Refitting Your Yacht

Refitting of a yacht is a requirement from time to time. It is like the refurbishment of our houses or our cherished cars, a necessary requirement that can be quite a stressful experience or one of great enjoyment and a sense of achievement.

We have, over the years, been involved in many refits and have experienced what we would consider satisfaction and disappointment from owners, and yards in equal measure.

The Owner.

Whilst it is important to understand, that the owner’s satisfaction is paramount in this process, there are factors that can, and do, detract from this.

Example: –

“I want a bow thruster” the Client has asked.

“OK, we recommend this model Sir”.

“Oh No” the Client has replied,” I have seen a much cheaper option online!”.

Upon completion, the finding was that the bow thruster was under powered, therefore, over utilised, leading to eventual overheating and failure. Luckily, no fire.

The yard then changed the thruster for the one that they recommended in the first instance. It now works fine.

Bow thrusters do have similarities to ears.

You don’t have to use them, but generally it helps, and what is the point of having something if you do not use it!

Having a third party surveyor in the above circumstance, may well have removed the stress, eased the decision making process, and reduced the financial and time penalties.

We could harp on about this for many paragraphs, but feel the above alone, gives a firm example of how things can become stressful.

The Yard.

The yard, or yards, invariably are busy places, with many projects underway at the same time. Projects can become very convoluted and timelines stretched, budgets over run. Eventually the vessel approaches completion and the invoice arrives on the owner’s desk. The invoice is now 35% more than the owner was expecting, and a dispute ensues! The yard’s opinion is that certain jobs were fraught with problems, corrosion etc., and the over runs were unavoidable. The owner’s version is,” Why was I not told”. The yard operatives were requested to undertake works, keep time sheets, but were never told of the budget, or the exact specification, it happens, daily! This is eventually cleared up, generally leaving a bitter taste with one party, and the vessel is launched.

Sea Trials.

The vessel goes for sea trials, “where is the new navigation equipment”, askes the owner.

“What new navigation equipment”, says the yard hand.

“Well, when I visited the yacht in mid February, ish, I spoke with one of the electrician chaps, and we agreed it would be a good idea”.

This obviously never got to the office, and it never got done. I am sure the yard would have preferred to have done this, and had it gone through the correct channels, it would have been done.

A Surveyor.

In all of the above, a suitably qualified marine surveyor would have been invaluable. A comprehensive specification with all pricing signed off prior to a yard being awarded the project.

Any anomalies to work requirements, to be notified, and costs agreed, prior to the work being complete.

What was not mentioned above, was the fact, that many items may well have come in below budget, and these funds could have been used against any over runs, and more competitive pricing may have been obtained for many items prior to the refit commencing.

Surveyor, or no Surveyor?

Qualified to manage the above?

Contact Jim support@yachtwork.co.uk

Building a boat?

You lucky thing!!!

So, you are going to buy a new boat and it is one of the slightly or totally bespoke options available.

The question is – do you have a Project Manager/Surveyor to oversee this or not?

Unless of course, you are from a marine background and have all the relevant experience to undertake this without it taking over your life you will need to know the following: –

Contracts.

Specification.

Timeline – knowing what is realistic and what is just plain ridiculous or unachievable.

Option list pricing –  with a lot of options having a price tag of more than 100K, do you understand enough about this to possibly save a few points on all of them.

Quality control – have you built a boat, with your own hands, have you overseen a team of boat builders, have you been involved in the repair of vessels when it has gone wrong, do you have industry connections within just about every part of the marine industry to check out if things you are told are correct?

We Do…….

Drop us a line.

Let’s get safety and operational quality designed in, rather than being an after thought.

Choosing a Marine Surveyor

If you are looking to own a boat, it is almost written in stone that you will at some point require the services of a marine surveyor.

Buying a boat. Pre Purchase Survey

Insuring a boat. Conditional survey for the insurers to base their decisions upon

Building a boat. Project management, contract negotiations, quality control

Refit of a yacht. Pre project planning and costing, project management, quality control, yard selection, negotiation, sea trials upon completion

Following an accident. Causation, repair requirements, costings, project management.

Are you a claims handler? Understanding the cause, are the costs fair and reasonable, are all items within the claim incident related, is the yard suitably qualified.

Safety systems and crew training in the use of. You may have all required equipment, are your crew aware of systems to mitigate loss and danger to your craft, family and friends?

The above list of possible requirements is not exhaustive but we feel pertinent to some of the most frequent requirements. We will not try and cover all items in this post and aim to add one item per week for the next seven weeks. We hope you find this an interesting read and we aim to not be to biased towards ourselves, that may be harder than we think!

Buying a Boat.

We will firstly start with a case study so you have an overview of what we feel is amiss with the current system of appointing a Surveyor for a pre purchase survey.

We were contacted by a potential purchaser and asked to give costings for carrying out a pre purchase survey. The prospective client found us through the website of the International Institute of Marine Surveyors.

We gave a fixed price for attending, inspecting and delivery of our report. The client called us and after some, “why are you more expensive than others”, agreed to proceed.

