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In need of a South Florida Yacht Surveyor...

Discussion in 'General Yachting Discussion' started by elsupremo, Jun 3, 2009.

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  1. elsupremo

    elsupremo Senior Member

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    I'm strongly considering purchasing a boat in Florida. I'm in California, and not familiar with the area. I'm going to be in need of a good, thorough surveyor to inspect the boat, and would rather find my own name and number rather than have one provided by the selling broker.

    If anyone has a surveyor in mind that they trust, preferably have worked with before and know to be a detail-oriented, caring individual, I would be very thankful for your reference.

    Thank you in advance!
  2. Lrgyot

    Lrgyot Senior Member

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    If you want someone that will go through the whole boat leaving nothing unturned, Butch Pliske has always done a really really good job for me.

    954 797 5087
  3. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    We used Ed Rowe last year for the prepurchase survey of the 70 footer I now captain, he did a good job, very thorough.

    Ed Rowe & Associates, Inc.
    772-589-7463 office
    eroweassoc at comcast.net


    for the engines (cat 3412E) we used Gary Kepler 954.434.5449
    he's a Cat guy, plugged in his laptops to pull all the data, and collect data during the sea trial.
  4. elsupremo

    elsupremo Senior Member

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    Thanks guys! Does anyone else have any experience with any of these names?
  5. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    I have had a good experience with Patton Marine + 1 305 648 0823

    http://www.pattonmarine.com/

    I have also over 20 yrs experiece working with Gary Keppler who I rate very highly. He does a lot for Patton Marine as well.
  6. goplay

    goplay Senior Member

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    I am from CA and have used Bob Riley several times (Twobotebob@aol.com). He also does work for Patton Marine. He is located in S FL. Very detailed oriented. A few other friends I know from CA have used Bob.

    He's done a lot of build progress surveys and has a lot of experience with factories. I find he has a broader breadth of knowledge than many other surveyors.
  7. RBJacobson

    RBJacobson New Member

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    Surveyors

    We have used Slakoff, Stahl, Gordon and Associates a few times and they have done a great job. They are one of the best in Fort Lauderdale area. Also, there is a website with all the Sams Accredited marine surveyors listed by location and their specialites online. I would list their website addresses but I don't know if that is allowed.
  8. Loren Schweizer

    Loren Schweizer YF Associate Writer

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    elsupremo: as it is generally a conflict of interest for your broker to recommend a surveyor, what he should have done is to present you with a list of ALL the local surveyors with phone numbers. Every good broker has his/her own list and should have had a handful of folks even if not in his local bailiwick. He could have told you a little about some that he has had personal experiences with and encouraged you to interview a few of them including such questions such as has his company surveyed this particular boat before--case in point, there is a survey done on a boat and the potential buyer passes. A month or two goes by and the next buyer has the same surveyor on that very same boat and who advises the buyer not to spend the $$ on a haulout as he just saw her bottom recently. Boat gets bought, boat gets hauled for bottom painting, blisters are found....ouch. True story.
  9. Ken Bracewell

    Ken Bracewell Senior Member

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    +1
    Good experience on numerous occasions
  10. elsupremo

    elsupremo Senior Member

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    Thank you to everyone for the references. Loren, to clarify, we are not quite to that point yet and the broker has not recommended anyone. I am just trying to be proactive and a step ahead by getting some good recommendations from the forum.

    Thanks again! Seems like I have a few to call. Quick question: The boat is in the Miami area. Do Ft. Lauderdale surveyors tend to stay up there, or do all the South Florida surveyors kind of float around the same area? Just wondering if I need to find a "Miami-specific" surveyor or if any of these South Florida recommendations will likely do.
  11. RBJacobson

    RBJacobson New Member

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    Anyone in the area is fine. Once you start getting too far away they may charge you a few extra dollars for time driving but a good surveyor is worth it.
  12. boblucas

    boblucas New Member

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    Stuart Fl, Brielle, NJ
    Pliske is good, Slakeoff and Associates are good, Malcolm Elliott in Lauderdale, John Reeve very good and complete, Mark Rhodes. We have quite a few good, honest surveyors in South Florida.
  13. JWY

    JWY Senior Member

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    All surveyors mentioned so far have excellent reputations and vast experience. Not all of them may be appropriate to your particular class or type of vessel. I commend you on your pre-purchase research, but you might want to refine it a bit further after you have found a possible boat. Interview the surveyors and make sure their resume consists of several of your type.

    In addition to those suggested, I also recommend Jon Howe, who worked with Ed Rowe (who is excellent) for many years, and Tom Ferguson of Deep Six Marine Surveyors.


    Judy
  14. Schminsky

    Schminsky New Member

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    I too endorse Butch (and sons). Haven't bought a surveyable boat without his approval. Slakoff also does good work (he oversaw some bottom repairs I was involved in), but I feel that Butch is more comprehensive and knowledgeable.

    I have also had Kepler do CAT engine surveys. His reputation (from what I have heard is very good). Also recommend a separate electrical surveyor if the boat has any electrical complexities (atlas system etc...).
  15. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I run a lot of yachts for various brokers doing surveys. I would use Malcolm Elliot or Mark Slackoff, from that list. Both are good....... As for Patton, they are more suited to 100'+ and charge a fortune to do a survey on a 70' on not any better then the other two.

