It was hot and it was humid. We arrived at The Norwalk Cove Marina at 10AM to have the Vineyard Vixen surveyed and released back into the water for a Sea Trial. The Vineyard Vixen looked like it had seen better days. No major damage was done, however Hurricane Irene presented the boat with lots of leaves and sediment to give it a nice brown layer in the cockpit.
The Good: The surveyor that was recommended to us, Barnaby Blatch, was extremely thorough in and out of the water. We researched him before hand and found many positive reviews on his work and we have to say, he was excellent.
John Longley, the listing broker was also fantastic throughout the day. He even personally ran the starter (we'll get to that later) to the repair shop a good 30 minutes away (on 95...yikes!).
The Bad: We had been at the marina since 10 AM and everything had been going more or less pretty smoothly. It was about 1 PM when the mechanic came over to de-winterize the engine and get it going for the Sea Trial*. The starter didn't turn over, when they took it out it was rusted (fresh rust) and needed to be sent to get repaired to see if the engine worked. What does this mean? Well, no engine means no Sea Trial, no Sea Trial means we'd have to pay for our surveyor to come back another day when it got fixed. OK, that's bad but it can be fixed and we can move forward. The survey continued and then about 4:30 PM the other shoe dropped. They found water in the transmission oil. Oh, no. That's not good.
The Ugly: by 6PM the nail hit the coffin. We found out the boat had been on the hard for 2 years (we had originally been told it was only out of the water for only 1 year). So, for 2 years the boat could have been sitting with water in the transmission. The water was mixed in the oil already. Conclusion: it would have to be replaced.
Our dreams of the Vineyard Vixen began to quickly fade. In conjunction with the above land mines the sails would need to be replaced, as well as the rigging, the front hatch...it sounded endless and I started to zone out, it had been a long hot day.
What we learned:
It is so important to have a good Surveyor. They will let you know what needs to be done to make the boat sea-worthy. You want to have someone that intimately checks your boat. We would highly recommend Barnaby Blatch to anyone buying a boat.
Work with a good Broker. We met John through this deal and are super happy with his recommendations and all the hard work he's doing. He's honest and trustworthy and always there to answer our questions. Check out his listings here: Rudders & Moorings.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Nick and I believed this was our boat. Sadly, it wasn't. However our dream lives on and there will be more boats. In fact, we are going to go and look at another boat this Friday! We feel positive in time we'll find the right boat and off to the Caribbean we go.
Last but not least....make sure the engine works before you have a survey done. It will save you money :)
That's all for now, we'll keep you posted!
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