Alexander Surveys

Yacht and Small Craft Surveyors
UK and Spain

Black Museum

All of the these examples were found on pre-purchase surveys of yachts described and believed by the owners to be in good condition, but don’t let this put you off buying a second hand yacht. For all these examples there have been many more in generally good condition. The important lesson here is to employ a marine surveyor to look on your behalf before you buy. Remember it’s easier to re-negotiate the price after survey than to weep over spilt milk afterwards.

During survey it was obvious that this bolt-on keel had moved as a result of grounding	A plumbing disaster waiting to happen on a much modified 1980’s GRP popular model yacht
A home build, removal of the fillers revealed this keel had not been fitted correctly during the building of the yacht.	This small crack when opened up was seen to progress into the substrate, the skeg could be rocked fore and aft opening the crack up, eventual failure was inevitable.
Ahead of this rusty keel bolt is the grey water tank in this GRP yacht. The tank had been leaking for some time at the hose clip allowing a build up of water, this bilge area was inspected only rarely	A home build, there was inadequate support below the coachroof stepped mast, the coach roof was stressed and moved down causing stress cracking and tearing the deck moulding below the anti-slip deck covering
At the top of the photograph can be seen a crocodile clip to positive terminal, a second clip on to the first and a third waiting it’s turn to go on, plus this bundle of spaghetti was in the engine space near to a rotating pulley.	On this fishing boat conversion planking and frames had been renewed, removal of internal lining board revealed rot in deck beam ends which had been ignored.
Difficult to see in this photograph, the bow thruster tube was breaking away from the hull due to poor original glassing in.

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