Any recommendations for boat surveyor in South/Central Florida?

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

A chick marine surveyor......well, why not !!
Will likely do a good job, chicks like to poke their nose into every little thing.
Curious by nature.

Would love to see a response from you after the survey is complete.

Nice to see sexism is alive and well.

[MicHughV]

not the slightest....my wife can do anything I can...but probably twice as quick and three times better...so I just step aside....

[Catboat Willy]

Don't forget that if that boat is over 30 years old in Florida- your Florida registration is that of an 'antique' vessel - at a greatly reduced rate. ..like $7.50.
de....W2CWL

[MicHughV]

well ????

[pianopraze]

Well the chainplates were twisted and almost ripped out in places, on the outside. ON the inside they are encased in fiberglass — where the fiberglass was rotted away you could see they were rusted. The stays were at the end almost ready to fall out. Looking in every cabinet inside you could see water ingress. The engine was freshly spray painted... the entire thing over every part. I touched it once and things started falling apart. The pictures did not resemble the real condition inside. The generator was in a little inaccessible hole but looked good. The deck would have to have to be replaced. The cabin sole would have to be completely replaced. I could go on and on... in short I would have to tear out almost everything and rebuild it. Entirely too much work for me. I almost cried. The broker said he had someone fly in from I think Colorado who said the exact same thing.

I would have to put it on a tractor trailer and hall it to the Marina I wanted it at. So I just walked away. No way I could sail it there.

I went to said marina, and there was a Pearson 34 for in excellent shape for less money and my wife said "BUY IT!" ... so I'm having surveyor survey it tomorrow at 10am. You can see it if you search facebook St Augustine sailboats.

It's in condition to sail today. It's in the marina I want. It has the perfect amount of space/size we were looking for.

I am heart broken over the formosa, but very happy with the Pearson.

[GreenWave]

What a wreck. Sorry to hear about that but sounds like fortune found you a Plan B.

[pianopraze]

Owner put the boat on Pending so it doesn't show up when you do general search anymore.

Here is direct link: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...88273985094164

[MicHughV]

wow, double wow....yeah, a boat like that will never sell, surprised it is even listed, considering the description you've just said. I was curious about the low price, but now I see why.
But glad you had the knowledge to walk away from it. A freshly painted engine is always a dead giveaway.
I know from hard experience that trying to rebuild an older boat is a lot more difficult than building one from scratch.
Well, on the plus side, when one door closed another opened. Hope to hear about a good survey report.

[pianopraze]

It was a bad survey report. We stopped at about 2 hours in when the cost of repairs had exceeded the buying price of the boat.

Huge Catalina Smile. Rusted back engine mounts. Chainplate had crack. Chainplates rusted bolts. Keel loose, never packed. One bad through hull. Couple of bad spots on bottom. Lots of water in the top deck. Mast seal cracked water going strait in. I don't remember what all, I was in shock. Wife was in tears.

I wouldn't mind a lot of the repairs in a smaller 5000 dollar boat i could pay cash, but in a 20k boat I'm financing, having to put 20-30k plus....

Owner was very upset. Disparaged surveyor and said get the older more experienced surveyors who I've tried to get and either wouldn't even return phone/email or strait up said 4 week plus and no new customers accepted.

I will say, I will never buy a boat without a survey. Yesterday looking we were in love and could not see anything wrong. Talk about a shock today. 200 dollars (charging by the hour) saved us bankrupting ourselves.

Was a real eye opening experience. This was the nicest boat we had ever looked at.

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by pianopraze

It was a bad survey report. We stopped at about 2 hours in when the cost of repairs had exceeded the buying price of the boat.

Huge Catalina Smile. Rusted back engine mounts. Chainplate had crack. Chainplates rusted bolts. Keel loose, never packed. One bad through hull. Couple of bad spots on bottom. Lots of water in the top deck. Mast seal cracked water going strait in. I don't remember what all, I was in shock. Wife was in tears.

I wouldn't mind a lot of the repairs in a smaller 5000 dollar boat i could pay cash, but in a 20k boat I'm financing, having to put 20-30k plus....

Owner was very upset. Disparaged surveyor and said get the older more experienced surveyors who I've tried to get and either wouldn't even return phone/email or strait up said 4 week plus and no new customers accepted.

I will say, I will never buy a boat without a survey. Yesterday looking we were in love and could not see anything wrong. Talk about a shock today. 200 dollars (charging by the hour) saved us bankrupting ourselves.

Was a real eye opening experience. This was the nicest boat we had ever looked at.

So is the above the story on the first boat (Formosa)?


What happened with the Pearson that you found?

[pianopraze]

That was the Pearson 34 survey.

The formosa was so bad I didn’t even get survey.

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by pianopraze

That was the Pearson 34 survey.

The formosa was so bad I didn’t even get survey.

double wow you aren't having much luck.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by pianopraze

That was the Pearson 34 survey.

The formosa was so bad I didn’t even get survey.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but until you start looking in the $50k range you'll not have much luck finding anything that doesn't need a butt load of work. The boats you've looked are cheap for a reason, they need a massive amount of work. This could explain why you can't find a surveyor as they don't want to waste time on boats that will probably fail the survey. It also gives you a good education about why on going maintenance is so critical when you do find your boat - Good Luck.

[ElJefe]

Jonathon Sands is the best surveyor I have ever used, extremely through and very detail oriented. A+++
He is also a Marine Architect and a great guy!
jsands@catchek.co
(800) 539-0810

[Rick1]

We just purchased a 2007 Cruisers Yachts 340. We were extremely pleased with the surveyor and the survey. Try https://www.stemtosternsurvey.com/
The guys name is Butch Immediato.