In need of a South Florida Yacht Surveyor...

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.