Surveyor required

[EME]

..and for a boat not a house.

Do not tell anyone but it looks as if I've had an offer accepted on a S48, does anyone know and trust a surveyor (hull and engines) in the South Of France ( East rather tha West)?????

Everything crossed but looking OK

still waiting to get a boat

 

[byron]

Your secret is safe with me, I just hope and pray none of the other reguars read your message.
I know a good Surveyor but he's UK but will travel.

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.freeware.mcmail.com/435.htm>http://www.freeware.mcmail.com/435.htm</A>[/b]

 

[EME]

Byron...it may well be a reality that I have to ship someone out if someone doesn't know anybody locally. I have a mate who lives in Gib/Spain ( we shared a YM practical together)..however Nice is a difficult destination for him and he doesn't want to rip me off based upon an awkward itinerary...

I assume your mate good..(stupid question, please withdraw the thought)

still waiting to get a boat

 

[jfm]

Re: UK Surveyor

Learner, I'd get a uk surveyor and pay his airfare out there. Most use easyjet, not BA Club. Point is, you will get someone who knows Sealines, and if anything goes wrong you are much better off with a UK surveyor operating under UK law with UK professional indemnity cover. If you got a local, you would find it very difficult to pursue him if all went wrong. So worht a few hundred £££ imho

 

[MapisM]

Surveyor required: are you sure?

Isn't the S48 a pretty new model?
With very young boats, the major risk is that they were used for shows, sea trials, etc.
Which COULD (not necessarily does) mean less care in usage - i.e.:
- scratches in and out (not very worrying, and very easy to find)
- crash damages on hull and/or propellers and shafts (worrying, but almost impossible to hide on GRP boats - any fix on the gelcoat remains visible forever: just look around the hull veeery carefully)
- bad engines usage, such as not warming them up properly (more worrying, but almost impossible to find out, even for an expert)
For such boat, it's not worth paying a surveyor IMHO.
I'd rather investigate about the previous owner/usage, if possible.
Besides, you'd better save the money for the fuel, having to feed those engines !!!
BTW, V*lv* or C*mm*ns?

Anyhow, if you insist, I know a good Italian surveyor who can come to Nice for sure (consider also that, when using a surveyor based near the boat, chances that he's a good friend of the dealer are much higher...). PM me if interested.

 

[EME]

Re: UK Surveyor

Several interesting points there :-

1) What I have seen so far is 2-3 days work charged by UK surveyors
2) S = S/hawk .... so many Sunsqueekers down there they should know the boat..
3) We live there so no local issues really and TB = French

Would you still go UK in light of that info..you must have done so yourself???



still waiting to get a boat

 

[EME]

Re: Surveyor required: are you sure?

Thanks

S 48 since 1996 with styling change in 1998. 3 x KAD 44s....
I know NOTHING about hulls and engines and would be comfortable with a full review,,
Currently doing all the other pre-owner/service checks ( thankseveryoneon the forum).

Boat is currently in MC..broker is Italian and I want to avoid patronage...

still waiting to get a boat

 

[MapisM]

Ooops...

Im my post above I assumed that S=Sealine.
Well, the concept would apply if the baby is very young anyway.
But Superhawks have been around for much longer than Sealine 48.
How old is the beast? Legs or Arneson? The latter much better on such type of boat, obviously.

 

[jfm]

Re: UK Surveyor

Ah right, thort it was sealine not s/hawk. Good job I didn't let rip about Sealines...!

No, I'd get a local SofF surveyor. With TB being French and you having home address down there (which I knew, TCM said, but I forgot) I would get a local person. Sorry, cannot suggest anyone, we used a UK surveyor. Presumably Bart could suggest someone? Or Sam at Easyboat Services, whom I can recommend most highly for a Euros230 fantastic like-new boat cleaning and general looking after/fixing (in LaNap - Golfe J area)

 

[airbubble]

Re: are you sure?- stupid advice

That's the most stupid advice i've seen in months on this board.
1996 and VP KAD 44's - any former postman pat will probably save you a lot of money and troubles, let alone the paperwork........
Paul

 

[MapisM]

Re: are you sure?- stupid advice

At least my advice was the most ...something.
Yours, just shows that you've not read/understood what I wrote.
I was assuming that a Sealine S48 was what we were talking about.
As a surveyor, have you ever seen such boat produced in 1996 with KAD44 and sterndrives?