We sent the contract and received a telephone call, requesting that we remove the oil sampling from the survey, the broker assured the client this was not a requirement and although I disagreed in principal, I told the client we would report that this was suggested but declined. The client made payment and we began the organisation, I requested the vessel was lifted the night before the out of water survey. We received another call from the client. The Broker had told the client that most surveyors would have the vessel lifted in the slings and held for two to three hours as to inspect the below waterline areas. He asked why we would not do this. We replied that we vehemently disagreed with this practise and that we would only comment as to the condition of the below waterline area if we were allowed to carry out a proper inspection. The client reneged and agreed to this.

We carried out the inspection and found that the vessel had been subjected to a very sub standard osmosis treatment and had de-lamination in many areas and a very unfair finish to all. We then found structural defects to the internal structure and advised that we did not believe this vessel to represent good value. The owner was very disappointed and felt it had been an expensive day for himself, he also told us that he had been offered a good price for his boat in part exchange, in fact, almost double its value, in our opinion.

We will not go into any more detail and hope by reading between the lines you will understand why we feel it very important to employ the services of a surveyor who has not been recommended by the person selling the boat.

We also feel that the client would save £30,000.00 by not proceeding with the purchase.

Next week. Conditional survey of a yacht for insurance purposes.

Regards

www.Yachtwork.co.uk

Yachtwork has its own approach to survey reporting on yacht insurance claims. We are regularly instructed by insurers and claims handlers to inspect yachts after incidents, where our role is providing an assessment of damage, insight into cause and responsibility and recommended actions to rectify.

Whilst many insurers and claims handlers are required to become experts in the structural anatomy of a wide variety of vessels in order to digest the masses of information provided in damage survey reports, Yachtwork has taken the industry lead in providing concise and easy-to-understand reports that are comprehensive but direct and to the point.

Our director, Jim Vintner, believes in a no-nonsense approach and this is reflected in Yachtwork’s reports. We also have an array of associate surveyors across UK coastal locations and abroad who are trained in the same style, using our virtual learning environment as part of the induction process.

But what do you get in a Yachtwork insurance survey report? Firstly, we’ll clearly brief you about the conditions and limitations of visual surveys. These limitations apply to all surveyors – we’re upfront about them. We’ll provide you with the insured, insurer and claims handler’s information as well as a brief about the circumstances in which the inspection took place.

Next up, we’ll take you through the visual inspection. As a general rule, if it’s not relevant, we won’t include it! This saves you precious time when you’re reading our reports! We also provide visual information in the form of charts, images, and photographic evidence where necessary.

Finally, in our conclusion, we lay out the findings of the survey. This section will provide the claims handler with all the information they require to move forward. As with the rest of our report, this is concise but accurate and will include a summary of the incident, our assessment of the cause and where responsibility lies and our recommendations.

These reports may sound simple, but they’re not. They are thoroughly planned, comprehensive, and accurate; they are put into a no-nonsense and straightforward reporting style that provides only the relevant facts and that is easy to digest and take action points away from.

Our reporting style has been the catalyst for the expansion of the Yachtwork associate surveyors network, with clients across the country wanting immediate access to a Yachtwork-trained surveyor. If you are a claims manager/ claims handler and interested in working with us, please make contact with our director Jim Vintner to arrange a meeting or telephone call to discuss your specific requirements. If you are interested in becoming an associate surveyor with us, please also make contact. To understand more about our Insurance Surveys, head over to our Surveys Page.

Yachtwork’s operational coverage extends to numerous coastal areas within the UK and internationally.

In order to achieve this, we utilise a network of associate marine surveyors; each one is put through a rigorous recruitment and induction process and are thoroughly coached and constantly monitored to ensure the best survey reports and results.

Before a surveyor joins Yachtwork’s ranks they must already be an established member of a professional organisation. Our Principal Surveyor and Director, then assesses a selection of their previous insurance reports (redacted for confidentiality, of course) to judge their abilities and any areas of improvement that should be addressed before they begin working under the Yachtwork umbrella.

If the candidate is deemed suitable then the requirements of working with Yachtwork are laid out. Our associate marine surveyors must demonstrate strong industry connections and relationships in their area of operations; they must adhere to strict response timescales to ensure our insurance clients are dealt with in an efficient and timely manner; they must sign our confidentially and service agreement contracts (to ensure compliance with our insurance clients requirements); and, they must go through the Yachtwork induction programme.

Yachtwork has developed an efficient and extremely well-respected reporting style that is accurate, concise and effective at portraying the key messages. These survey reports are one of the keys to our success in the marine insurance industry. By using Yachtwork, our insurance clients save time, money and effort as they receive concise but comprehensive reports that negate the need for regular back-and-forth emails to clarify or expand on certain points. It’s vitally important that our surveyors are able to complete their work in this style, and our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) ensures that their skills are up-to-scratch.

With our in-house training expert, Yachtwork have developed a VLE that ensures consistency and excellence across our team of marine surveyors. This simple but effective training demonstrates the benefits of our reporting style as well as educating our surveyors on good practice and what is expected of them.

Our selection, vetting and training processes ensure that only the best surveyors join Yachtwork’s crew. With an expanding network of UK coastal and worldwide locations, as well as quick-response surveyors who will travel anywhere in the world, Yachtwork is the ideal solution for your marine insurance claim surveys.