am i clutching at straws

[cem]

i posted this over on sports boat forum but though i would ask here as well to get some more opinions....when we bought our boat, in may 2011 we had a survey done on the engine, came back as the risers were a little hot but absolutely no other issues, we currently have a pretty major engine issue which has been caused by a long term problem which possibly should have been picked up by the surveyor, but to cap this we are discovering various botches which had we known about them would have lead us to not go near the boat.

do i have any recourse against the surveyor? and if so how would i go about starting such an event



help

 

[hlb]

Where's the sports oat forum??

 

[cem]

as in sportsboat.co.uk rather than a sports boat forum on YBW

 

[Nick_H]

Have you spoken to the surveyor? Is he a member of the YDSA? If so, and you feel he did a bad job, and you're not satisfied with his response, you should contact them.

 

[sarabande]

much depends on the detail of the survey that was written for you, and importantly, the intensity of the survey that was required. e.g. was the surveyor told (or said he would) test the individual cylinders for compression. After 2 years, it can hardly be the surveyor's fault if a hose splits or an alternator fails. If, however, there is a weld across the cylinder block, or a seam of araldite under the gearbox, then that may be another matter.

You need to check the surveyor's terms and conditions, and details of his membership of professional bodies. Write down in a non-contentious way the main issues, ask him to comment on them in detail, send by recorded delivery. Before hitting him with a professional body complaint, you must give him a chance to put his side of the affair.


In the meantime assemble all the paperwork about the servicing you have done, additional surveys, any breakdowns, etc, so that the paper trail is complete.

Finally, I'd remove the the last sentence in your post. That will not help, and is on the verge of being illegal. Despite the irritation you presently feel, you must be dispassionate and cool.

 

[cem]

Have you spoken to the surveyor? Is he a member of the YDSA? If so, and you feel he did a bad job, and you're not satisfied with his response, you should contact them.

not as yet, i need to dig out the report and go from there, but my gut feeling is i am probably wasting my time, any good news stories like this welcomed, right now i am about to start pouring money into something which i am not sure can be fixed

 

[oldgit]

"we currently have a pretty major engine issue ..... various botches which had we known about them would have lead us to not go near the boat."


A scenerio that 90% of boat owners will nod their head sagely at and bring back some painful and expensive memories.
Personally think you need to decide as to if you wish to go down the path of chasing the surveyor with all the time and expense that will be involved or bite the bullet and get the boat fixed.
Presume it is an engine failure of some sort and maybe youve be quoted some horrible price by the local authorised agent.
There are indendent companies around who can usually do a perfectly decent job at a sensible price that does not involve replacing everything with an item that has a Mercruiser label attached.

 

[deuc02]

Chasing the surveyor - waste of time - they all have the disclaimer at the start or end of the report. Does make you wonder what their use in life is.

 

[cem]

thanks guys, kind of thought that would be the case

the price we are getting could be worse, we need 2 new heads, 1 piston, a sump, a complete exhaust system, a transom plate and to put it all back together

the head is no longer available as a re-manufactured part so if we buy new it whacks the cost up... so best deal right now is a re man long block which at least will give us the comfort of knowing that it shouldn't go wrong (famous last words) and we have a 1 year warranty on those bits and we can sell the old engine for parts as there are some good bits still on it

yup pricey, but having spoken with a few people it is either pay up and do this or get shot of the boat with a duff engine and someone else gets to enjoy my toy after they spend the money

the rest of the boat is solid so i better work a few more hours

 

[cem]

Chasing the surveyor - waste of time - they all have the disclaimer at the start or end of the report. Does make you wonder what their use in life is.

i was just wondering the same thing

 

[volvopaul]

As your survey was 2011 you won't have any recourse on the surveyor but tell me this,

Did you have the engine winterised, is it kept in the water or on a trailer and what make and model is it?

Rotten risers or not which sounds the case , 2 years and counting is probably half the life of salt water cooled parts anyway.

Did you know that you can flush out with fresh water to protect you engine etc?

Have you hadit serviced by a pro engineer or company, they should have advised you on ongoing problems and preventative maintainance schedules , sounds like something's missing if the sumps rotten as well.

