About 18 month back, BoatUS who has insured my 48 LRC for 17 years decided that an in the water survey was in order.
Turns out all boat in my area insured by BoatUS got the same treatment. It appears that they were interested in establishing what they were insuring and to get a new market value for the next renewal, or decision to not offer a renewal.
Factually what the survey involved is listed below, with a total time of around 6 hours spent by the surveyor. BTW, I was impressed by the surveyor, way better than most I have encountered. By percentage of time devoted to the subject:
50% to inventory of the boat, all electronics including serial numbers, serial numbers of absolutely everything down to the engines and reverse gears, even picked up on an error in the Hatteras owners manual which had the reverse gear ratio misstated.
40% to safety, navigation lights, fire extinguishers, electrical inspection of everything, testing of all bilge pumps, ground fault testing, seacocks, bonding system, everything done with an annual courtesy inspection, down to inspection of the contents of every drawer and locker.
10% enquiring as to what on the boat had been replaced with new, rebuilt, added, removed. He asked that I give him a sales pitch of what made the boat really special for a prospective buyer.
I was invited and accepted to be present for the entire survey and assisted where two people could check things quicker and to show how to turn things on and off. There was no mallet tapping on the fiberglass for soft spots. No request to start the engines, generator, bow thruster, AC, etc.
Finally, the surveyor was working with a set of preprinted form, likely supplied by the insurance company. It was a fill in the blanks type report being completed.
That is what I experienced, again an in the water survey without leaving the dock.
Pete
