Trees

Thanks Tracy for the reply. Yes I'm suprised too about the GI and IT. I guess the GI came with the boat and the IT was added later. This was one of the reasons why I put in an offer as I've read the horror stories about galvanic corrosion. The boat is on the Lancaster. I did initially think to myself to do it DIY when the best surveyors came back with 2 month wait times/no can't help but I fugured for the sake of £600 for a full pre-purchase survey (although I'm toying with the idea of hull only) I'd rather get a professional (any professional that doesn't have a history full of terrible references, which to be fair I haven't found) with calibrated equipment along with some sort of an idea what they're doing and paid advice over a cup of tea afterwards. I will be there when the day comes so I can query anything which I think doesn't look right. I admire the posters who have the confidence and knowledge to just buy a boat with a bag full of cash and not mess about with surveys. Maybe I'll do the same years down the line but since I'm new to this I simply have to get a second professional opinion. I get that surveyors have get out clauses and cover their backsides, etc but I don't think I'll enjoy the boating constantly thinking "what if...". The survey, while not fullproof or perfect, will somewhat give me some piece of mind.

Thanks for the reply Richard. To be fair to the broker he offered help in finding a surveyor but I've not taken him up on the offer (yet) due to my suspicious nature (i.e are they mates, etc) - although the reason is probably as innocent as to move things along quicker to get rid of the boat off their marina and get paid their commission - which I completely understand. The offer was accepted on Monday, deposit paid Tuesday and demonstration performed on Wednesday so I don't think I'm taking the preverbial and fustrating the process, plus I've been providing the broker with regular updates in finding a surveyor. I aim to get a surveyor booked in by Monday and will probably have to accept it's a bit more of a gamble than comissioning the Steve Hands and Ricky Tropman of the surveying world. I'm probably too suspicious sometimes and massively overthink every little tiny detail but I try to maintain a balance - If I don't then I'd never buy a boat.

Thanks for the replies so far. I have read about your unfortunate situation with that sea going vessel Alan in past posts. You're right all I can do is minimise my risk - I plan to be there on survey day. Thank you for the best wishes. The boat is a 2005, built with a 10/6/5/4 shell. As far as I can tell it's been looked having taken several hours to go through the boat on 3 seperate visits including demonstration day with the broker. Theres no sign of damp or condensation, window edges and vents bone dry - even when the rain was horizontal a couple of weeks ago, no smoke at all coming from the engine, nice clean and dry bilge, no excessive rust anywhere, electrical and heating system working, both a galvanic isolator and victron isolation transformer fitted, interior is orginal, etc. However as a newbie thats only rented a couple of times I would like an out of water survey to just confirm the state of the hull which I suspect is almost perfect and to confirm it has been 2 pack epoxied, as I cannot find an invoice to confirm this. Having lurked on this forum for a couple of years I can imagine if you was in my position you'd turn up with a bag of cash and buy this boat with no survey and no messing about While I could afford any post-purchase disasters, I really don't want to spend a fortune on this boat and then find out it needs overplating and should've only really paid half for it. Thanks David for that. I've been watching David John's videos for a while now and watched that a couple of weeks ago. Very freightning and was hoping the original surveyor would be named so I could avoid, but I guess that's really wishful thinking as I completely understand why he wasn't named. I am paranoid about the state of the hull and really want to get this right the first time. Thanks again for all the replies. I've been going through this purchase methodically and taking my time with this but will need to commission a survey soon. Thankfully it's December and not in the middle of the summer otherwise I'd be always beaten by people putting deposits down over the phone within hours of a boat coming up for sale.

Hello all, Very long time lurker, first time poster. I hope you all can help me, I'm in the process of buying a narrowboat in the North West and I'm trying to commission a survey. I've been in contact with the well known surveyors such as Steve Hands, Mike Carter, Chris Williams, Ricky Tropman and others however since the boat is at the almost extreme end of the canal network as opposed to somewhere like Braunston, they either don't want to travel, haven't got avaliability until mid February or haven't got back to me (I guess they don't need the work). This leaves me with the following; Robert Burton of Burton Marine https://www.burtonmarine.com So far my favourite - has avaliability but is fairly new to surveying. Doesn't appear to be a member of IIMS or YDSA but have sent an message to the IIMS to confirm he's a graduate of their course. (Maybe too much due dilligence but with no references I feel I have to dig deeper). John Crompton of Small Boat Surveys https://www.smallboatsurveys.com/ Based in the area but there was an unhappy client with his services here; Maybe I'm being overly fussy since that was several years ago? Plus in his T+Cs he says he scraps off the blacking at the inspection points and I believe that's a bit "old hat", plus the boat is 2 pack epoxied and I don't want to damage that as it should be good for a few years yet, plus I imagine I'd have to make good the damage if I don't go ahead with the purcase. Mike Boulton of Blue Star Surveys http://www.bluestarsurveys.co.uk/ From what I've gathered he's more into GRP rather than steel narrowboats, plus has missed out vital systems in past surveys according to past threads on this forum. I think there's also a Surveyor based either at the marina the brokers are based at, or the next marina over in the same village. Although the broker hasn't tried to push any particular surveyor onto me (I'd be wary of using broker recommended surveyors anyway), I wouldn't like to use a surveyor based near where the broker is based incase there's a conflict of interest I'm not aware of (e.g business relationships or drinking buddy at the local boozer). Any comments will be very much appreciated. Thanks, Trees.