Buying advice. Boat with insurance claim on mast

[brmarkey]

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere I’m new and haven’t been able to find anything

I found out in the disclosures document that a boat I’m preparing to buy has hit a bridge with its mast. Insurance replaced the mast and repaired the damage.. How big of a deal is this? Hidden damage not easily found on the average survey? What cautions should I take? Should I pass all together? The boat has been surveyed since the incident and nothing was mentioned related to structure or the mast.

The boat is perfect for what I want to do. Well maintained. Low hours on the motor!

Anyone out there have experience with this?Advice?

[nightowle]

I hope you'll have your own survey done and alert the surveyor to this issue so they can put particular attention to this repair. Did the current owner share any information or paperwork on who did the repair? Assuming a reputable yard did the work, then that is something positive. Assuming this is a stepped mast, the biggest issue is whether the fiberglass around the mast was repaired properly if it was damaged. Anything related to electrical wiring or rigging is more easily remedied if you came across problems after your purchase.

[brmarkey]

Yes I was informed of who did the repair/replacement of the mast and boat. It is a deck stepped mast.

[brmarkey]

Any one with first hand experience with this?

[S/V Adeline]

Originally Posted by brmarkey

Any one with first hand experience with this?

Two primary concerns, was it repaired correctly? Requires a good surveyor who not only knows his/her stuff but is aware of the concerns.
Before that, take any and all information you have to your insurance company and make sure they will insure it.
We got a great deal on an insurance boat

[bimini blue]

Find the rigger that did the work
They should have replaced all the rigging as well as the mast
I lost the mast in matthew and there mast, standing rigging, running rigging and electronics sending units were replaced
That included the roller furling and adding staylock turnbuckles as well as a new job
The point is if done right you wind up with a lot of new and updated equipment
That is what you want to know

[mikecambrai]

Better make sure that there was no damage to the bridge. You might find a writ on the mast one day!
As far as the yacht is concerned, you should have your own surveyor specifically look at this. Not only the bottom of the mast and deck but at all the deck fittings where the shrouds were connected.

[mikecambrai]

PS. Add to any purchase contract 'Free from all liens' or whatever is the language in your country. You don't want any comeback after the purchase if you do buy.

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by brmarkey

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere I’m new and haven’t been able to find anything

I found out in the disclosures document that a boat I’m preparing to buy has hit a bridge with its mast. Insurance replaced the mast and repaired the damage.. How big of a deal is this? Hidden damage not easily found on the average survey? What cautions should I take? Should I pass all together? The boat has been surveyed since the incident and nothing was mentioned related to structure or the mast.

The boat is perfect for what I want to do. Well maintained. Low hours on the motor!

Anyone out there have experience with this?Advice?

Get the details on the repair.

If the owner was paying for the cost of the repair, the broken mast would be fixed with a sleeve, all rigging that could be re-used would be, the fibreglass work would be a 10 ft job.

Being an insurance claim, if it was more than 2 years ago, everything that was damaged, and could be reasonably claimed damaged, would be replaced with new, and the FRP work would be flawless.

Insurance claims since 2017 are a little trickier, in that an at fault claim is covered for depreciated value, so older boats won’t get so much new stuff unless the owner pays some (as it really should be, as it used to be a windfall if someone whacked your boat.)

So the most important thing is to get the details of the repair and whom did it. Are they reputable, did they do it right.

[CarlF]

Does your future insurance company know? Now that you know, you have an obligation to tell them. They may contact the previous insurance company to get a report of the claim and repair. They will probably also require a rigging survey. If they're worried, they'll refuse to insure the boat.

But I expect this is going to turn out just fine. Almost every boat has had an accident or two in its life. Better to know about it now than discover later. Insurance company repairs are usually done right because they don't want it coming back at them later.

If this is a documented boat, the standard CG Bill of Sale for transferring documentation contains "VESSEL IS SOLD FREE AND CLEAR OF ALL LIENS, MORTGAGES, AND OTHER ENCUMBRANCES OF ANY KIND AND NATURE, EXCEPT AS STATED ON THE REVERSE HEREOF"

So don't let this scare you away from an otherwise good boat.