SURVEY LIFT. When the yacht is hauled and held by the crane/travelift and then relaunched. The actual inspection time required to make only the underwater inspection is about 20-30 minutes and for catamarans or large yachts we usually tell the yard that the lift will not exceed one hour including pressure wash.

TIME PRIOR TO LAUNCH. If the yacht is already ashore then one hour is the minimum preferred prior to launch for the required parts of the ashore inspection.

TIME TO MAKE A FULL CONDITION SURVEY ASHORE. Approximately 4-5 hours.

BOATYARDS OWN SCHEDULING. The boatyards seem to arrive for the lift either earlier than planned or after many hours. They stop for lunch probably 13:00 – 14:00 and close probably 15:00. Usually the early lift (08:00) is available in busy times. Some yards prefer to lift the yacht and place it ashore and then launch later at their convenience in order not to occupy the lift during the lift survey.

WEATHER. In case of lift particularly by trailer, sled, crane and especially at certain marinas (Corfu Gouvia, Kos Marina) weather may be an issue requiring the lift to be scheduled another day.

LIFT OUT AND IN SAME DAY. Two lifts same day waste a lot of the survey time and it is best for the yacht to be ashore in the morning and then launched later for sea trial and hauled back the last boat or even better the next day.

REPRESENTATIVE MOISTURE READINGS. For representative moisture readings to be taken (if wanted) the drying time ashore is not possible to determine because it depends on the atmospheric conditions and the model/age of yacht. Say one week ashore before the survey but it is not guaranteed to be dry. Often it is not possible to arrange for drying and visual inspection for osmosis is made instead of moisture readings. The yachts built before around 1995 are with high risk of osmosis because they did not have vinylester antiosmosis resin layer in the construction.

OSMOSIS CHECKING. It is possible for a yacht to have no blisters immediately when hauled and for the blisters to develop after a few days ashore due to the drying process. Again this would typically concern yachts built before around 1995 and yachts built later but with defective method/materials.

DIVER INSPECTION. It is not possible to avoid the ashore inspection by making diver inspection because a diver can only find new damages from collision or grounding not full assess the hull and gear.

WITNESSING OF LIFT. It is good for the surveyor to witness the lift in order to check for abnormal stress sounds from the structure and in case of keel boat to check for movement in the keel.

SEA TRIAL. If the contract is MYBA type then the rejection of the yacht is easily possible due to unsatisfactory sea trial. Therefore the sea trial should be before the lift. It is also common for the sea trial to be on the way to the yard.

PRESSURE WASH. If the hull is with marine growth then pressure wash is necessary for proper inspection. If the antifouling is ablative (soft type) it will be removed by hard pressure wash. It is possible to tell the operator to make a light wash on the hull and a heavy one on the gear but it is not guaranteed to protect the soft antifouling.

DIVER CLEANING. As the sea trial will normally include a period of full rpm of the engines it is necessary for diver cleaning of the engine seawater inlets and the propellers if they are fouled with marine growth otherwise excessive vibration or exhaust may occur or the engines may not reach full rpm, making it difficult to assess the engines. Excessive fouling of the hull is also an issue affecting speed and rpm. Therefore if the yacht is long time afloat it is better to lift ashore before the sea trial for cleaning.

REPAIRS. If a defect or damage is found that requires repair ashore then it is possible that the yacht remains ashore for repair to avoid additional lifting cost. In that case the sea trial may be postponed (probably incurring additional surveyor cost for revisit) or cancelled.

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