Many of us on Stemit have made enough money to buy a yacht...and if you choose to buy one that's more than 10 years old, you'll "likely" be asked to have someone perform a marine survey. So, since that's what I do..... I'll help you understand what's happening and why it benefits you....
There are several reasons why surveyors exist, we call these reasons "types of surveys."
Survey types:
Pre-purchase or pre-sale.
Insurance
Finance
What's the value?
Pre-purchase is when you're buying the boat and want someone "not" associated with the sale to look the boat over and ensure the deficiencies are known in advance of the sale.
Pre-sale is when an owner is covering their * because selling a boat to someone that later sinks it could expose the seller to a lawsuit.
Insurance is when the company wants to make sure the boat isn't going to burn up, blow up or sink...and they want to know how much they should insure it for.
Finance is much the same as insurance but with more emphasis on the value.... companies are loaning up to 95% of the sale price in today's market (2017) and they're kind of freaky about ending up under water in their loan. (pun intended)
"What's the value" involves estate planning but can extend into needing the value for a divorce, or tax donation purposes, etc..
So, in a nutshell, a surveyor is an independent set of eyes that does a detailed exam of the vessel. They look for things that would cause it to burn up, blow up or sink.... and they use subscription based reporting websites to determine if the boat is appropriately priced.
Hope that helps....and yes, I do travel to look at yachts. There are only 800ish of us here in the United States and only 2 schools on the planet that teach classes on how to examine yachts. (Chapman School of Seamanship)
Hope that helps. I can be contacted directly at (6600 341-1234 and you can view my website at: www.BolzMarineSurvey.com
