The Survey, and Who to Call
What a pre-purchase survey covers, what it costs, and how to read what comes back . Then the hull surveyors, engine surveyors and haul-out yards we put buyers on to. Nobody pays to be on that list.
Why it is yours and not theirs
One Inspection, Four Parts
A pre-purchase condition and valuation survey is an independent inspection you commission, you pay for and you own. That last part matters: the report goes to you, not to the seller, and your lender and your insurer will both want to see it before they will do anything. It is also the document that turns an asking price into a negotiation.
- 01
Out of the water
Half a day at the yard · charged by the foot
You cannot survey a bottom in the water, so she is hauled, and the yard bills you, not the seller, on top of the surveyor's fee. It is charged by the foot with a minimum most yards will not go below. What it buys is the half of the boat nobody photographs: blistering and osmosis, stress cracks, keel and rudder bearings, shafts, struts, props, through-hulls, transducers and the state of the bottom paint, with a moisture meter and, on an older hull, an ultrasonic thickness gauge.
Worth doingBook the lift early. The travel-lift slot, not the surveyor, is what sets the date, and this is the most revealing hour of the whole process, so be there for it if you are there for nothing else.
- 02
Alongside
Three to five hours
Engine room, electrical, plumbing, fuel and steering systems, deck hardware, hatches and glazing, tankage, safety equipment and its dates, and every piece of electronics switched on and worked. Access panels come up; a surveyor who does not lift them is not surveying.
Worth doingAsk what could not be reached. What a survey does not cover is as useful to you as what it does.
- 03
Engines and gear
Two to three hours, separately
A hull surveyor is not an engine surveyor and the good ones say so. A diesel mechanic runs compression or borescope checks, pulls fault codes, and takes oil and coolant samples for laboratory analysis on the mains, the gears and the generators.
Worth doingThe oil analysis comes back after the report and has ended more deals than any other single document. Do not skip it to save a few hundred dollars.
- 04
Sea trial
Two hours, on the water
Temperatures, oil pressure, RPM against the book at each throttle setting, wide-open-throttle for long enough to matter, handling, tracking, steering and trim. Vibration, smoke, and how she behaves coming off plane. Out of Port Everglades and into some real water, not a lap of the basin.
Worth doingIf she will not make rated WOT RPM, something is wrong. Fouled bottom, tired engines, or the wrong props. Find out which before you close.
Who to call
Surveyors and Yards
People we have worked alongside on real transactions in South Florida. Choose your own, the report only means something if the surveyor is yours, but start somewhere, and start with somebody who has been under a boat like yours.
Nobody pays to be listed and we take no fee from anyone on it, which is the only reason the list is worth reading. Each firm is engaged by you directly, and their work and their invoices are between you and them.
- Hull survey
Allied Marine Surveyor
Peter Muir
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (561) 445-1666
- Hull survey
Clayton Marine Surveyors
Jack Clayton
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (954) 247-8338
- Hull survey
Coast 2 Coast Marine Surveyors
Leloni
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (407) 416-0970
- Hull survey
Elite Marine Surveyors
Simon Bridgewood
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FLCovers World wide
- Phone
- (954) 643-6059
- Hull survey
Florida Nautical Surveyors
Malcom
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (954) 801-2140
- Hull survey
Jones Marine Surveyors
Matt Jones
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (954) 791-6224
- Hull survey
Marc Slakoff & Associates
Marc Slakoff
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (954) 525-7930
- Hull survey
Marine Surveyor Group
Baron Rohl
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (954) 306-9660
- Hull survey
Spyglass Marine Services
MATHEW NADELL
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Phone
- (617) 823-4877
- Hull survey
World Wide Yacht Surveyors
Chris Pliske
- Where
- Fort Lauderdale, FLCovers The travel
- Phone
- (305) 342-1893
The bill
What It Costs
| Condition and valuation surveyA 60-footer is roughly $1,500 to $2,100. Yours, and so is the report. | $25 to $35 per foot |
|---|---|
| Minimum day rateOn a small boat the per-foot arithmetic stops applying: she still takes a surveyor most of a day once travel is counted, so they charge a minimum instead. Ask what theirs is before you book. | On smaller boats |
| Haul-out and blockingYards charge per foot to lift and block her, and nearly all of them set a minimum, so a small boat costs more per foot than a big one. Roughly $400 to $1,200 for a haul, splash and a short block. Lay days are extra if she stays on the hard. | By the foot, min. applies |
| Engine surveyTwo mains and two generators is the upper end. | $800 to $2,500 |
| Oil and coolant analysisPer sample set, laboratory turnaround three to five days. | $150 to $400 |
| Sea trialFuel is the seller's on most deals. | Usually no extra fee |
You pay for all of it whether you buy the boat or walk away from her. That is what independence costs, and it is cheap against the thing it finds. On a smaller boat expect the minimum day rate rather than the per-foot figure, a thirty-footer takes the same morning as a fifty, and the surveyor still has to drive to her.
The report
How to Read the Findings
Every boat surveys with findings. A report is not a pass or a fail, it is a list, and the work is sorting it into three piles.
- Safety and compliance
- Gas or fuel system faults, bad wiring, out-of-date liferaft and extinguishers, non-compliant LPG. Your insurer will hold you to these.
- Ask for them done before closing, at the seller's cost. They are not negotiable and both brokers know it.
- Will fail this season
- Tired batteries, weeping seals, a generator near its hours, canvas at the end, cutless bearings, a hull with high moisture readings in one area.
- Price them properly and ask for the money off. This is where the survey pays for itself several times over.
- Ordinary for her age
- Cosmetic gelcoat, small deck crazing, a switch that sticks, the list any fifteen-year-old boat carries.
- Let them go. A buyer who fights over every line loses the deal and the goodwill they need at closing.
Reading a Report This Week?
Send it over. We have read a great many of them and we will tell you which findings are ordinary for a boat of that age and yard, and which are the ones to put a number against, or to walk away from.