 

[cem]

As your survey was 2011 you won't have any recourse on the surveyor but tell me this,

Did you have the engine winterised, is it kept in the water or on a trailer and what make and model is it?

Rotten risers or not which sounds the case , 2 years and counting is probably half the life of salt water cooled parts anyway.

Did you know that you can flush out with fresh water to protect you engine etc?

Have you had it serviced by a pro engineer or company, they should have advised you on ongoing problems and preventative maintainance schedules , sounds like something's missing if the sumps rotten as well.

hi Paul, 50l V8 mercruiser it is winterised each year, lives on a dry stack and the information we were given was that the risers had been replaced the year before we bought it.... now the whole thing is in bits it looks like they may even be the originals (2000) which had been re painted, and the heads had been off for some reason in the past as they had been marked up

i guess the really annoying bit is that if the surveyor had pointed out the badly welded plate on the base of the sump... you can feel it as it is where the drain plug is then i would have been very suspicious and not bought the boat

lesson learnt, currently looking at a re-manufactured long block new exhausts (complete) and a new transom plate as this has rotted badly and may as well be replaced while the engine is out

gets serviced at the start of each season, never missed a beat until this year when the back firing and stuttering started, one valve is corroded to less than 50% normal thickness (so will be getting cast in resin as a souvenir)

 

[Fantasie 19]

Have you spoken to the surveyor? Is he a member of the YDSA? If so, and you feel he did a bad job, and you're not satisfied with his response, you should contact them.

Over 2 years after the event???? Is he still liable??

 

[Jim@sea]

You have a year 2000 Boat with an engine which has had a cock-up repair which has not lasted.
At some time in the future you are going to want to sell the boat and what you do now could make your boat difficult to sell.
I would try and get a Reconditioned Full Engine. I wont say regardless of price but I would try and change the entire lump.
Spray it red, or white, or black before it goes in and when you come to sell the fact you have had a new engine will sell it.

 

[rbcoomer]

For the sump and the transom plate to have rotted it sounds like the bilge was awash with saltwater at some stage in the past. There are much older engines out there that have been kept on the water and not rotted like this. I'd use the opportunity of the engine being lifted out to look very carefully at everything else - I'm sure you don't want to look for problems, but I think I'd rather know than not! If you're feeling brave, Google "Frisco Jarretts Sea Ray". This guy's done a whole series of inspirational video's and a blog on a couple of Sea Ray rebuilds - might provide some useful tips on things to look for/check. Hope you get in sorted anyway and for what it's worth, I'd probably do the re-manufactured route too.

Edit: http://friscoboater1995searay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/rebuild-begins.html

 

[Croak]

So you can get insurance.

 

[volvopaul]

hi Paul, 50l V8 mercruiser it is winterised each year, lives on a dry stack and the information we were given was that the risers had been replaced the year before we bought it.... now the whole thing is in bits it looks like they may even be the originals (2000) which had been re painted, and the heads had been off for some reason in the past as they had been marked up

i guess the really annoying bit is that if the surveyor had pointed out the badly welded plate on the base of the sump... you can feel it as it is where the drain plug is then i would have been very suspicious and not bought the boat

lesson learnt, currently looking at a re-manufactured long block new exhausts (complete) and a new transom plate as this has rotted badly and may as well be replaced while the engine is out

gets serviced at the start of each season, never missed a beat until this year when the back firing and stuttering started, one valve is corroded to less than 50% normal thickness (so will be getting cast in resin as a souvenir)

If you read your surveyors terms you will find they don't really cover any mechanic issues in or after the event, they simply take a quick look, I recently saved a buyer over £7k on a purchase that needed a new sump on a Volvo due to water sitting in the sump, if you want some peace of mind when buying a boat take a marine engineer to inspect and sea trial the boat prior to purchase at least it gets looked at from an engineers point of view as if he was looking for work not to make money from merely writing a report afterwards with little knowledge of a particular make of engine and all its little glitches a particular make and model has, gained by years of experience actually working on and making repairs to the same model over years.

Quite rightly had this surveyor seen the plate and the "tide mark" in the bilge he should have deduced water present at some time in its life which leads to the problems you now have.