Log XII - Artemis 1 (Pre-Purchase Part 2)

The boat inspection report will contain the information of all the equipment and accessories on your boat, with the findings and recommendations for the defects. It will also give a valuation of your boat and you better keep your fingers crossed that the valuation is lowered than what you had offered so that you can use it as a bargaining tool for the final negotiation.

The most important component of your boat is of course the engines.

However the inspection will only cover visual checks, engine/ transmission oil analysis and a sea trial to test their performances. Any latent defects can only be found through thorough inspection by an experienced mechanic which is hard to find when you are so far away, unless you have contacts over there. So you will just need to rely on the limited information you have on the engines and take a calculated risk.

The visual checks are mainly for exterior corrosion. All marine engines will corrode over time. It is just how well you maintain them. For exterior corrosion, it can be quite easily rectified by painting a layer of anti-corrosion paint over. This shall be covered in more details in my post on protecting your engine against rust.

In my opinion, the engine/ transmission oil analysis is not that helpful. It shows the content of the various compounds found inside the oils and highlight which of them are excessive. However you cannot pin point where the problem is until you really use the engines. The excessive compounds detected may just simply due to an overdue engine oil change. You can save this oil analysis costs if you want to.

Before the sea trial, the inspector will do an engine compression test.

This will test whether the cylinders can hold sufficient pressure. If the pressure is too low, there are many implications. The solution can be as easy as replacing a damaged gasket or as complicated as replacing a broken piston. So if the compression test is not satisfactory, I will suggest that you reconsider your options as you do not know what engine problems you will be dealing with in the future.

The sea trial will give you an idea of what is the boat's maximum and cruising speed and at what RPM.

You can check this information against the engine manufacturer's specifications and see whether does the performance match. Take note that the performance will be lower than the specifications due to the engine age, wind and current conditions during the trial, and the condition of the hull. My boat engines were running at about 80% of the specified performance which I feel is good enough considering the age of 14 years and not to mention the condition of the hull with barnacles infestation.

The inspector will also highlight if there are any obvious problems during the sea trial such as excessive cranking during startup, excessive exhaust smoke, engine temperature and pressure consistency, steering transmission, etc. I will not be able to cover all the possible problems that can happen during a sea trial. If you are unsure of certain issues, you can drop me an email or comment below and I will try to help to the best of my knowledge, or you can ask Mr Google know-it-all.

Log XI - Artemis 1 (Pre-Purchase Part 1)

Once the price is accepted by both you and the seller, you will have to put a deposit to show that you are really serious.

For my case, the deposit was 10% of the selling price. You can either use internet banking (if you are transferring to a bank that is in your bank's list) or you can use telegraphic transfer (if the bank is not in your bank's list). Both services will incur a transfer fee from your side and there will be another transaction/ conversion fee from the receiving bank. So you will have to factor these 2 bank charges in when you do the transfer so that the receiving party can get the full payment. Most of the time, you will not know what are the charges from the receiving bank, you may have to ask the agent or in my case, I just put in an additional USD$25. You can request the agent to cover for the rest if the fee is exceeded.

After the agent receives the deposit, you can request for an inspection and sea trial. Since you are not physically there, you can appoint a third party inspection company to do all these for you. Try to find a company that is near to the boat's location or they may charge extra for the longer journey.

I will strongly recommend that you engage the inspection service before finalization of the purchase. If the inspection turns out to be perfect (which is highly unlikely), you will have a peace of mind. But if the inspection is not so satisfactory, you can either use the inspection report and request for more discount or just drop the deal entirely. My inspection included the engine oil analysis with a sea trial and it cost about USD$1,500. There were some defects found which were not reflected in the boat description put up by the agent. So I managed to get another USD$4,000 off the previously agreed price due to the newfound defects.

Basically it is a win-win situation for you to do the inspection. If the report is satisfactory, you know you are getting a good deal. If the report is unsatisfactory, you can use it to further lower the selling price, which in most cases, the discount will be more than the cost for the inspection.

On top of that, you will be more aware of the defects of the boat and you can decide whether you want them to be fixed over there or do it when your boat reaches your country. Since boating is very common in USA, generally the repair costs are cheaper as compared to Singapore - where most of the services related to marine are very expensive.

Just bear one thing in mind. Boats are not like cars, especially cabin cruisers. There are much more equipment and stuff to maintain, so it is very difficult to find a used boat that is in turnkey condition. There are bound to have some parts due for servicing. With this expectation in mind, you will not feel so frustrated about the defects and will enjoy the buying cum learning experience more.

In my next post, you will know what are the things to look out for to service before shipping your boat across the globe.

Land Log XI - Back to Lazarus Island

Let's take a break from boat purchase this week. We went back to Lazarus Island again, but this time round we did not take the public ferry, my friend ferried us there using his boat.

This is really a beautiful place. Want to know how beautiful is it?

The clear turquoise water against the blue sky. You can see Singapore city landscape in the background.

This time round, we had a few students with us who are keen to learn fishing. What a perfect environment to learn something new while enjoying nature.

The fish here are not spectacular but they are enough for beginners to experience the fun of fishing.

All the fish caught were released safely back into the sea. Though we did not catch a fish sizable enough for dinner, we had a fulfilling day. Experience like this is hard to come by in our small island city.