Engine survey from boats regular mechanic or different one?

Before you go buying a boat and shipping it halfway around the world, I would sit down and read this thread from beginning to end to see what you could be in for.

http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/40951-Sea-Ray-SSS-1993-63-ft

I have just read all 83 pages, thats the most entertaining forum thread I havre ever read on the internet!

Sorry if some thought I hadn't given enough details in my original post, I was asking the question somewhat generically as I am sure it's a situation that will occur for buyers again and again. I do of course appreciate that each set of circumstances is different, I was just asking as to peoples general experience with dealing with an exsiting mechanic vs an independant one. Sounds like the jury is pretty split and that the induvidual circumstanes make all the difference.

Some have asked why import at all, so at the risk of going off topic I will just answer that here. Yes there is risk, but like most things it's a risk / reward balance. Used boats of the style I want are very few and far between here on the West coast of Australia, and what there is is VERY expensive. It costs a fortune to ship a boat in form the East coast where they are still expensive (albeit more choice) but to the point where the shipping cost from the US is not that much more, of course there are additonal costs and risks but from my research over the last year or so has shown it to potentially viable. Not everyone will agree but each to their own. Fortunatley I have owned a number of boats over the years and do all my own maintainence so I am not as green as the buyer in the above linked post, but I am sure there are still a few gotchas out there waiting for me if I import...

Thanks for your repsonses, BTW it looks like that 240 in New York I originally posted about may no longer be an option, the broker is being very lax in responding to me so I will keep looking and find a boat and broker who is more commited.

Thanks

Anthony
 
After reading all these thoughts and opinions on surveys to your prospective purchase, does everyone have a survey done on a boat that is purchased from a reputable Sea Ray dealer? I mean if they have a 4 or 5 year old Sea Ray that they have taken on trade and you are interested, should you have your own survey done on the boat or do you simply use their purchase warranty (assuming they have a substantial warranty e.g. 1 year)?
 
I just purchased a boat, from a Sea Ray dealer. I looked for at least 2 months, within a 1000 mile radius. I think you will find as I did that 99% of the boats they have for sale are brokered boat, with no warrenty at all. They take these boats in and sell them for the PO for 10%.

The 1 I bought had some mercury platinum warrenty left on it, and I still had it surveyed. If the dealer is going to give you a stem to stern warrenty, for even a short time, I would skip it. But of course, put the boat thru the torture test. Best to break it on his nickel
 
When I bought Beachcomber I talked with the mechanic who had worked on the boat for the 3 years before it was repossessed then sold by the bank to the brokerage that owned it. He worked for the local Cat dealer in the Detroit area and was very familiar with those specific engines and somewhat with the boat itself. He also was familiar with the brokerage and suggested to me that I be careful of the salesman I was working with because "he's like your worst nightmare schlock used car dealer." He related to me a couple of stories about things the salesman had done to try to trick the Cat mechanic into doing maintenance on the engines for free.

After several conversations with the mechanic I had built up a level of trust in him, decided that he knew his way around an engine room, and was no friend of the brokerage or the salesman. I asked him if he would do the engine and genset surveys for me and he said he would. We discussed his price and came to an agreement on that. He did do the surveys and did an excellent job and wrote a very good report on the condition of the engines and genset.

I found the hull surveyor on the NAMS website. Without knowing any of the surveyors back there, I talked with three of them who had been surveyors the longest time. I wanted to get a feel of the types of boats they had surveyed, what they found to be the most common problem areas, etc. BTW, I did not tell them up front what the boat was that I wanted them to survey. The surveyor I ended up hiring told me during the phone interview (without knowing what I was buying) told me that he'd done surveys on many Sea Rays and probably did more of the large Sea Rays than anyone else in the area. He was very familiar with the marina where the boat was stored, knew of the selling brokerage and had the same basic opinion of the salesman. He was hired on the spot.

When I flew to Detroit for the survey I met with both surveyors over breakfast. We talked for an hour or more so they would both know my level of inexperience with larger boats and with the Cat diesels, and what my expectations were from the surveys and from their reports.

They both did an excellent job with the surveys, both wrote excellent reports on their findings, and I was very happy with both of them.
 

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