Friday was another work day on the boat. The roles panned out much as they do these days. Helen spent a lot of time outside making the boat look really nice, something we were not able to do before for all the obvious reasons. The shipwrights came round and buffed out the light scratches left on the boat following the last survey and moved the stern light so it couldn’t be obscured by the wind gen support pole. Something I’ve meant to do for years.
Another mistruth that surfaced during the last survey was that 110V are uninsurable in Australia which was a little ironic as we are now and then insured here. We now have it from one of the company presidents that 110V boats are indeed insurable. It’s a bit like the gas regulations in that there is more disinformation out there than good. The answer is pretty obvious when you ask the insurance company directly.
I’ve also shared, in detail, my discoveries of poor practice and false statements from the previous survey with our new brokers. I have also stated my requirements for future surveys. The responses I have received so far have echoed our own horror but also essentially stated that my requirements are essentially in line with their own expectations and how they normally handle surveyors on board a customers boat. The implication here is that we were badly let down by our previous broker. At this point, I am not surprised to learn this.
You can be assured that any future survey will require the surveyor, prior to leaving, to walk through and discuss each proposed issue with a representative I have chosen. If the issues are not seen to be documented and photographed prior to departure or any added later nor a copy of the final survey given to us, we will reject the entire survey. Turns out this is fairly normal practice.
I also knocked a few items off the list (and generated some more) relating to health/financial/travel planning for our return to the UK. The list is not getting smaller so the back is not yet broken on this segment of the task list.
Today we have the first of a few potential buyers aboard. I’m actually looking forward to this. We’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way. It won’t change how we initially interact with the new prospects but if there is interest we are now far better prepared to move forward, for both our and the prospective buyer’s sake.
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