Boat survey

[SeanRhone]

Working on setting up a day to look at a Hobie 33 in South Carolina (about 2 1/2 hours from my house) and wondering how do I find someone to survey the boat for me? I'm sure in a large sailing community it's easy to find someone but the boat is on a lake in a not so big town.

Any advice on where or how to find someone in or near Ballentine, South Carolina?

Thanks

[BobJ]

http://www.marinesurvey.org/us-regions.html

You might also contact the claims department of Boat U.S. and other insurance companies who write a lot of boat insurance (Travelers, Progressive, etc.) They would have lists of approved surveyors by location.

If the boat is listed with a local broker you could ask him/her. There's a risk a local surveyor would be biased towards helping to sell the boat, but also a chance the surveyor already knows the boat and has even surveyed it before. I tend to trust people.

[SeanRhone]

The boat is listed for sale by the owner. Thanks the for link!

[SeanRhone]

Question - The seller is hemming and hawing about spending time for the survey. Am I just way off base asking for a survey of a Hobie 33? I realize the boat is very basic but just seems like the smart thing to do.

[BobJ]

You're driving five hours round trip and paying for a survey to possibly buy his boat, and he's hemming and hawing?

I'd move on.

[SeanRhone]

I'm driving 2600 miles round trip (this boat is in Corpus Christi Texas) and paying for the survey. The boat that is close to me, just get a bad feeling about it when we talked on the phone and emails; guy acts like he's doing me a favor buy selling it. The guy in Texas isn't much better at this point.

[SeanRhone]

Guy in South Carolina finally sent me more recent pictures of his Hobie 33 and it's a mess! He's been talking up this boat for a week about all the great work he's done and all the upgraded items and the pictures really show a partial project boat in 26 different pieces.

On another note, driving to Texas next Friday to hopefully buy the Hobie 33 in Corpus Christi.

[pogen]

If you really have your heart set on a Hobie 33, you could try approaching local owners, one may be interested in selling, or know of one. You might pay a premium, but save a lot on shipping and headaches.

[mike cunningham]

Guy in South Carolina finally sent me more recent pictures of his Hobie 33 and it's a mess! He's been talking up this boat for a week about all the great work he's done and all the upgraded items and the pictures really show a partial project boat in 26 different pieces.

On another note, driving to Texas next Friday to hopefully buy the Hobie 33 in Corpus Christi.

Just a heads up, I brought a Freedom 30 pulpit and rudder from the East Coast recently and in doing so investigated a new service called Roadie which is a "sharing" package delivery service. If you happen to be going to Tex (and coming back) with an empty car you can take a package for someone and cover some of the trip costs.

In the end I just found someone on Craigslist driving from Boston to SF and paid them some gas money to bring my stuff (amazing how they jammed my pulpit railing into the back seat of a Subaru Imprezia) but Roadie would be a way to connect with a "sender" if you have any interest.

[SeanRhone]

I have not found any local Hobie 33 owners. Does not seem to be a lot of Hobie 33's around, at least in North Carolina.