discuss further reschedule but continue on without him instead
- Fly to Florida and spend the night
- Drive and park on the wrong side of the river
- Freeze to death
- Break hydraulic on lift and spill oil all over catamaran’s bow
- Conduct the survey
- Order lunch from 2000 miles away
- Sail with dolphins at sunset
- End the sea trial on the opposite side of the river as your car
- Not be able to pay your surveyor for his work
- Have a drink and tell yourself buying a boat is fun
To read more about the typical survey process and some tips learned first hand, check out our Boat Basics “Marine Survey 101.”
