When a prospective boat owner has had enough of surfing the Internet and wants to dive in to the market and buy a boat, it'south not unusual to find all thoughts of long-term value and safe, solid compromise flying out of the window as he or she rushes headlong into hammering out the best deal possible.

And so every so often a gunkhole appears that'south a little less expensive than others of the same model and it seems almost too good to exist true. Let's say you've found photos of the Dreamboat 38, which looks corking and listed at a bargain cost. You go to run into the gunkhole, and equally you look effectually yous remember this might exist "the one." You lot note downwards the hull number and the gunkhole's name and where it has been berthed for the last few years. Then when you get habitation and plug it all into Google... up pops a photo like this.

Damaged boat – is it always a write-off?

Astringent damage like this to the hull of a motor cruiser makes repairing, buying, insuring or selling her again fraught with difficulty.

When you call the seller, at that place is no deprival that the harm occurred and goose egg but lavish praise for the repair job. So, what's the problem?

What it ways to "write off" a boat


Aside from the breakdown in honesty somewhere in the procedure, you can become hurt physically and/or financially past substandard or incomplete repairs. Whatsoever surveyor who misses subconscious problems is at gamble — not to mention the insurance company that thinks information technology has insured a sound gunkhole. If the current seller bought the boat from the boatyard that carried out the repairs, that person might not know the whole story either. And whatever reputable banker that's involved wouldn't dream of listing a gunkhole that once looked like this. Trust is eroded all around.

From my years in the boat-repair business, I tin can see the logroller's side of things all too well. When a boat is damaged and the insurance company gets involved, they hire a surveyor who documents the damage as presented past the possessor, and so they secure estimates from local yards. Waterfront boatyards have high overheads and have to charge accordingly for their work.

If the boat is to be moved somewhere cheaper, the transport itself adds price to whatsoever other thousand's estimate. The owner wants the boat repaired to the way it was merely before the damage occurred, or may fifty-fifty want the boat to exist written off if it seems like the boat volition never exist the same again. All of this pushes the toll of the repairs upwards toward the fair marketplace value of the boat.

Once the price of the repairs gets to effectually 80 per cent of the "Agreed Value" or "Actual Cash Value" (depending on the policy), the insurance company is likely to declare it a "Constructive Full Loss" (CTL), write a cheque to the owner, and turn to a salvage company to sell what remains of the gunkhole.

Written off but still salvageable?

A boat with damage like this may be written off by the insurance company, merely someone else can notwithstanding prepare information technology upwardly and re-sell it.


So what happens next?


Enter the possessor of the small boat repair shop who works out of a building in a cheaper area away from the water. Maybe he (or she) is in need of some work to comprehend slow times. Overhead costs are lower, and chances are this person does very good work.

And then the shop owner buys the boat cheaply from the salvage visitor, fixes information technology upwardly, and and so sells it.

In many means, this is a great service to the industry and the planet: the boat stays out of the landfill, and a one time-useless hull tin return to the water.

Only… once the boat leaves the insurance "system" and is repaired by a boat store acting independently, the incentives change. At that place's no possessor or insurance company monitoring the repairs, and the gunkhole just needs to expect good enough to sell. Without detailed documentation of the work, who's to say the yard didn't use "putty and pigment to make 'er what she ain't"? Of course, the exact reverse may be true. The boat may have been fixed carefully by a competent store that was familiar with the type of boat—only how do we know?

In surveyors nosotros trust... just should we?


Tin't a good surveyor make up one's mind if the boat is audio, no matter who stock-still it? Not really. Inside the scope of a normal pre-purchase survey, the surveyor uses nondestructive tests and visual inspections to check a gunkhole. On the hull, for instance, the surveyor will likely tap the surfaces, and apply a moisture meter, but that can't determine whether a damaged area was repaired with an acceptable fibreglass laminate, or whether the type of resin used and the size of the overlap onto the undamaged laminate is sufficient.

Heir-apparent beware


So, how can you make sure Dreamboat 38 is a off-white deal? First off, every bit soon as you're enlightened that the boat was damaged and is being resold, ask for any documentation of the damage and repairs, and who was involved. So get the hull number and whatsoever other information and start Googling – yous'll be amazed what y'all can find within minutes. Finally, realise that there's a value in dealing with established, reputable yacht brokers.

Sell smart


If y'all're selling a gunkhole like this, you'll want to practice your ain Googling to find out what's "out at that place" nearly your boat. And be ready with equally much information as possible on the damage and repairs. That includes earlier, during, and subsequently photos; specifics on parts repaired or replaced; what laminates and resin were used for repairs; and whatever testing or sea trials that have been done on the boat. Because when the next buyer of Dreamboat 38 comes forth, it's in everyone'south all-time interest for that person to know exactly what he (or she) is getting into.

For more on buying second-manus boats, read how to inspect a 2nd-paw boat before buying.