T&T: Fw: surveyors

[Larry N. Brown]

> So how do you know you are getting a good surveyor? I just sold a boat & I
> was appalled by the stuff this surveyor missed. My horn didn't work but he
> never checked it or any of the lights. He never checked the batteries for
> condition, etc. Basically, he sounded the fiberglass & looked around. But 
> he
> was 'accredited'. I took a look SAMS & NAMS & there are about a hundred
> surveyors in my area. How do you screen out the loosers?
>
> Ed K
<SNIP>

I don't know whom I'd like to strangle first, the PO or the marine surveyor. 
Guess you'd expect the PO to lie but I find it unconcienable the vast 
numbers of wiring mistakes, flawed machinery, systems, etc. that slipped by 
a supposedly competent surveyer. My wife wanted the boat, I wanted the boat- 
mistake number one. Had I been disinterested and looking at a boat for 
someone else, I'd have never missed the countless poor repairs that would 
need rectification. Basically I paid a high price for a sell designed, Jack 
Hargrave, hull. I paid for my naivite in time and treasure.

The surveyer was a member of a group that has "over 35 years experience on 
the gulf". Theire brocure has endorsements by SAMS, NAMS, ABYC, NFPA AND 
IAMI. That meant nothing when I got a worthless survey.

I think Ken Williams is on the right track. Everytime a listee wants to get 
a survey, let him so note it on this list. Any listee with specific 
knowledge of the individual or firm can post his experience with the guy. I 
don't know how to build a computer database --and I'm still making right all 
the cr$% that my guy missed--or I'd do it myself.

If we used a common, searchable, title in the T&T subject line and some kind 
of a common format, seems like that would be a primitive but effective 
database.

Just a thought.