Today we did our first boat survey with an amazing surveyor. If you need someone in Corpus Christi - Mike Firestone is your guy. He does a very thorough inspection, gets the history of the boat, even climbs up to the top of the mast to inspect the main rigging.
Since it was such a big boat, he asked us to break it into two days so he could be sure to have enough time to do the full and proper survey, so the first day, we started in the morning inspecting the boat, and had to do the haul out around lunchtime, so we motored it over there (the owner was aboard and did most of the work, but he did let each of us take the helm for a short time!) and Bean and I grabbed some lunch with the broker while Michael and the surveyor checked it on the hard.
After lunch and splashing back, we took the test sail. The weather wasn't super nice, so we stayed within the marina breakwater, but we did motor back and forth and test the engine and then briefly put up the mainsail and unfurled the jib. It was beautiful. The boat still seems a bit big, it is definitely a beast, but it has its own engine room, it is pretty glorious for a sailboat!
The second day we wrapped up the inspection. There are a few areas of concern, but we are waiting for the final report before we make any decisions. It looks like there is quite a bit of leaking - around the toe rail, in the deck where grab rails were removed, and some around the chain plates. One bulkhead has some rot that would need to be replaced. Once we get the final report from Mike, we will discuss and make a final decision on whether we think we can handle the work or not.
Overall, we learned a lot, it was a good time, the owner was super nice and really wants the boat to go to someone who will use it and not let it sit (he lived on it), so we are still pretty excited about it.
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