Inspection questions?

[mhdean]

We are about to purchase a 2002 Amberjack 29. We are very excited, it will be our first Sea Ray. What should we ask the mechanic to look for during the inspection? We saw a thread about steering, are there any other problem areas with the 5.0 EFI Bravo III? This boat is very clean, dry stored, but we run in salt water. It has 300 hrs. Also, how does this boat do fishing? We mostly troll.

 

[PMC]

If your not - I would suggest to get a pre-purchase survey done.

 

[Lazy Daze]

If you really want to cover your bases, I would suggest asking around for a local, reputable surveyor. If it was me, I would not be interested in a "hull survey", just mechanical.

But... compression test, leak-down test, check ALL systems, sea trial. The list of things to check can get quite long.

 

[Presentation]

…agree, the list gets long. I’d add a drive pull, inspect gimbal, drive coupler.

By the way, I assume you will have a kicker motor and will not troll with a gas engine + BIII drive.

 

[mwph]

Spend time finding that "reputable surveyor" mentioned earlier. Although I hired a certified surveyor, I did not spend enough time learning about the process. So in the end ... my fault & I guess I got what I paid for. My boat is fine but next time I will get a more detailed list of what the survey will include. Compression tests, leak down tests, oil samples & the like were not offered to me by the few guys I "interviewed". Ask each surveyor for a detailed list of what he can offer & build your list from there.