Boat history check

Furball

Furball

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30 Jan 2010
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Portishead
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Can anyone recommend a site for checking the history of a boat. I am about to buy a boat with a part 1 registration and the surveyor tells me that this boat has taken on water in it's past, apart from checking there is no finance outstanding I want to find out if there is any serious problems in it's past, eg, partial sinking or something.
 
There's no such site that will give you this info. Best bet is to tell us the name of the boat and see if someone on here knows anything about it. You can always ask for responses via PM. You'll also struggle getting watertight confirmation that there is such finance on the boat (excuse he pun).

Pete
 
Furball said:
Can anyone recommend a site for checking the history of a boat. I am about to buy a boat with a part 1 registration and the surveyor tells me that this boat has taken on water in it's past, apart from checking there is no finance outstanding I want to find out if there is any serious problems in it's past, eg, partial sinking or something.
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If the boat has taken on water I would indeed want to know why and what was done subsequently to repair it. I would want to know who repaired the engines so I could talk to them independently to check that everything necessary had been done and no short cuts were taken.

I would also want assurance from the owner that all electrical wiring and appliances that had come into contact with sea water had indeed been replaced. To me there is a big difference to a boat hitting something at speed and sinking and one which took on water due to a sea cock failure for example ;)

If everything had been replaced or repaired properly then you could end up with mostly new components for 2nd hand prices. Obviously, if the seller was not up-front and open about the incident and I doubted their integrity I would look elsewhere.
 
The current owner tells me the it was from a leaking exhaust but was spotted by the marina when it had dropped 4" at the stern, the boat was then lifted and the leak repaired. My concern is he may be under estimating the situation, however the surveyor is checking everything out for me. What I would like to know is with like a car was it serious enough to have been written off by the insurance company, surely the is a way of checking this out.

And no this is not in Portishead !
 
Furball said:
What I would like to know is with like a car was it serious enough to have been written off by the insurance company, surely the is a way of checking this out.

And no this is not in Portishead !
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Well the boat I was thinking of sank so the engines were under water and the boat was beached.

It was repaired, which took a year and I doubt you would be able to tell. A surveyor would probably spot it though!!
 
Furball said:
Can anyone recommend a site for checking the history of a boat. I am about to buy a boat with a part 1 registration and the surveyor tells me that this boat has taken on water in it's past, apart from checking there is no finance outstanding I want to find out if there is any serious problems in it's past, eg, partial sinking or something.
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I would be even more careful. I once came unstuck with a boat. I will never again use a Boat Surveyor who the Brokerage or Boatyard selling the boat recommend. The boat you are trying to buy, is it unique, or are there similar boats for sale which have not had this water problem. I would certainly want to see the invoice for the work which was done. In my case I was buying a boat in the Channel Islands, "subject to survey" the Boat Broker suggested a Surveyor, and I had the survey done. Satisfactory, so I bought the boat. When I took possession, i noticed things which the survey missed, So I had another survey done by a Surveyor from another of the Channel Islands, who said that he had surveyed the boat 3 years before and there was "osmosis" and recommended that the hull be treated and painted. It turned out that my first surveyor "Worked For" (not with, FOR) the boatyard which painted the hull and their survey never mentioned that the hull had been painted. NOR DID THE OWNER, (mind you I did not ask him) so where work has been done, which is above and beyond routine servicing, I would excercise extreme caution. Boats are not selling at the moment and prices have dropped, for the right boat, I believe in paying over the odds, but with anything else, unless the price is really low, dont bother. There are thousands of unsold boats out there, just keep looking.
 
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Furball;3035597 What I would like to know is with like a car was it serious enough to have been written off by the insurance company said:
There is no mechanism because unlike cars there is no formal record of a boat's existence except for some on the Part 1 register - and as you know that only records ownership and any charges against the boat. There is no compulsion to insure a boat, no formal testing so no way of determining whether a boat should be "written off" or not after a claim.

It may well be in this case there was no insurance claim anyway, so you are reliant on the evidence of any repairs plus your surveyor's report if you go that far.
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Furball said:
The current owner tells me the it was from a leaking exhaust but was spotted by the marina when it had dropped 4" at the stern, the boat was then lifted and the leak repaired. My concern is he may be under estimating the situation, however the surveyor is checking everything out for me. What I would like to know is with like a car was it serious enough to have been written off by the insurance company, surely the is a way of checking this out.

And no this is not in Portishead !
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Well, your surveyor should be able to ascertain the true extent. From personal experience even quite short sea water exposure does dreadful things to wiring :(
 
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