    Same with Bob Riley, he once surveyed a 68' Azimut I managed and left every single floor hatch, carpet, and mattress out of place and left the boat that way.......Majorly pissed me off and took me 2 hours to put everything back on the seller's dime......Patton/riley also charged $1500 per day and two days to survey a 50' Azimut I managed for the buyer and the boat was only 3 years old. Told the buyer every rubrail screw on the boat should be changed because Azimut uses poor grade stainless screws and a few were bleeding a tiny bit of rust. Do you know how much time it and money it would take to remove, replace and rebed every single rubrail screw???
  16. elsupremo

    elsupremo Senior Member

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    Just want to say thanks for your continued input guys....I've called pretty much everyone listed in this thread along with a couple others and am in the process of making a decision. I'm under contract on the boat, but some repairs are being completed by CAT that will delay the survey until the beginning of July, so I have a little time to decide.

    From talking to these guys, I can tell a lot of the recommendations I got here were very good. From my "phone interviews" with these guys, I was most impressed with Gary Kepler and Marc Slakoff. Gary is very expensive, though, for his engine survey...but his reputation is outstanding. Marc seems very knowledgeable and his prices are fair. I'll let you guys know how I decide and how it turns out. :)
  17. elsupremo

    elsupremo Senior Member

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    I would like to follow up to my own thread here and let you guys know how it turned out. As per my previous post, I did hire Marc Slakoff of Marc Slakoff & Associates (formerly Slakoff, Stahl, Gordon & Assoc.) for the hull survey on my Fairline 58 Squadron and Gary Kepler of Onsite Diesel Repair to do the engine survey on the twin CAT 3406E's.

    For various reasons, the scheduling of everything was very tight, but both men were easy to contact and as flexible as reasonable in their schedules. On the morning of the survey, both men were at the shipyard at 8 AM. I came a little later, around 9:15 AM, still suffering a bit from jet lag. Just prior to the haulout, both surveyors were already well into their work; Gary already had his complex equipment laid out and Marc was scampering all around the vessel. We hauled out and Marc checked out the bottom; Marc and Gary know each other and it seemed as if Gary was looking around with him. Afterwards, we went out for a very extensive sea trial. All I can say here is that Gary obviously tested and retested every possible aspect of the engines. Marc participated a bit in this process, then resumed his own survey. I don't know of a latch he didn't test, a door he didn't open, a light he didn't turn on...very thorough.

    We were out from around 11 AM till around 3 PM. Gary was finished with his survey and cleaning up his stuff by around 4 PM. He spoke with me briefly about some of his concerns, but time was running out and we had to move the boat back to its berth. Marc stayed onboard for the trip to its berth and continued looking into the issues that had come up during the sea trial. We parted ways with Marc at probably around 5:30 PM.

    Both men were extremely focused and professional throughout the process and did not shy away from putting in a very full day. However, the impressive part was still to come. By the next day (Friday), Marc's office sent me a PDF of recommendations to look over. By Monday, Gary sent me his data and recommendations sans oil samples as they had not returned from the lab. They came Tuesday and he sent me his whole "package" in pdf format with all his charts, data, and recommendations.

    Tuesday morning, I received 2 beautifully bound books with Marc's survey report and recommendations. Very detailed, very thorough, and easy to read. It was very extensive and well prepared, probably about 1/4 of an inch thick. Very impressive, considering the unbelievably short timeframe his office had to prepare it.

    Thursday morning, I received the nicely bound book (novel?) with Gary Kepler's report. This, to me, was even more impressive because I knew he had mainly written this himself and it was a LOT of writing. It is a solid 1/2" inch thick, and has sections for a 13 page survey report, a necessary repairs section, performance data with subsections for port and starboard engines, and oil samples. I assumed a lot of it had to be pre-written form-filled data, but upon reading it, it doesn't seem like that's the case. It is very specific and detail-oriented regarding my boat and sea trial. I can only assume the guy loves his job... It wasn't the easy read that Marc's report was, but it is at a further level of complexity and detail. He calculates previous fuel burn and appropriate maintenance intervals at those rates, he makes recommendations based on my likely use of the vessel, etc. etc. - my point is he covers everything you could possibly imagine.

    For both surveyors, I felt I received every bit of my money's worth (particularly for Gary). Their reports gave me an absolute ton of knowledge regarding my boat's condition, its systems, and maintenance. Their work gave me a comfort level about exactly what I was purchasing and I couldn't have asked for more. I would use them again in the future and will do so if I have the opportunity. So, thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread, I'm very satisfied. I wrote this up just to share my experience for anyone else who is looking for such qualified people.
  18. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    YF Member elsupremo- As you were obviously unhappy with what I wrote in your gangway crane thread, you have chilled out a bit as I was the one in post 5 of this thread to give a second endorsement ( Pascal was first) of Onsite Diesel and Gary Keppler?
  19. elsupremo

    elsupremo Senior Member

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    As far as this thread was concerned, your contribution was very valuable and was a significant part of my decision to hire Gary for the survey. I knew from nearly 4 years of reading your posts that you have immense knowledge about and experience with yachts and their systems, and that your posts deserve good consideration. That remains true, and I do thank you for your recommendation. Holding online grudges doesn't sound like my cup of tea, so let's start afresh. Thanks again.
  20. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    You are most welcome and I look forward to hopefully being able to assist you in your quest for an answer as useful as the one in this thread in your future posts.