• Pre-purchase
  • Why Own a Boat
  • What Suits You
  • Why Survey First
  • The Survey Is
  • Surveyors Role
  • The Usual Flaws
  • Pick Your Surveyor
• Services
  • Credentials
  • Coverage & Conduct
  • Sea Trial Option
  • NC Surveys
• Contact
• Home

Office & Fax: 252/637-1114***Mobile: 252/249-2275

Consulting Marine Surveyor

GUARANTEED ACCEPTABLE:

The survey is completely guaranteed to be acceptable to all insurance companies, including Boat/US and Lloyds. The boat is not guaranteed to be an acceptable risk, value, or collateral, but the report is guaranteed acceptable. I have developed an outline narrative report that delivers the significant details in "plain language" for readers who have who have never seen the boat. So, the report gives the professionals exactly what they need for their decision-making.

INDEPENDENCE:

I do not solicit referrals from brokers. I know most of the brokers and boatyard operators in North Carolina, since I was surveying well before most of them started in the business. So they certainly know us, mostly as "tough-love" surveyors. And certainly well enough to insist on us when they're buying a boat for themselves.

I built Carolina Yacht Surveys slowly, by seeing more than most, and consistently bearing fair witness to the actual condition of the boat. The result is a long-standing independence from self-serving outside influences that is your assurance of my integrity.

Nearly all my work comes by repeat referrals from reputable brokers and established local boatyards, or by word-of-mouth recommendation from over 20 years of satsified clients. These referrals are earned by:

• Experience you can learn from.

• Technical findings you can rely on.

• Explanations you can understand.

• Independence you can trust.

• Boat sense you can go to sea with.

• Flexible, fast service you need.

• Personal attention you deserve.

Some of the highest praise for my work regularly comes from sellers who started out on the defensive, but admit at the end of survey day that they had learned a lot of new things about their boat. As the result of that positive example, many of those sellers soon come back for pre-purchase inspections as they move up to a larger or different type of boat.

FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL:

I have been a full-time surveyor since 1985, with my writing about boats as part-time fun. I've been at this a long time, and will be for the next decade.

So I don't have the casual attitude of the "retiree" "boat captain" or "trust-fund yachtie" whose only goal is to do an occasional easy job when it's convenient for them. Instead, I am full-time and professional at my practice. Which means that I have earned a steady flow of business. Which means that the service and technical standards I set for mysel on your behalf are higher than the spare-time surveyor. And which means that I do the work on your schedule, regardless of heat, cold, wind, occasional rain, or personal discomfort.

CLEAR EXPLANATIONS:

I am a marine writer with graduate training in technical and business communication. I understand that one of the prime purposes of the survey is for you (not just me) to learn about your boat. So I work hard on survey day to organize and explain our findings in "plain language"for you in a way that meshes with your boating background and experience.

You won't find any pseudo-engineering jargon, any archaic, semi-nautical phrasiology, or sales spin verbiage in our conversations or reports. We're patient about giving you concise explanations that educate you about the boat, answer your questions, and move us ahead to the next concern.

EXPERIENCE:

I have been surveying almost since the dawn of the fiberglass era in North Carolina (1978). And every day, I try to learn something new about what makes boats work right or wrong, long after the new is worn off.

Because the surveyor is the ultimate generalist, there's simply no substitute for experience at looking over boats from bow to stern. Books will not do it. Courses and seminars will not do it. Working for IBM or owning a boat will not do it. Working at some boating specialty will not do it. Experience comes only from assuming the surveyor's position on your knees in 4 or 5 different bilges a week, month after month, and year after year. And boat sense comes only from experience with the widest variety of boats.

You benefit directly from my years of surveying and repair experience in the form of better understandings of the inevitable flaws, and how to properly address them. That experience keeps you from either worrying about minor problems or ignoring the serious ones.

SIZE & AGILITY:

At 5'10" and 180 lbs, I am small enough and flexible enough to get in restricted spaces onboard your boat. Places like cockpit lockers, lazarettes, forepeaks in sailboats. And places like chain lockers, forward bilges, between and outboard of engines, and under cockpits in power boats. Tight places where most poeple can't or won't go, but where vibration, pounding, moisture, leakage, and salt mist do their damage.

SERVICE ATTITUDE:

My primary professional goal is to to show you what you need to know about the boat you want to buy. So that you can conclude a fair deal for it, and enjoy your boat with justifiable confidence.

I am not in the survey business to prove that I know more than anybody else, that I have all the answers to all your questions, that I can control the purchase process according to my own standards, or that I am the most likeable personality who ever reassured a nervous buyer about his decision. I got into surveying because I was addicted to good boats. Because I found that most buyers and owners are a couple of cuts above the rest of the people in this hurried world. And because I enjoy the position of "fair witness" to the boat's condition and value.

So I have organized the business to respond to your request for a survey that fits your tight schedule, and to deliver the report of details and deficiencies to you in a couple of days.

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION:

Bert W. Quay, AMS

Power and Sail
SAMS Accredited Marine Surveyor, #204, Yachts & Small Craft

Nationally tested and accepted to the highest level of membership in 1991, as Accredited Marine Surveyor (A.M.S.) #204, with the Yacht and Small Craft specialty designations by the Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors (S.A.M.S.) The level of A.M.S. requires 5 years of surveying experience substantiated by copies of surveys for each year, 4 references in the trade, 2 interviews with regional and national membership chairmen, and a day-long written exam covering ABYC, NFPA, and CFR standards.


S.A.M.S. is one of two national certifying surveyor associations. It is the primary yacht and small craft society, with an international membership. And it is recognized in the marine, insurance, and lending industries as providing meaningful professional training, testing, and certification. You can independently verify this membership and accredation directly by clicking on SAMS or by calling 800-344-9077.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT:

Continued accreditation by SAMS requires 60 hours of technical education per 5 years. I have successfully completed the requirements for two membership cycles, with over 100 hours during the past 5 years. Recent professional seminars and workshops include:

• ABYC Corrosion Seminar: 2-day program on underwater corrosion and causes.
• Wooden Boat School's "Surveying Wooden Boats" One week course at the St. Michaels Maritime Museum.
• ABYC "Electrical Systems in Boats" Seminar: 3-day program on 12v DC and 120v AC systems.

The office maintains a 260 title library of technical books and manuals, binders of product literature, subscriptions to Professional Boatbuilder, Boat/US Technical Information Exchange for Marine Professionals, BUC Research Used Boat Price Guide, and 5 magazines covering both power and sail.

RELEVANT EXPERIENCES:

• 1991-98: Contributing editor for Coastal Cruising Magazine, writing The Surveyor's Notebook. Wrote the preface to Katy Burke's book Cruising Under Power.

• 1978-present: Independent Marine Surveyor. Full time since 1985.

I still have my old quarter-ton Ranger-23 Giggle & Sweat and still can manage to get it around the race course occasionally. Now, I am cruising a Cape Dory 28 flybridge downeaster that I've souped up witha new 285 Volvo. So I'm active with owning and using boats for fun, not just working with them or writing about them. I guess boats are a 24 / 7 obsession for me. Enough that I think of myself as a "boathead."