Be a GP, Not a Specialist

When you get your annual physical, your family doctor, usually a general practitioner, checks out your whole body, and refers you to a specialist if necessary. Think of inspecting your boat in the same way: Be a GP, then call for help if you need it. While most surveyors consider themselves allaround experts, their real expertise is in evaluating the structure of the boat: They’re more like orthopedic surgeons than general practitioners. Instead of X-ray machines and MRIs, surveyors rely on moisture meters, sounding hammers, and years of experience and training to determine what’s happening under the gelcoat. It’s not a skill one can develop overnight, so if you have concerns about your boat’s bones, find yourself a really good surveyor.

Water in the laminate from osmosis and/ or leaking around underwater fittings and delamination caused by sloppy lay-up practices are the two main dangers to a fiberglass hull. If your surveyor finds any of these—and it’s what they’re good at—he’s repaid his fee many times over. But over the past 20 years or so, most builders have improved their construction practices, using vinylester resin, high-tech gelcoat, and epoxy barrier coats under the antifouling to waterproof their hulls. But the deck? Not so much. Even if your deck looks fine, if it’s cored (and most are), hire a surveyor every few years to check for water leaking into the core around poorly bedded fittings, stanchions, ports, hatches, and other perforations. Water in deck core is a serious problem, one that’s complex and expensive to solve. Nip it in the bud.