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NORTH CAROLINA SURVEY SERVICES

We perform surveys for all purposes along the North Carolina coast between Manteo and Myrtle Beach. We go most anywhere highways 64, 17, and 70 take us. Our central location, with Bert in New Bern and Tim in nearby Oriental, allows us to reach marinas the full length of the coast, get the survey done, and drive home in a single day. And we don't charge travel time or mileage expense to get to the boat.

Carolina Yacht Surveys, Incorporated's sole work offer is for its surveyor to perform a one-day, limited technical inspection of the vessel and its equipment in static condition for the purpose of making sufficient observations to formulate and support an objective opinion regarding the vessel's general condition and most probable local market value.

Please read the "coverage" section of this site to learn how the survey will be conducted, what the survey will and won't address, and what the techniques of inspection will be. The work performed according to those procedures is deemed technically suitable and fully sufficient as the basis for formulating the objective opinion of the boat's general condition and value that is the essence of the survey. The burden of understanding our standard, one-day, hull and equipment valuation survey rests with you.

We will be glad to discuss more extensive inspections that go outside the scope and beyond the methods of the standard survey.

Also, please read the "sea trial" section of this site to learn about the additional inspection done on the sea trial. You should check with your lender in advance of scheduling the survey to see if he now requires a run trial with the survey.

Deficiencies are determined by the practical expectations that the boat and its equipment be in "as-built" or "adequately repaired" "properly installed" and "apparently operational" condition, aside from normal age deterioration and usage wear.

The survey is guided generally by the ABYC and NFPA voluntary standards, and by the CFR regulations. But the one-day valuation survey is not intended, conducted, offered, or to be mistaken by any reader as providing or including a rigorous "Standards-Compliance" and "Hazards or Faults" check.

The surveyor voices and reports only his observations, explanations, perspectives, and opinions about the vessel. He does not give "expert or professional advice" or make judgements and recommendations for decision to the named survey client, or to any other person taking an interest in the vessel.

Note especially that the surveyor does not make any summary judgements about the vessel's "safety" "seaworthiness" or "suitability" for any proposed or possible use.

The surveyor will not stop the survey, and will not "pass" or "fail" the boat. Neither will he make any other decisions in lieu or on behalf of the owner, buyer, underwriter, or lender, each of whom has the independent responsibility of deciding their respective actions according to their own standards or interests.

The surveyor does not require the repair of any deficiencies, recommend any repair strategies, or estimate the cost of possible repairs.

You
NEED it
to appraise
for
how. . .
much?






The most probable local market value is developed from the BUC Used Boat Price Guide's published retail price range for a boat in "BUC condition" which is a clean boat, needing no repairs or maintenance, with its electro-mechanical equipment all in proper working order. The guide has additional criteria for requiring or allowing specified percentage adjustments to that base price, according to geographic area, condition, and equipment factors.

The appraisal opinion is for insurance and financing purposes only, and is not a "purchase price" recommendation or guarantee of future value.

The Report of your Survey is guaranteed to be acceptable to any lender and any insurer. That guarantee is based on the surveyor's nationally-recognized technical credentials, and on the level of significant detail contained in the report.

The 10-12 page Report of Survey is organized according to functional categories, with a narrative technical description of the observed particulars of the boat's configuration and equipment. The Report is intended to adequately describe the structures and operating systems for readers who have not seen the boat.

The Report is formatted with the presumption that unless noted in the Deficiencies section at its end, the boat was found to be in "as-built" or "properly repaired" and "normally operational" condition, aside from the expected effects of age deterioration and usage wear.

The report is typically ready for review and signature in 2-3 working days. One fax and mail delivery of the original to you is included. Per SAMS guidelines, the report cannot be e-mailed, because it can be subsequently modified by any recipient.

When you're ready for your survey -usually as soon as your offer is accepted- just call us.

• Office (and fax): (252) 637-1114

• Cell: (252) 249-2275

Both the office and the mobile numbers have voice mail. If I don't answer, please leave your name and call-back number. Some marinas or yards on the North Carolina waterfront are just barely out of cell range. Sometimes I'm in the bilge where I can't stop to talk. Or sometimes I'm between engines where we can't hear each other. And sometimes I'm doing a sailing trial and don't want to be bothered by the digital leash.

