Jupiter, FL - Survey & Sea Trial

[Kevin's Post] After a few days of negotiation we settled on a price for the Jupiter Manta.  The sale was still contingent on a survey and sea trial (kind of like a home inspection & test drive).  So I flew back out to FL this weekend, this time with Amanda, to supervise the survey.  The brokers aren't allowed to even recommend a surveyor, so I found one in the area with the help of Google and scheduled him for the survey.  He happened to be the author of one of the catamaran books we had bought when we were trying to choose a make of catamaran.

The morning of the survey, the surveyor was already at the boat when we arrived and was crawling around the starboard engine room.  With him, the two boat brokers, and the hired captain, there were six of us on board.  The brokers were in a hurry to get the boat moving since we needed to get under several scheduled drawbridges to get to Jupiter inlet (access to the ocean) and then back under the same bridges to make our haulout appointment at the boat yard.  The surveyor would continue his inspection while we were underway.  The owner had hired a professional delivery captain for the day to captain the boat for us.  He had been a sort of handyman for the owner and so was very familiar with all the boat systems.

The marina the boat was at was part of a condominium complex on the ICW (intracoastal waterway) so we had to motor several miles to get to the ocean.  The boat has a 60' mast so we had to radio all the bridges to have them stop traffic and open to allow us to pass.  It was pretty neat seeing all the traffic stop so we could putter by.  The boat attracted a lot of attention due to the crazy graphics and silly name.  Everybody who saw us seemed to stare with disbelief.  The hired captain commented that sometimes in a boat it is best to unmemorable.  Yes, the graphics were going to have to go.

When we finally got to the ocean, the winds were light and variable and the seas were flat calm.  Not ideal for a sailboat test drive.  But we raised the sails and managed to make the thing go 3 knots in 5 knots of wind, so the brokers were pretty pleased with themselves.  The sails were in decent shape considering their age, just a little dingy.  Everything appeared to work, although the surveyor recommended that we replace a few of the lines due to chafe.  We didn't waste any time waiting for wind, it was back under the bridges and on to the boatyard a few miles in the opposite direction (also on the ICW).

We were right on time for our scheduled haulout, and our captain deftly maneuvered the boat in to the crane's slings while the brokers stood by with fenders.  Once the boat was stable in the slings, we all hopped off the boat and the crane lifted it out of the water.  This gave the surveyor an opportunity to inspect below the waterline without having to use scuba gear.  He tapped the entire hull with a mallet looking for soft spots and inspected the saildrives, rudders, and propellers.  The bottom was fairly clean and had a good coating of anti-fouling paint, but the saildrive zincs needed to be replaced soon.  (These are sacrificial metal pieces which prevent the important metal parts of the saildrive and propeller from corroding away).  The surveyor said it was unfortunate we didn't have replacements since we could have replaced them right then while we were out of the water.  Now we'd have to schedule a second haulout to make the repair.  Other than the zincs, everything below the waterline was ship-shape.

Back in the water we motored back to the owner's marina.  The surveyor really hadn't found anything notable, so we told the owner's broker we would buy it if we could keep the marina slip through April.  He said he would check with the seller and amend the purchase agreement.  Buying a boat is kind of like buying a house, there is a lot of paperwork.  It will be about a week before we close, but if all goes as expected we will soon be the owners of a 1996 Manta 40 catamaran.