Next Time I will Insist on a Sea Trial

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Jim@sea

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The trouble with being a clever sod like me is that one overrates ones ability to to spot faults and when buying a boat assumes that as people risk their lives in boats that a boat has had some maintenance and where there is a fault that it should have been mentioned.
Mind you with the boat I have just bought had I insisted on a sea trial it would have broken down as the fuel filter and sediment bowl were full of muck as was the bottom of the tank, in addition the 6" Rubber Exhaust Pipe was spewing out water inside the boat from a split in the rubber. And to get to it I have to dismantle the back of the boat to lift the diesel tank out to even be able to reach the clips which hold the rubber pipe to the exhaust outlet.
So what should I have done. Its easy to say buy a newer boat (this is 15) as the life expectancy of rubber exhaust pipes is limited. But the last boat I had was 20 when I bought it and I had it for 5 years and I had no trouble with it whatsoever.
I am probably more annoyed because I wanted to launch the boat tomorrow and dont look foward to another 2 or 3 days work, but thats the joy of boat ownership and if I couldent handle it I should get out of boat ownership.
 
Jim@sea said:
The trouble with being a clever sod like me is that one overrates ones ability to to spot faults and when buying a boat assumes that as people risk their lives in boats that a boat has had some maintenance and where there is a fault that it should have been mentioned.
Mind you with the boat I have just bought had I insisted on a sea trial it would have broken down as the fuel filter and sediment bowl were full of muck as was the bottom of the tank, in addition the 6" Rubber Exhaust Pipe was spewing out water inside the boat from a split in the rubber. And to get to it I have to dismantle the back of the boat to lift the diesel tank out to even be able to reach the clips which hold the rubber pipe to the exhaust outlet.
So what should I have done. Its easy to say buy a newer boat (this is 15) as the life expectancy of rubber exhaust pipes is limited. But the last boat I had was 20 when I bought it and I had it for 5 years and I had no trouble with it whatsoever.
I am probably more annoyed because I wanted to launch the boat tomorrow and dont look foward to another 2 or 3 days work, but thats the joy of boat ownership and if I couldent handle it I should get out of boat ownership.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, been there, done that & got the medal :(
 
Jim@sea said:
...
Mind you with the boat I have just bought had I insisted on a sea trial it would have broken down as the fuel filter and sediment bowl were full of muck as was the bottom of the tank, in addition the 6" Rubber Exhaust Pipe was spewing out water inside the boat from a split in the rubber. And to get to it I have to dismantle the back of the boat to lift the diesel tank out to even be able to reach the clips which hold the rubber pipe to the exhaust outlet.
Click to expand...

yes, but you can look at the bright side of things as well!
now you'll get the tank out, clean it properly AND replace the exhaust pipe ;)
I guess the tank is not full and hope it's not too large to handle!

good luck

V.
 
It is very rare for any new (to you) boat not to come up with a little suprise or two at some point in the first few months of ownership.Without literally pulling the boat to bits before buying it is impossible to cover every working item.Even spending money on hull surveys and engine oil checks can only give a useful idea of condition, not protect against every possibility of failure.
We have all been down the if only I had checked so and so road.......
Sounds as though its a bit of boating you will be missing rather than vast amounts of cash needed..
 
Whereas the boats that we sell are of course always in 100% perfect condition and will give the buyers no problems at all............


A mate in Hong Kong sold a vast black Buick to a Chinese gentleman who may just have had triad connections. Deal done, the buyer drove off from mate's appartment building. 100 yards down the road there was a little pop! and the engine burst into flames, followed a little later by a big whoof! as the fuel tank went up. Matey quickly refunded the cash!
 
Jim: If you had had a sea trial and those problems happened, would you have still bought the boat or would it have put you off? At least this way you have the boat you want and as others have said, any secondhand boat you buy will need work to bring it up to scratch.
 
beejay190 said:
With one or two exceptions, please.
Click to expand...
I was going to say that obviously forumites boats excepted, then I remembered HLBs cr4p locker:

wtf.jpg


:D
 
I did the whole sea trial thing...yep serviced last year :o(not according to my mechanic) all work done...yep:confused: (that will be why i needed new rams, new hydraulic hoses, a new starter motor and other little bits):mad: Anyhow the only thing the vendor was right about as that boating is expensive:eek: Dont begrudge it though...ahhh bliss:D Whenis it ever going to stop raining:confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
We had a sea trial and I took Mr Surveyor with us. All went well.

That was in February and so far we've replaced a cracked seacock (lift out required) and have removed a screwed up bit of paper blocking the air intake to the heater. Trouble is there's so much to go wrong with boats.
 
Me too!

We had a survey, sea trial and agreed the boat had been extremely well looked after. Only thing missing from the spec was a rope cutter...... Delivery trip from Amsterdam to Portsmouth and....firstly engine ran badly in thick fog in shipping lanes because it had picked up sediment from the bottom of the fuel tank....then once we had popped into Ramsgate to sort that....we caught a pot line off Brighton. Twisted and sprung the p bracket. Expensive job to excavate and rebuild it! (and we

Ah well, at least it's never dull and the good bits more than make up for the bad bits.

HM
 
Mate of mine bought a 30 yr old 40' trawler yacht without survey on the basis that the bloke was berthed near him and seemed like an honest bloke, and what could a surveyor find that he couldn't......

Quite a lot as it turned out... one rudder all but jammed, very iffy hydraulics that had been poorly modified leading to a total loss of steering in Newhaven harbour, (that was an 'interesting' morning.....!), several expensive issues with the (original) engines, iffy heating..... Cost of sorting many times what a survey would have cost and spotted.
 
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