Yup. You're right about the "when" of the survey. This normally happens as the next step after you write up the purchase agreement, earnest money is paid into escrow, and you have taken the test sail (if reasonable/possible).
This boat is on the hard (for several years) and the seller doesn't seem interested in putting her in the water (he bought a 30' which is in, but at a different marina). This concerns me, but I'm not sure how much it should concern me. Prudence would seem to indicate "a lot".
one thing to be alert to, no matter who writes the insurance, is that it include pollution abatement and wreck removal. Either situation is unpleasant to think about, but the costs can hit $10k to $50k plus in the wink of an eye.
Thanks for the tip! I've pulled quotes from a couple of on-line insurers, just to get an idea of costs. Seems to be pretty consistent. I'll have to check my insurance guy and see what he says.
Spent an hour and a half at the boat, with the (private) seller, yesterday. For an '81 it seems to be in very good condition. The hull/keel don't show any spider cracks, no crack or line where the keel bolts to the hull (several of the other boats being sold by the marina brokerage did have those evident). The rudder had taken on water, but he had pulled it, drilled holes in the bottom to drain it, then sanded, filled and West epoxied the whole thing. My 7yo son had gone with me and we helped the seller re-mount the rudder, which was sort of fun.
On the topsides, the teak, what there is (doesn't seem like there's much) needs to be sanded/scraped and refinished. The portholes have all been pulled and re-bed recently. Hardware looked reasonably clean and functional, with no soft spots around any of the chainplates, cleats, winches or lifeline stanchions. Below decks, the cabin was clean if a little dusty/musty. The cushions all have original fabric but it's in decent shape (no rips or tears that I could see). No evidence of water incursion anywhere, but I didn't pull the headliner, just looked at the inside of the hull where the backing plates and stuff are mounted and didn't see any water stains or whatnot.
This boat doesn't have an inboard, and the bilge had a little water in it (to be fair, we had a rain storm yesterday morning, dumping about .5" of water over a couple of hours) but not very deep (I'd say < 1", probably not more than 1/2", and only in the aft inspection opening over the keel). The cockpit had water in it, but the drain at the back was plugged with a couple dead beetles and old leaves; once that was cleaned out it drained quickly. The lifelines have netting from the toerail up, from just in front of the cockpit all the way to the bow; I thought that was nifty considering we have a couple of young boys.
The mast isn't stepped, so I got to look at the standing rigging (looks like all stainless twisted wire; the turnbuckles and clevis ends looked to be in good shape). The port spreader cover was unattached although in place (needs the nut/bolt removed, slid down and bolted again). The running rigging looks serviceable, but not new. The sails were at the sellers house, so I didn't get a chance to look at those. He said the genoas (170, 150 and a storm jib, IIRC) are in good shape, but the main will probably need replacing in a year or two (I'm guessing that means, "you could get by with it this year, but it really should be replaced"). Boom looked fine. The masthead thing for apparent wind is missing one of it's cups, but the seller has a replacement.
Now the bad...there are a couple of gouges into the gelcoat on the starboard side. Looks like dock rash. It's not into the mat, though. Topsides, on the raised rib over the cabin that runs down the starboard side (there is a teak handhold piece mounted there), there are maybe five or six chips out of the gelcoat that go to the mat. I'm guessing the starboard side ones are just fill with gelcoat repair and sand/wax type of repair. I'm not sure about the larger ones on the deck. Maybe those need filler/epoxy and then gelcoat repair? I'll have to look in to that.
All things considered, I was impressed by the boat. The seller seemed disappointed I didn't whip out my checkbook, but I'm not about to rush in to this and want to look at a couple of options. I will say, though, that compared to the Catalina 27 and O'Day 28 we looked at afterwards (exterior only), the Ericson appears to be in much better condition.
