Marlow 65' seatrial vibration

I put the onus of sea trial on the seller. I advise, and if need be insist, that the owner or captain take the boat out for a run, including WOT, 3 or 4 days before the survey/sea trial date. That way, anything that "pops" has time to be repaired and cleaned up. Also, should something go wrong on survey, we will know that all was in good operating order a few days prior..or at least will be able to advise what might not have been fixed assuming that particular finding doesn't impede on the sea trial. When a boat is under contract, the price of a captain or fuel or wash down for a one hour run, call it a half day, should be insignificant. It's foolish for the seller and disrespectful to the buyer to not have a trial run ahead of sea trial and survey.

I agree, but sometimes stuff just happens. I managed/maintained a 62' Sunseeker predator 2007 from 2011 or 12 to currently. Boat was maintained impeccably and with an open checkbook. We had just Awlgripped the hull, stripped the bottom and re-barrier coated it and painted it, everything always serviced on time. We just ran from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau with no issues. Then did a week through the Exumas from Nassau to Highbourne to Staniel and back to Nassau with the owners and again NO issues. Owners flew out, mate flew in. The boat NEVER has issues aside from routine maintenance and something minor pop up once in a blue moon.

We sat in Nassau for 2 days waiting on weather.....the morning we're going to leave, we wake up at 5am to the high water alarm going off. Sunseeker mounts 2 bilge pumps in every location, the normal one, and the emergency one 6-8" higher than the normal one. When the higher bilge pump comes on, it trips the high water alarm also. The a/c discharge nipple blew a hole in it.....it was spraying a good amount of water into the forward bilge, lower bilge pump burned up.....The mate and I fix both items prior to leaving. We leave, while on the bank I use the owners stateroom head because we're at cruise (29 knots) and it's easier than the guest near the bow(mind you, they've been using it a week with no issues), the fill solenoid sticks on, it overflows, floods the owners stateroom floor with 6" water which trips the GFCI for the entire boat..... slow down assess the situation, shut the breaker off to outlets, reset GFCI, shut off freshwater pump, had Shannon from Ronnie's carpet meet me at the dock and remove the carpet and padding from the owners stateroom as soon as we hit the dock in Pompano and vaccuum up all of the water.........I fix everything.

Onto the survey and seatrial 2 weeks later. The hull survey was impeccable, only 1 item was on it which we disclosed, the electric grill did not work (we never cooked on the boat). The faux teak on the aft deck had a bubble in it, which was scheduled for warranty repair because it was just installed 2 months prior. Not a single other item. This was in 2014.

On survey day, As soon as I started increasing the throttle going out of Hillsboro Inlet, the stainless upright support for the exhaust broke the weld and the rod fell over........ then at full throttle the stbd engine [port side exhaust gasket started leaking exhaust between the spacer and cylinder heads. And the same engine also had an alarm code pop up for the fresh water pump pressure sender on the way in....3 issues pop up ALL within an hour that were never there before...We deducted $10k from the price for all of the items. The buyer fixed all of it, and I still manage the vessel.

At the end of the market I am most familiar with a survey for sale involves a thorough inspection of the vessel and its systems and a sea trial during which a list of defects and or recommendations is produced which goes to the person who paid for the survey and the negotiations begin.

OR, if the fixes or inherent problems of the vessel are above and beyond what the buyer is willing to accept, he rejects the deal. I've had it happen on 2 yachts for a buyer, one was major cavitation/vibration issues on a Lazzara (as well as a laundry list of other items), and the other was a water leak on a Hatteras that caused Mold to be found.

Don't believe everything in the advert. Do your own due diligence and get everything checked that you can

And don't fall in love with it before hand.

So one of the lessons learned is to know who you're dealing with. Hard to do some times and sometimes no choice. However, I knew what was going on the moment you posted and the story they gave wasn't credible to start with. To know the true history of that boat would be interesting. My bet is that it gave problems from the start and owner couldn't take anymore.

Now you know why I would never order a new Marlow and only consider a used after a complete survey and one not being sold by them.

As to problematic designs, the real problem is that no two boats seem to be the same. Now, sometimes it's a design flaw impacting them all but they make "improvements" all the time so that the one built today of the same model as last year might not perform the same. Better or worse, depending on whether it really did improve or not. There are people who have had Marlow's they loved. Then there are those who have taken legal action.

There are plenty of well built boats out there. There are even good Marlows but one back to them so soon made me uneasy from the start. The 57 and 61 are great loop boats if no issues. That vibration didn't just happen now. The problems also have nothing to do with what country it was built in.

Good luck with your pursuit. Understand this that whatever this experience cost you, the money spent not buying the boat is minor compared to that it could have cost you had you bought it.

After spending a great deal of owner's money trying to diagnose and cure vibration issues on a larger version, the consensus of the team of naval architect, propeller experts, vibration analysts, and experts in shaft fitting and service was that the design might look nice but it was an operational failure.

Cavitation created by the skegs, close proximity of the props to the hull, and poor flow from the prop over the rudder lead to problems with the hull, prop, and rudder and very rapid wear of the rudder bearings (along with very poor linkage fitting) created even more vibration. The noise created by this made the "crew quarters" untenable underway.

The old saying about beauty being skin deep certainly applies.

My feelings precisely and appreciate the confirmation, Marmot. The boat in question had a design issue from the day it was sold new. They could do nothing about it. They knew about it. Now they're trying to resell it. They have full knowledge it's got problems that are not correctable. This is half genius, half mad scientist at work, always trying some new "better" idea and it often doesn't work out.

Did you let the salesman recommend the surveyor?

The only thing I thought was worse than the engineering design and execution was the marketer's attitude and response to fixing the problems. The design issues were bad enough but that organization's response was what powered the lawsuit. I strongly recommend that anyone considering one of those boats read the transcripts of the Kakawi and other lawsuits first. If you are going to spend that kind of money, know who and what you are dealing with.