The phone works best for the initial arrangement of the survey date, when we have to mesh your schedule with our availability. We can fax or e-mail other information later.

Your call also gives me a chance to find out about your boat and your background. About who the broker or seller is and how to get in touch with them.

You won't need to get impatient and play "Dial-a-Surveyor" to line somebody up the instant your offer is acceped. The best surveyors are out on boats, not sitting in the office waiting for the phone to ring. So count on it. . . We can do the survey when you want it. Leave your call back message, and I'll get with you that day on a survey time.

While a surveyor is the ultimate generalist, and fiberglass is fiberglass no matter what type of boat it's molded into, each of our surveyors has some specialties. Basically, Tim does sailboats and trawlers, plus any renovation projects. Bert does sportfish boats, motoryachts, express cruisers, and sportboats, plus wood construction. We assign your request to the surveyor we think can best examine your type of boat. And we are able to double-team a large boat of any type so that the job can still get done for you in a single day at the same "per-foot" cost.

Between two surveyors, with the report typist keeping most of the paperwork caught up and off our backs, we're "READY WHEN YOU ARE," and can usually accommodate even unreasonable requests for immediate, "emergency" surveys.


You should get with the broker or seller to set up the haulout, since it's still the owner's boat. Few boatyards have their haulout crews available on the weekend, so we are normally limited to weekdays for your survey.

The survey is organized, priced, and scheduled to be completed as a single-day's work at the boat. Requests to split the work into two half-day inspections, or to conduct "sea trials" on a separate day are difficult to schedule and will require an additional fee. We can usually work around a little weather to complete the survey on the scheduled day.

 

Your requested survey date will be secured only by our fax receipt of a signed work order, or by an e-mail request that indicates your understanding of the procedure, coverage, and terms of the survey work.

Very often, the boat has to moved during the survey, usually to the boatyard for haulout and back to the slip. The owner or owner's agent, whether that is a captain or the listing broker, is responsible for operating the boat. The same situation holds for the sea trial. You should double check that understanding with the owner or broker as part of your scheduling.

The Survey and its Report represent the attending surveyor's observations and opinions based on a good faith effort at an objective inspection of the salient aspects of the vessel's components and equipment, within the stated limits of time, circumstances, and methodology, for the purposes of appraising the vessel.

The Corporation accepts no part of any reader's responsibility to exercise their own due diligence prior to making decisions regarding the boat, including understanding the surveyor's reported observations and opinions, seeking a second survey opinion, or securing additional specialized inspections by mechanics, riggers, system technicians, and service or repair contractors.

The Survey and its Report (but not the vessel or its appraised value) are guaranteed to be accepted by your lender and insurance company as an accurate description of the general condition and value of the boat.

The Survey is performed and its Report is generated with no warranty against omissions and errors in the work.

The Survey and its Report are not warranties of the vessel's condition or operational status and reliability, either on or beyond the day of inspection. It is not a certificate of the boat's value, nor a statement of its merchantability, seaworthiness, or fitness for any specific or possible usage.

The surveyor did not build or service any portion of your boat or any of the equipment installed in it. The performance of the Valuation Survey does not shift any of the designer, builder, equipment manufacturer, installer, repairer, or owner's responsibility for the current or future condition of the structures and equipment to the corporation or its surveyor.

Since the corporation did not offer, and its surveyor did not perform a complete engineering evaluation, an exhaustive standards-compliance inspection, or a full set of fault-finding tests in the valuation survey, the corporation and its surveyor are in no way responsible for the repair of any deficiencies which may exist at the time of the survey, or which may develop or occur at a later time while the vessel is being operated.

The survey client is granted one-time use of the Survey Report, which is current to him and his designated underwriters or lenders for 30 day of undisturbed lay-up, or the vessel's first use.

The Survey is a customized inspection that was performed for a specific client, and answers that client's particular concerns. The report is confidential to the client. Every page is carries the client's name and the date of the Report. No copy will be provided by the surveyor to any user except by the client's request.

No client may provide the owner or broker a copy of this survey as part of the negotiation process or sell a copy after his interest in the vessel ceases. And no reader (buyer, lender, insurer) should buy, accept, or use an out-dated Report or an unauthorized copy of the Survey Report that was prepared specifically for a different named client.