Pre-Purchase Marine Survey
A pre-purchase survey is the one piece of the buying process that exists purely to protect you. Everyone else in the transaction is paid when the boat sells. I am not.
The Survey Is Your Leverage
This is the only point in the transaction where you have any. Once you close, whatever is wrong with the boat is yours and it is your money that fixes it. Before you close, the same information is something you can act on — renegotiate the price, ask for the work to be done, or walk away.
That is the whole reason the survey happens before the money moves, and it is why it matters that the person doing it is not paid when the boat sells. How the boat was kept is part of what you are weighing before you close. Here is what maintained with an open checkbook actually means, and what I look for in a stack of service records.
What a Pre-Purchase Survey Covers
Top to bottom. Every cover comes off and every switch gets flipped.
The whole vessel, in a fixed order, every time. Process is what makes the outcome consistent, so the same inspection sequence runs whether the boat is a twenty-eight foot center console or a fifty foot trawler. The full list, area by area with the published standard each one is measured against, is on what a boat survey includes.
What changes from one boat to the next is not the inspection but where the findings land. There are separate notes on a sailboat survey, a sportfish survey and a trawler survey.
In the Water and Out of It
I will not do a pre-purchase survey without inspecting the bottom.
The boat gets looked at afloat and hauled. Skipping the haul-out leaves a large part of the hull unexamined, and the parts you cannot see from a dock are where the expensive problems live. A report with that hole in it is not the best work I can hand you, and I am not going to put my name on one.
Hull and Structure
Percussion and moisture testing on every structural component I can reach — transverse stringers, bulkheads, the deck surface, the hull sides and the bottom. Attention goes to the places that hide trouble: the foredeck around hardware, chainplate knees, transom corings, and anywhere water has had a route in.
Engines and Running Gear
A full visual inspection with my hands in the space, not a look through the hatch. I am looking for seawater, oil and coolant where none of them belong, and I shoot temperatures across the engine.
Oil analysis is an add-on on inboard engines. I do not sell it up front — if the oil was changed last week the sample tells us very little, and I would rather know it is going to earn its cost before you pay for it.
Electrical and Systems
AC and DC distribution against the ABYC electrical standards: overcurrent protection, conductor sizing, terminations, bonding and galvanic isolation. Then plumbing, tankage, ventilation and the gas or diesel fuel system.
This is the part I trained for specifically. Most of what fails expensively on a boat is downstream of somebody’s shortcut in a panel.
Safety Equipment and Compliance
Required equipment checked against USCG carriage requirements, with fire protection assessed against the relevant NFPA guidance. Expired flares and a dead extinguisher are cheap to fix and a bad surprise on the water.
The Trial Run
Where the vessel and the yard allow one, a trial run shows what a static inspection cannot: how the engines behave under load, whether the steering and shifting are right, what the running gear sounds like at speed, and whether anything leaks when the boat is working. Here is what happens during the trial run and how to prepare for it.
What You Receive
You get a PDF report with every finding tied to the component it came from and graded for how much it matters. Findings are ordered by priority, not by the order I happened to walk the boat. There are examples of how findings are written and graded on what my survey reports look like.
Photographs throughout, and marked up where a photo alone would not make it obvious — an arrow on the crack, a box around the corroded terminal. Overall condition shots of the vessel, and a few glamour shots too. You are buying a boat, not a defect list.
It includes a fair market value for the vessel.
Even a boat that would go on to sell with very little negotiation over the findings still comes back with a long list. The number of findings is not what tells you about the boat — the grades are. If something is wrong I am going to tell you, and the grade is what tells you whether it is a reason to reopen the price, a job for next winter, or a light bulb.
A — this has to be dealt with.
Dangerous to the vessel or the people aboard, or a major system that is deficient. A blown engine is an A. So is a cracked stringer. So is an expired fire extinguisher — small to fix, serious to be without.
B — deferred maintenance.
Systems not working the way they should, and either critical or expensive. Delamination on a chart plotter screen. Torn canvas. A leaking window. You can use the boat. You are going to want to deal with these.
C — practical.
A light out in the salon is usually a bulb. Not material to the condition or the value of the vessel, but you should still know about it.
Knowing When to Leave Something Alone
Thoroughness is the easy half. Judgment is the other one.
Say percussion readings come back sound, but the moisture meter shows elevated readings on a twenty-year-old deck. Does it make sense to tear that deck up and take core samples? Usually not. That is a monitor item — you know it is there, you keep an eye on it, and if it changes you can decide then whether core samples are worth the money.
Sending you off to spend thousands chasing something that did not need chasing is not thoroughness. It is a different way of getting it wrong.
How Long It Takes
Inspection time depends on the vessel’s size and complexity. Your report is delivered the next day. Not next week. Where a haul-out or trial run is involved, the clock starts once the inspection is finished, not when you book. A walk through the day itself, from the 8:30 start to the debrief, is in what the day of the survey actually looks like.
Booking a Pre-Purchase Survey
Call or email with the boat, its location, and your timeline. If you are still shopping and want to talk through a listing before you commit to a survey, ask. Walking buyers through that is part of the job, not an extra. If the boat is passing through rather than sitting in a local slip, say so when you call. Scheduling around a weather and bridge window is routine, and there is more on surveys for boats on the Intracoastal.
What Buyers Say
This is my 5th survey on a boat. This was by far the most comprehensive survey I've had done. Andrew is very thorough, extremely knowledgeable, and explains everything he does through the entire process. If I ever need another survey, this is the business I will call.
If you need a marine surveyor who treats your potential purchase like his own, hire Andrew. My wife and I were looking at a new left over boat that had been sitting on a dealer lot for three years and needed to know exactly what hidden issues we might face. Andrew didn't just give us a superficial write-up for insurance purposes; he handed us a meticulously detailed punch list that serves as my total restoration guide if we decide to buy the boat. Andrew has a unique gift for breaking down complex boat concerns and potential issues so they make perfect sense, no matter your experience level. He takes his time, never rushes you, and ensures you are fully educated. We highly recommend him!
There are more on the reviews page.