On 8 Mar 2006 14:30:01 -0600, Dave wrote:

Of course it is. I mentioned it solely to demonstrate that your proposed
test of safety and insurability is a silly and useless test.

That was not my proposal, someone else. My personal criteria is one
or more conditions unknown before the survey that will collectively
cost more than a thousand or so to repair. Below that price I expect
the seller to make the repair at his expense. Over that, I wan't a
price adjustment so that I can make the repair myself and insure that
it is done correctly. It has been my experience that almost all boats
older than 5 to 10 years will have some non trivial issue turn up in
the survey. I have no qualms about asking the seller to adjust the
price because it has also been my experience that the survey will miss
a few things that are non trivial to fix. I've never had this happen,
but if the survey turned up a major structural or mechanical issue, I
would walk away from the deal and thank the surveyor.