What do you need to do in order to prepare for your marine survey?

What do you need to do in order to prepare for your marine survey? 

A contract will be emailed to the customer and will need to be signed (typically electronically), and returned with a deposit in order to secure your place in the scheduling.

Arrangements will need to be made for the surveyor to gain access to the vessel. Keys to the vessel and access to marinas or yards needs to be arranged by the survey requestor. Permission may be required and is to be obtained by vessel owner in order for the surveyor to access the vessel in absence of their attendance, if such is the case.

Arrange for the vessel to be clean, with the owners gear removed from closets, compartments, storage areas, etc. in order for the surveyor to be able to inspect those areas. Evaluations are non-destructive and non-intrusive. No portion of the vessel is examined that requires the disassembly of any structure or machinery and the surveyor will not commission any machinery or systems that are not in operating order at the time of the survey.  Preparing the vessel for a survey is the owner’s responsibility. Specifically, you should take any action necessary to ensure reasonable access to the vessel’s systems. If the vessel’s owner lives aboard, the surveyor will not move personal effects to gain required access

The survey will take a number of hours to complete. Obviously, larger boats with more systems will take longer to survey. The survey takes place both in and out of the water where necessary, in order to inspect the vessels underwater surfaces and running gear. With an out of water survey, a haul out will need to be scheduled in advance of the survey date, and that scheduled time conveyed to the surveyor for schedule planning. In addition, it is advisable to plan to have the bottom pressure washed when a haul out is planned. It’s also a good idea to plan to have the underwater zincs/anodes on hand to change if necessary, while the vessel is hauled. 

Arrange for a qualified captain or for the owner to demonstrate and operate the vessel during a sea trial / limited trial run. Ideally, the vessels fuel and water tanks should be full, in order to get an accurate representation of the vessels performance under load and to point out any obvious fuel tank issues the vessel may have. 

The bilge should be clean and dry if at all possible.

Any paperwork, manuals, safety gear (distress signals, life jackets, EPIRB’s) etc. should be readily available to the surveyor, as well as any required documentation, to include engine and maintenance logs.

Power should be available in order to inspect the AC systems aboard the vessel.

It’s important to note that once the surveyor is contracted, he works for, and reports only to the party ordering the survey. The information obtained during the survey and the report is for the use of the survey requestor and is shared only at their discretion.