Mid Size Power Boats

In the last chapter we discussed the basics of hull construction. In this one we'll take a look at some of the specific things you can do to evaluate boat hulls yourself.

While I don't propose to make a marine surveyor of you, I do wish to be able to arm you sufficiently that you can make intelligent choices about particular boats.

I recognize, of course, that some buyers will want to make very thorough inspections of their own, while others would probably prefer to leave all that to a surveyor, but there are advantages to performing at least rudimentary inspections of candidate boats yourself before making an offer and then going to survey with it.

The objective here is to get a better idea of the general construction and condition of the boat before you make an offer on it.

This mitigates the potential problem of making an offer, only to find out on survey that the boat was not as good as your first impression suggested.

This is a very common problem for most boat buyers, so it pays to make a careful inspection. All too often, boat shoppers concentrate only on the eye candy without taking a close critical look, later to be disappointed by the long list or problems that the surveyor hands them.

In most cases, you can avoid a surveyor's fee or two by reining in your enthusiasm and taking a critical look yourself. Even if you are buying a new boat, I recommend that you follow this process as you may very well turn up unexpected findings.

Probably the best way to handle this is to take a second look after you've seen the boat once already. The second time around you'll be in a better state of mind to make critical observations, whereas the first time around your concentration is focused mainly on whether this is the type of boat you want.

It is wise to attempt to obtain as much information as possible about the boat from the builder.

This can often be accomplished by calling the builder, but this will work only for boats of fairly late vintage. It's usually easier to get answers from the larger builders than smaller ones. From Hatteras, for example, one can get the low down on virtually any boat since all their records are computerized. That won't be the case for most smaller boat builders.