Resources
Marine Surveying Guides
Practical guides and professional insight for yacht and small craft surveyors.
Seawork 2026: The Technology Heading for Your Hardstanding Next Season
The propulsion, energy storage, and monitoring technology on the Seawork quayside is a preview of what reaches the small-craft pre-purchase market in 12 to 24 months. Here is what surveyors should be ready to inspect and document.
Steel-Hull Ultrasonic Survey: Measurement Grids, Benchmarks, and How to Grade What You Find
There is no published minimum-thickness standard for private steel narrowboats, which makes ultrasonic survey a question of method, not verdict. A defensible hull finding is a grid of recorded readings by zone, not the words "hull sound".
Keel Integrity in Pre-Purchase Surveys: What the Report Must Establish
Keel detachment is one of the most catastrophic failure modes in sailing. Documenting keel attachment in a pre-purchase survey is not a technical checkbox. It is a professional liability question. Here is what the report must contain, and why.
The Condition Survey Report: What Underwriters Actually Check
Specialist marine underwriters read condition survey reports differently from buyers. Understanding what they examine section by section, and where most reports fall short, is the difference between a document that supports a risk assessment and one that creates uncertainty at claims time.
How to Write a Vessel Valuation: Methods and Market Context
Most survey valuations rest on professional opinion without a documented methodology, which means they cannot be defended when challenged. A guide to the three bases of value, how to build a defensible UK market comparison, what narrowboat valuations require that yacht methodology does not, and what belongs in the report.
The Marine Surveyor's Guide to Rigging Inspection
Standing rigging on a 10-year-old yacht can look pristine and still be approaching failure. A practical inspection guide covering the sequence from deck to masthead, common failure modes, and how to make age-based defect classification hold up under professional challenge.