Truth in Advertising and Other Notions
I have been involved in various boat deals of late; for many owners, now is evidently a good time to sell. When shopping for classics, there is no shortage of boats available. In fact, I dare say most any boat is available – for the right price!
Which brings me to the value of a survey. While employed for various brokerage houses and dealerships, we as sales personnel urged our buyers to have any used boat surveyed prior to purchase. Likewise, before accepting a boat in trade, the “house” would have a mechanical and conditon survey performed on the trade. There are different types of surveys available. For the buyer, it is essential to have a pre-purchase or condition survey done on the boat prior to purchase. This type of survey is not to be confused with an appraisal or valuation survey. These are performed for the owner of the yacht generally for insurance purposes but often to get a handle on the yachts’ value.
A thorough pre-purchase survey will find the boat commissioned and in the water and the surveyor will accompany the buyer for the seatrial. The surveyor will also inspect the vessel out of the water. This survey takes much longer to perform than an appraisal survey and will also cost more. Often the seller will make an older survey available to the potential buyer. Careful for what you wish for! Usually, it is an appraisal survey which the owner had carried out to obtain hull insurance. And, indeed, it was performed in the past – often years in the past. These types of surveys are great for the owner because they are very kind to the boats’ condition: they don’t go into too much detail other than the boat’s specifications. It also gives the owner a market value and a replacement value. In this day and age – ouch! But brokers love these figures as they usually translate to hyper-inflated asking prices.
For the pursuer of a classic yacht, the buyer must beware of intrinsic structural problems. Will a pre-purchase survey make the buyer aware of potential problems? Not always. In wooden boats particularly, problems such as leaks, rot, and loose structures will often be hidden behind built in joinery or the inner ceiling. Corroded or de-zincified bottom fasteners will not be discovered unless several fasteners are removed in an appropriate pattern. In a recent survey I was privy to, I noticed the statement “all observed keel bolts appeared sound”. Interesting since no destructive disassembly took place as the survey reminds the reader throughout. It is therefore safe to assume that nary a keelbolt was removed – thus, the nut, washer and whatever amount of thread being exposed is, well, sound! This is useless information to anyone trying to assess what he or she is about to buy.
Anyone buying a classic yacht, in particular a wooden classic yacht, will require either the skills or the resources or both to carry on with the yacht’s legacy. In a previous blog entry, I touched on full disclosure by the seller. It is up to the buyer to dig for the truth. Most sellers are not willing to admit, for whatever reasons, that their boat may have a problem or two. And here’s where we get into semantics. What exactly is reconditioned, rebuilt, restored. Often these words are contained in the listing. It is up to the buyer to figure out what it means exactly. A carefully worded listing will naturally steer the reader in a positive direction by creating excitement and sometimes even urgency for the buyer. A worthwhile surveyor working for the buyer, will naturally look in a negative direction and hopefully turn up any and all defects in the yacht. For the collector of vintage wooden boats, it is not uncommon to have pieces of the interior removed for the survey particularly in the chainplate region; the owner will of course have nothing to hide and will grant permission providing the yacht is returned to its original condition. The same holds true for bottom fasteners and deck screws providing the fastening and bung is replaced. It is the buyer’s responsibility to contract a boatyard in advance for the hauling during survey and to perform any structural removal for inspection purposes.
All too often the dream gets in the way of reality for the classic yacht owner. The best foundation for the successful stewardship of a classic is knowing in advance what you are getting into. I have used the analogy that buying a boat is similar to joining a club. The purchase price is merely an initiation fee. The yearly dues are relentless – they keep coming and coming in the form of invoices for storage, maintenance, upgrades, and repairs. This is the costly part of the ownership. When buying the boat, find out all the information available about the boat’s condition in order to make a sound decision.
