How to prepare for a boat survey

A survey is the most important day of a boat purchase, and most of it is decided before the surveyor arrives. We’ve been through surveys on two big trawlers. These are the steps we follow now.

Sign first, then survey

On a private sale with no broker, get the purchase agreement signed before you pay for a haul-out and survey (hopefully that is obvious, but pressure and excitement can lead to stupid decisions). The contract should give you a firm accept-or-reject date, so work backwards from it:

• Booking surveyors and a yard takes ~1 to 2 weeks.
• Survey reports take 3 to 5 business days.
• Oil analysis results take 2 to 4 days.
• Repair quotes take another 3 to 4 days.

If those don’t fit before your deadline, extend the deadline in writing now, not later.

Hire two specialists, and hire them yourself

We hire an engine surveyor and a hull surveyor separately:

• Engine and sea trial: a marine diesel specialist who knows your engine make. For our Caterpillar 3208s, that meant a Cat-experienced surveyor who includes oil analysis.
• Hull and systems: a surveyor who writes a pre-purchase condition and valuation (C&V) survey.

A few rules we follow:

• Ask your insurer which credentials it accepts before you hire. Most accept only SAMS AMS or NAMS CMS surveyors. Check the official roster; some organizations list associate members alongside full members.
• Ask for a “pre-purchase condition and valuation survey” by name. If the report doesn’t meet the underwriter’s requirements, you pay for a second survey.
• Use survey-only engine people where you can. If the surveyor also runs a repair shop, send repair quoting elsewhere and say so up front.
• Ask for referrals without naming the boat. No name, price or hull number in the request.

Do the engines first

Our hull surveyor’s advice was simple: if the engine survey comes back good, the hull and systems in many cases likely will too…pride of ownership in one area, typically extends…but not always. We structured our contract around that. The engine survey and sea trial come first, and we can stop there if the engines fail, before paying for a haul-out.

Bring a sea trial card

We print a one-page (paper, or digital in our case) version with the numbers that matter for our engines (per the manufacturer):

• Both engines reach rated rpm under load.
• Port and starboard within about 50 rpm (100 rpm worst case) of each other.
• Steady coolant temperature after five minutes at wide-open throttle.

We bring an infrared thermometer, a digital laser measure and a 25’ tape measure (for measuring things important to us: bridge clearance, boat deck space, etc.). We also check that the throttle actually reaches full fuel. A fouled bottom can also hold down top rpm, so know when the boat was last cleaned before you blame the engines.

A sea trial that gets cut short evaluates nothing. If something ends the trial early, insist on a second one.

Prepare the yard

• Blocking instructions. Some hulls need specific support. Our model’s cored hull needs evenly shimmed keel blocks and at least six stands per side. Owners of our model have lost boats to bad hauls. Send the yard written instructions.
• Check the lift’s sling width against your beam.
• Get the surveyor’s insurance certificate to the yard early. Many yards require it, it takes days to produce, and it’s the most common day-of problem. Some boat yards can be very challenging to work with…ask me how I know.

Pick the right day

Survey midweek. On Mondays, lift schedules slip. On Saturdays, yard crews are off and oil samples sit until the lab opens. Book a rain date and a backup date in the same email or call if possible.

On the day

Our run sheet: cold start, dockside inspection, an hour or more with the seller on the boat’s history, sea trial, hot oil samples, haul-out, then a verbal debrief from the surveyors the same afternoon. Ask for that debrief; it’s the fastest way to decide your next step.

Don’t crowd the boat. Let the surveyors work, and keep your questions for the debrief.

After the survey

• Check the report against what you know. Surveyors make mistakes. One report we received undercounted fuel tanks and got both generators wrong.
• Never accept the boat until every survey item has a price. A conditional acceptance is only a proposal, and your deadline keeps running. Even if you are not asking the seller to repair or replace items found during survey, understanding clearly what you may want or need to do is important to fully understand what you may be up against.
• Send the seller the repair list, not the report. The survey belongs to you. Just remember, at least on used and older boats, you should expect to have to deal with many boat projects and delayed maintenance items and you should budget for that.
• Keep your reaction to yourself. If the engines look better than you expected, the seller doesn’t need to know that during negotiation.

The survey costs are spent either way. On our contract, if we walk away, the deposit comes back less those costs. That’s the price of knowing what you’re buying. I strongly recommend this, do not buy without one.