Pending Survey on 48 ft. Hatt M.Y.

[rblase]

I am having a 1983 Hatt M.Y. with 6V92's (1800 hrs.) surveyed on friday 10/14 and an engine survey sometime next week. I would appreciate any insight into areas unique to the 48 or to the 6v92's that I should question the surveyors. Boat has cruised primarily in Chesapeake and been under cover and appears to be in excellent condition. Appreciate any help I could get. I'm not very experienced with big diesels since I've sailed for 25 years until this past June. Thx.

[Nonchalant1]

Hopefully, you'll have a Detroit Diesel mechanic to survey the engines and a boat surveyor to survey the rest of the boat. The V92's are not as easy to check as the V71's, but DD knows them best.

Some stuff you can do yourself, or ask to have done:

You should advise the owner to leave the current oil in the engines so they can pull an oil sample. An oil change right before a survey can mean they're hiding something. The oil should be black and dirty.

Also ask the owner to leave the engines stone cold for when you and the surveyor arrive. Look up Genesis' "cold engine startup test" on this website, mostly to watch how much they smoke, etc. It can give you some insight into how they have been maintained. Detroit Diesel's are great, but it can easily cost $30,000 to major overhaul a pair of them.

Look at the engines number plates on the engines or in the engine rooms if they have been moved. They'll provide the engine max RPMs under no load and max RPM under load. Have the surveyor run them up to max both ways and write down the RPMs. If the boat has FloScans, use these for accurate RPM readings. Analog tachometers are rarely accurate. The engines should be able to reach specified max. If not, they're over-propped or have a power problem.

Plane the boat. Does it get up on plane smoothly without shaking much? High RPMs should not shake the floor from off balance running gear.

Get the surveyor to check the oil in the marine gears. It should be clean and clear just like it was new. Allison gears use the same 40 wt oil as the engines. The gears should shift smoothly and consistently at idle.

Ask the owner for a copy of all maintenance records. A well maintained boat has good maintenance records and receipts. If they say they don't have them, you'll have to assume they were not that good at maintaining the boat.

Look at the wiring. Does it all look like good neat work, well marked (Hatteras used number markers on every wire) and all multi-strand wires? No Romex with solid core wires. No lamp cord. No twist-on wire connectors. Is there a tangled bunch of wires under the helm that nobody can figure out? That's expensive to replace or work on.

Have the surveyor run the generator hard, turning on lots of consumers like A/C, heat, stove, to stress it and run it for at least 45 minutes.

When the boat is hauled, check for bottom blisters, almost the size of popcorn. Hatteras is famous for them. They're not a problem for integrity of the hull due to solid fiberglass below the waterline, but they slow you down, look bad, hard to paint and are expensive to have fixed.

When the boat is hauled, does all the running gear and thru-hulls, etc. look like old dull brown/green bronze? It should. Bronze that is beautiful and gold may be subject to electrolysis eating it away.

Ask the owner to have the holding tanks pumped out before the sea trial. Then flush the heads a dozen times each. These boats sometimes have a pumpout pipe problem and the tank won't pump out excpet for the top 20 gal, and then they overflow quickly.

Look everywhere for signs of water or sludge seeping from any surface or trim.

Oh yeah...Have fun too. They're great boats.

Doug Shuman
1978 53MY