The Westlake Pirates

10 am: Engine compartment opened, standing water cleared by use of bilge pumps. So far, so good. Engine #1 fired up. Starts on the first try. Engine #2 fired up promptly thereafter. Starts on the second try. Now we have a minor problem. It seems that Engine #1 (starboard side) isn't ejecting coolant water from the back as it should be. May be something simple like a broken impeller belt. Engine #2 seems to be in normal working order and pumping water properly. The coolant level is quite low, but there's still just barely enough to not warrant shutting it down. Like an airplane, the boat is movable with one engine, and the second can be used for tight quartering as needed. However, we have another problem - there seems to be less than 1/8th of a tank of fuel in the aft tank, and the forward tank is bone dry. This will not suffice, especially considering there are BIG BOLD notes in the booklet about the importance of keeping the fuel tanks full at all times. Option A: We have the owner obtain fuel and to the survey another day. Option B: We have the surveyor bring some fuel over and we get started an hour late. We choose option B, since apparently the owner can't get over to the boat on a regular basis. Surveyor departs to obtain fuel and return.

11:45 am: Still no sign of surveyor. Phone rings, he's on the line. Seems the owner was informed of this minor issue and decided that he wants to fuel the boat, rather than the surveyor (which would have probably cost about $300 in fuel and labor... an amount he would be paying rather than us.) Now mind you, he's known that we were going to have this survey done for FOUR days, spanning a weekend. For most normal people, this would seem like more than a sufficient amount of time to ensure everything is in order, such as fuel levels. On top of this, there is garbage and junk throughout the boat. There is a dirty coffee cup in the sink, there's used tissues in the head garbage can, and there's broken wooden moulding all over the floor. Not the most visually appealing, but less critical than fuel. So the surveyor suggests that he come back after lunch to do the in-water portion of the survey today, and we can haul the boat out on Wednesday afternoon instead. Fine.

1 pm: Surveyor returns, in-water portion of inspection begins. Helm area looks nice and shiny, with new steering cables and clean, well-connected electrical rigging. Storage area below helm has massive amounts of clutter in it, including paint cans, paint brushes, a rip-saw, an un-opened fish finder, an old phone, etc. We haul all of that crap out, and he knocks about on the wood and fiberglass for a bit. Things, for the most part, sound fairly good and solid. So far, so good.

As the survey continues, we open the front interior hatch into the hull compartments. There's some standing water in the bottom, but that's not unusual as the bulkheads aren't water-tight and bilge pumps are installed to deal with this. The water is mostly pumped out, and we continue. There are more loads of junk under the front hatch. For instance, we discover some of the left-over flooring material in a box. Surprise! It turns out the nice new hardwood floors are actually crappy peel-and-stick pieces of laminate wood. Tacky, in more ways than one. Then we discover some extra pieces of wooden moulding, which the current owner has ringed each floor hatch with. Surprise! It turns out they're actually made of a flimsy foam with a wood-grain printed paper covering. High quality material, which also explains why they keep cracking and breaking underfoot as we walk through the boat. I borrow a pair of pliers to remove some of the now-bare nails from the floor as they break, and we continue. Thump thump... the septic tank is nearly full, but in good condition and not likely to leak any time soon. Thump foomp... the bulkhead is nearly full of water, and in not-so-good condition. That'll probably need replacement. The hull in this section looks to be in fairly good shape, although there may be a few small leaks where the exterior frame meets the base. Not all that unusual in a 33 year-old boat, and fairly easily re-sealed. We're now done inspecting hatch #1.

On to hatch #2, which is directly in front of the kitchen sink. Not much junk in this one, but not much room for junk, since it contains one of the two water storage tanks. Ping ping... the tank is empty. We quickly check the third hatch, where the other water tank is located, and confirm that this, too, is dry. Not too big of a deal, since there's a dockside water hook-up that has been providing the boat with liquid. On to the structural portions. Thump foomp... more soft bulkhead wood. Hmm, this isn't looking so good. We close that hatch up and proceed outside, where it has finally stopped raining.

It is now 3 pm, and we're less than a quarter of the way through the boat. We open the front outside hatch, and discover a plethora of nautical floatsam stowed in haphazard fashion. There are fenders, life preservers (soaked to the core), ropes, various lights and banners, and two big anchors. All of that junk hauled out, some more thumping is done and the front bulkhead passes inspection, although the life preservers will need replacement.

We open the storage beneath the two front benches. The port side bench has the propane assembly for the stove and heater. This has the look of recent replacement and the hoses are of good quality, but the tank in use is designed for vertical placement underneath a grill, rather than horizontal placement underneath a bench, so all the safety valves and such are useless as positioned. Oh, and did I mention that this makes it a massive violation of Coast Guard regulations, as well? Regardless, it could be easily remedied with a new tank and a tie-down. Right.

At this point I finally departed for work (at 4 pm, and without any lunch!) and Kristin arrived to walk through the rest of the survey. Oh, and I should give a big shout-out to Anderson Marine, and especially to Bruce Anderson, who did our survey. He's a very Good Person, both as a boat surveyor and as a person.

Anyway, Kristin might have more to add to this from her personal experience with him on the rest of the survey, but I'll sum up what she told me.

Essentially, the starboard engine has some serious mechanical problems. Bruce isn't a mechanic, but he has been around boats for something like 30 years, so when he says there's a big problem, we believe there's a big problem. He compares the engines currently in the boat to putting a 13" TV with VCR into a million-dollar mansion. Right. On to the rear bulkhead, where it seems the fiberglass is literally falling apart underneath the engines. This falls into the category of very Not Good. Estimated cost to replace the engines and repair/rebuild the rear of the boat? $30,000... minimum. Anyway, there's also a half-size fridge and freezer on the top deck. Ooops, it seems they're too heavy for that corner and actually buckling the roof directly over the foot of the bed below! There's some more major repairwork needed, since the roof is one solid, waterproofed chunk of plastic and fiberglass.

At this point (at 7 pm!) it was decided that maybe hauling out the boat on Wednesday would be unneccesary overkill.

So we've had a chat with the current owner (who was flabbergasted that he's basically in posession of a soon-to-be reef), and the real estate agent, and other than the fee for the survey, we're out of that deal... and the survey itself was educational enough that it was well worth the cost.

Stay tuned though, since we've got a line on another, much nicer looking Cruise-A-Home, that's being sold by an actual boat dealer who knows what a rotten boat looks like :)