Surveyor in Washington (Seattle / Anacortes / Bellingham)

[Mithril Bham]

I was in the same situation once and chose another surveyor because Matt was unavailable. Bad decision. Take the time and use the best.

[rvoigt40]

Steve Berg, AMS®
SAMS® Accredited Marine Surveyor
1004 Commercial Ave., #354
Anacortes, WA 98221
360 301-6879

[LTDsailing]

I would recommend John Baird. He is based a bit south of you - but if I was buying a boat in the Seattle area I would definitely want him to do the survey.


Here is John's email: jbairdv5@msn.com

[Xthewater]

We have used Alison Mazon a couple times here in Portland and she's very good also travels. She's had some health issues a few weeks back so not sure she's available.
DO NOT use her sidekick "associate" Pat. He's a real piece of work.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by LTDsailing

I would recommend John Baird. He is based a bit south of you - but if I was buying a boat in the Seattle area I would definitely want him to do the survey.


Here is John's email: jbairdv5@msn.com

I can second Chris's recommendation of John Baird.

John did the survey for my prior boat.

Earlier in this thread I recommended Wayne Gilham because when I contacted John in early 2014 to perform the survey on my present vessel, he indicated he wasn't doing surveys at that time and he highly recommended Wayne.

John is also great and worth considering if he is surveying again. As I recall, he specializes in commercial vessel surveys, but does sailboats as well.

Cheers!

Bill

[Tantramar]

Try Steve Berg. Qualified, competent and operates out of Annacortes. bergmarinesurveys.com

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by basssears

Thanks for all the replies. I can actually personally attest to Alain Vilage, he did a survey for us this spring and *really* saved us from a bad boat. He's very careful and very knowledgeable, and a fun guy in a curmudgeonly sort of way ;-)

I was thinking travel from Port Townsend to Anacortes would be a non-starter but maybe I should rethink.

-- Bass

The only real sticking point in this trip, is setting things up so that your timing is right for the ferry between Port Townsend, & Whidby Island. As on some days, the last ferry isn't very late in the day.
That, & you, on occassion, have to pay attention to the weather & the tides. As either, or both, can force them to cancel the runs sometimes.

[Eder]

I used

Yacht Surveyor & Consultant
Erik Bentzen, AMS® Specialty:Y&SC
6535 Seaview Ave., NW, Unit #205 B, Seattle WA 98117
206-329-4459

to help with my purchase of my IP460. He did an excellent job...going so far as to help me sail the boat to Sidney, BC after I bought it.

Tell him I said Hi!

[basssears]

Thanks all for the input... have secured the services of Wayne Gilham out of Tacoma, I will add to this thread how it went (for other people's future reference) once the survey has been done.



-- Bass

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Captainpuget, and Tantramar.

[Mithril Bham]

Lot's of good info. Guess, after 50 years of using surveyors, I got set in my ways. Will keep this list.
Thanks

[basssears]

Follow up post, so it's here for others who might search on the same thing.



We did use Wayne Gilham (flowdesignsurvey.com) out of Tacoma and were very pleased with him. He seemed extremely knowledgeable, answered our questions very patiently (we're moving up from much smaller boats so there are some basic questions we had that weren't necessarily specific to this boat that he was very patient in answering) and had some good basic recommendations that I think would be useful to anyone (brands of good hose clamps etc.). I also felt he understood the type/age of boat he was surveying and made his recommendations accordingly... in other words, he didn't hold our 30 year old production coastal cruiser to 1 year old ocean voyager standards, but he didn't gloss over things that were serious / safety issues either.



As I had been lead to expect from a good survey, we found out the basics of how the boat surveyed before we left that day so we knew his general feelings, when the written survey came to us there were no surprises we didn't already know about, but the written itself was also very detailed and will certainly make a useful document going forward as we fix some of the, err, issues that this boat has.



And, it's worth noting, while I am generally of the same theory about surveyors as doctors - I don't care if he's an a**hole as long as he's the best at what he does - Wayne is in fact an extremely pleasant guy and entertaining to hang out with.



-- Bass

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by basssears

Follow up post, so it's here for others who might search on the same thing.



We did use Wayne Gilham (flowdesignsurvey.com) out of Tacoma and were very pleased with him. He seemed extremely knowledgeable, answered our questions very patiently (we're moving up from much smaller boats so there are some basic questions we had that weren't necessarily specific to this boat that he was very patient in answering) and had some good basic recommendations that I think would be useful to anyone (brands of good hose clamps etc.). I also felt he understood the type/age of boat he was surveying and made his recommendations accordingly... in other words, he didn't hold our 30 year old production coastal cruiser to 1 year old ocean voyager standards, but he didn't gloss over things that were serious / safety issues either.



As I had been lead to expect from a good survey, we found out the basics of how the boat surveyed before we left that day so we knew his general feelings, when the written survey came to us there were no surprises we didn't already know about, but the written itself was also very detailed and will certainly make a useful document going forward as we fix some of the, err, issues that this boat has.



And, it's worth noting, while I am generally of the same theory about surveyors as doctors - I don't care if he's an a**hole as long as he's the best at what he does - Wayne is in fact an extremely pleasant guy and entertaining to hang out with.



-- Bass

Bass,

Thanks for taking the time to post your follow-up.

I'm glad Wayne worked out for you and that you were happy with his efforts.

It is for the same reasons I didn't hesitate to recommend him earlier in this thread.

Congratulations, and have fun with your new boat!

Cheers!

Bill

[Sailor89]

Has anyone ever used Steve Hayes with Salish Nautical Services?