Besides, I added afterwards the other "Ooops..." post below.
Don't miss the opportunity to classify also that one!

 

[stefan_r]

Re: try this one

I used this guy who travels France every week....seemed okay, everything in English and he is fluent French too got him from YBDSA:


Pete Williams
Pete Williams Ltd
PO Box300
Commercial House
Commercial
St Helier
Jersey, Channel Isla
JE4 8YL

01534857281

mailto: stefan@athito.com

 

[airbubble]

Re: are you sure about advice

I did not want to get personal, nor do i have the desire to be stricken off by Kim, and yes I assumed it to be a sealine also at first. Even when it had been a year old (or newer for that matter) ex demo boat, specially looking at the are where she is, I can only tell you from experience that you need a survey done. E.g. I've been on a £m's yacht 6 months old, that had covered half the globe by then and did have serious structural defects..... Therefore i thought it not wise, specially to someone who calls himself learner to advise him out of it but apologies if my tone was a bit stronger than intended, "pardon my french" is wahat you say then i believe, and NO, i strongly dislike the french and am not trying to get a job down there.

 

[MapisM]

Re: are you sure about advice

OK, now we can talk. The effectiveness of surveys is actually an interesting subject in itself.
BTW, no, I'm not 100% sure about my advice - it's an advice really, not a statement... ;-))

Though, I still think that on new(ish) boats it is either very easy or almost impossible to find out what's wrong.
And a surveyor is mostly useful for those grey areas in between.

OK, I can accept that a big vessel used to cruise the whole globe can be an exception to that.
But even in this case, "serious structural defects" after six months mean that either the boat went through the perfect storm, or (most likely) that those defects were there since new. Which of course can and do happen, but is (should?) be unlikely in standardized productions of serious boatmakers. One-off big vessels, they are obviously in a different league.

A much more frequent scenario (I've seen that personally, and heard similar stories from friends) is a dealer keeping a brand new boat for trials, offering potential customers to go for a spin. Jump on the boat, turn on the engines, out of the marina in 2 minutes, 15 minutes at maximum RPM (or almost), and back.
Again and again.
Not the idel breaking-in procedure for sure!
Those engines are likely to get into troubles much faster than correctly used engines, but I never heard of any reliable method to find it out, before the fault actually appear. Thus, the survey would be useless.

When I thought of a Sealine S48, being a boat just launched on the market, I imagined that this could be the only major risk.
Of course, a 1996 Superhawk with 3 KAD44 and outdrives, that's totally different.

Well, personally (sorry Learner to say it, go ahead anyway with whatever choice you're happy with) I'd not even consider it:
- Looks sporty without actually being
- 3 engines in such narrow hull are a headache to work with
- Outdrives on a 48' do not make any sense

All of the above IMHO of course (see also 2nd line at the beginning of this post !!!)

 

[EME]

Re: are you sure about advice

thankfully . I'm able to make up my own mind about the boat's design abilities. But your opinions are of course valid...

Given that I am a simple 'learner' and you guys obviously know a bit , you really should have questioned KAD44S IN 1996 ,,,,SHOULDN'T YOU. ?? When did VP introduce the 44???????

Seriously thanks everyone..Busy today but will ak. help tomorrow properly

still waiting to get a boat

 

[MapisM]

Touché

'Course you can have 44s on a 1996 boat, or even the newer 300, it's sufficient to repower the whole thing!
Besides, as you can imagine, both myself and airbubble were just checking if/who was going to spot the inconsistency...

Ok, ok, I didn't think about that. Shame on me, a kimmerisation of previous posts is what I'd deserve...

But see, at least one of my suggestions wasn't that bad. Let me say it again...
"go ahead anyway with whatever choice you're happy with"

All the very best for your future boating experiences!