I had my 35 cigarette surveyed. By a NAMS certified surveyor. She gave the boat a great bill of health. Structually sound and a great buy. But when I pulled the engine this winter I found a transom that is Extremely rotted. Now she is telling me that there is no way she could have detected the rot with the means that all surveyors use in the business. If that is the case then why have a boat surveyed. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

it's hard to find a good surveyer.. but i think she should have picked that uup with a water meter... that one she shoulh have gotten... anything she tells you different is just wrong

sorry to hear about this

Is a survey ever worth getting? If the surveyor isn't responsible for their opinion. Now I'm stuck with $8000 in repairs

if you get a good saleman.. they can normally tell you more that's wrong with the boat than most of the poeple that survey boat.. everything on the lot here.. i can just tell you want needs to be done with it...

man that sucks
i used a guy im florida on a boat i was looking at.
he used (in his words) new IR technology to check the boat for the slitest amout of moisture.
it came back dry as a bone.

here in fla.. there are some good people and know what to look for in a suvey.. but for 75usd and two weeks later I"M A SURVEYOR... that's it...

Ive seen good and bad ones. Then do it all yourself too. Hammer the entire hull looking for soft spots. I found trouble with my transom to that 2 surveyors missed.

Wow, that amazing. I bought the boat out of florida.

The only reason I used a surveyor on my big boat (34' go-slo) was because the insurance company said no survey=no insurance. I asked around, and got a guy with a good rep, who I feel did an excellent job. Found a couple of things I had missed, as I was not all that familiar with a larger cabin cruiser. Issued me a nice report that showed I had gotten a great deal, which will come in handy at sale time, for sure. My Donzi, which is only 22' did not require a survey, and I didnt get one, and I have never had a problem with it. Well, normal old-boat issues, but nothing major.

As for the soggy transom....The surveyor should have had caught it. Maybe she didnt want to pay for the moisture meter? Did she have a good rep before doing your boat?? Did you check around? sorry to hear of your situation, and i hope that's the only thing that is wrong.

formula31 What did those survyers say about missing the soft spots?