On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 01:53:49 GMT, in message
.net
"Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

When you have done that, sit down with your "survey" and do the best you can
to calculate how much it will cost to remedy the shortcomings you've found.
Then take that off what you would have offered for the boat *before* you
knew those things (based on your impressions of the boat without your
"survey"), and *then* make your offer. Look for a competent surveyor to
watch your back - that you didn't make any dangerous omissions - but use
their report to make a laundry list for you to accomplish on your own
nickel.

I second this advice -- take a good close look at everything that is
available to be examined and base your offer on that full examination.

Because you won't get any satisfaction after the survey. The boat is the
owner's baby, and can do no wrong.

I'm a little more sympathetic to the current owner. If I put my boat
on the market I would expect any offers to be based on the current
apparent condition of the boat, including all of her visible or
expected faults. When buying a 20 year old boat I expected some faults
that would take money and effort to fix, and sure enough there were
some there, including some that the surveyor caught and I didn't. I
didn't expect the selling price to change unless there were some *big*
*hidden* problems, in which case I was much more likely to call off
the deal and keep looking.

Ryk