What the Day of the Survey Actually Looks Like

I get this question more than almost any other, usually from first-time buyers who haven’t gone through the process before.

Can you follow me around?

Yes. I get asked this a lot, and the answer is always the same: you’re paying for the time.

You’re more than welcome to follow me and learn something. If you want to know why I’m doing something and what it means, ask me. I’d be more than happy to explain it. I have an extra flashlight in my bag just for you.

We start early

I like an 8:30 start. Earlier is better than later, and the only thing that moves it is a short haul — yards generally want to do those between 10:30 and noon, so the day gets built around whatever slot we’re given.

I show up, we shake hands, kiss babies, do the introductions. Then I go to work.

Before we leave the dock

The first thing I do is confirm we have adequate safety gear aboard for the trial run and the trip over to the haul-out. That isn’t a formality. We’re taking a boat out that neither of us knows much about yet.

Then I go through the mechanicals. Engine, transmission, generator. Checking for leaks, fluid levels, anything obviously wrong. It’s the same check I do on my own boat before I leave the dock, for the same reason.

Once she’s running, I go back and look at the machinery again with everything turning, and I keep looking at it while we’re underway.

Why we don’t test anything on the way to the haul-out

People assume the trip to the yard is when the trial run happens. It isn’t, and there’s a good reason.

I’ve found too many propellers missing nuts. A missing prop nut is exactly the kind of thing that lets go during a hard back-down. I’ve also seen bottoms dirty enough to meaningfully change how a boat performs, which makes any performance numbers I take worthless.

So the transit over is just a transit. I want the boat hauled and cleaned first. If there’s a prop nut missing or a nut that isn’t torqued correctly, we find it and fix it on the hard, before anybody asks the boat to do anything strenuous.

Meanwhile, I’m going through the boat

From the moment I step aboard until we’re in the straps, I’m inspecting.

Every surveyor has their own style. Mine is to start at one end of the vessel and work to the other. I’m lifting mattresses, emptying lockers, pulling panels. If there’s a space I can get into to look at equipment, I’m getting into it. Bring a bag for whatever comes out of the lockers.

An hour or two on the hard

The boat goes up in the straps and the yard cleans the bottom. Everyone gathers around for the first real look underneath — this is the part of the day people enjoy.

It’s also the natural moment to replace anodes, and to fix anything we turned up on the running gear.

Two things have to dry before I can do my job. The bottom paint, because tapping wet paint with a percussion hammer can damage it. And the topsides, because a moisture meter will not read correctly through surface water.

So while I’m waiting, I work on what doesn’t care about moisture: propellers, shafts, struts, cutlass bearings, the rudder and its mounting. Most boats have a bonding system, so I’ll put a multimeter on it and check continuity between the anode and the underwater metals, looking for a break in the bonding wires.

By the time that’s done, she’s usually dry enough for the rest. Visual inspection for osmotic blisters, stress cracks, grounding damage. Then percussion testing the bottom.

The moisture meter question

I get asked this constantly: can you use a moisture meter on the bottom?

It depends. A moisture meter is really a conductivity meter — it infers moisture from resistance. Bottom paint contains copper and other conductive material, so on a painted bottom you’ll get a false positive every time. On a lift-stored boat with no bottom paint, I can absolutely use one.

On a painted bottom, percussion testing is what tells the story. On the topsides I do both — percussion testing and moisture readings.

Back in the water

Now we do the trial run, and this is where a boat tells you the truth about itself.

I want the generator running under load, so we put the air conditioning and the hot water heater and whatever else on it. I run the engine through its range in two- to four-hundred RPM increments all the way up to what it actually makes at wide open throttle — which is not always what the owner believes it makes.

While that’s happening I’m checking through-hulls for leakage, and shaft and rudder packing for the same. I want the boat turned hard over several times while I watch the rudder logs for leakage and play. I want a hard back-down so I can see whether the motor mounts move.

I’ll shoot temperatures with a pyrometer under different conditions — water going into the coolers, water coming out. I’m looking for exhaust fumes in the coolant reservoir, and watching the crankcase vent for smoke. Smoke there means blow-by: worn rings letting exhaust gas past into the crankcase.

On a sailboat, this is also when the sails go up. I inspect the rigging at deck level, look over the sailing equipment, and we go for a short sail. I pay particular attention to furling systems. I have seen a lot of in-mast and in-boom furling rigged incorrectly, and you don’t discover it until the sail is going up.

Back at the dock

By the time we tie up, I’ve hopefully flipped every switch on the boat, tested it, and documented the condition of everything I can reach. Whatever’s left, I finish at the dock.

That covers the electronics and the radar, the AC and DC electrical systems, the galvanic isolator, the inverter, the hot water heater. Fuel system grounding. Steering, at every helm station on the boat, checked for leakage and for throttle response. Structural work inside — stringers, transverses, bulkheads, the inside of the transom, the rudder packing logs — percussion tested and moisture read.

What’s usually left is percussion testing and moisture readings on the decks. Then we’re done with the boat.

None of that is a comprehensive list, and I haven’t listed out every item above. Equipment varies enormously from boat to boat, and depending on the vessel there can be well over six hundred individual items on my inspection list.

The debrief

Then we sit down and talk about what I found.

Some clients prefer to do this in private. Others want the conversation out in the open with every stakeholder involved. It’s your call. I will not talk to anyone else about the survey unless you tell me to.

The day is a data-gathering exercise

This is what I tell every customer. Survey day is about collecting information, not finishing the analysis.

Some things are obviously wrong and I’ll tell you on the spot. Others come together afterward — a series of context clues, or reviewing photos I took in a space I couldn’t actually see into and only had room to stick a camera in.

Lastly, bring snacks

It’s going to be a long day. Access to food and water is limited. Personally I don’t like eating during a survey because I’m too focused on the task at hand, but that isn’t everybody.

Most yards are remote. There may be a store with a power bar and bottled water, but not much else. Plan on a good six hours or more.