marine surveyor in St. Maarten

[rnbsn]

Does anyone have recommendations for a Marine Surveyor in St. Maarten?

[callistov42]

David Duong, St Martin Marine Surveyors is absolutely the BEST. In addition to being knowledgeable and professional he is an EXTREMELY nice guy. He has done several projects for me and I just can't recommend him highly enough.
St Martin Marine Surveyors

[doncx]

David Duong's survey for me was complete, er, JUNK. Awful. I would never hire him again. Sure, he was nice. I paid him but he did not do the job I requested. Many, MANY things were uninspected or simply screwed up. Both ways. He actually said some things were not onboard that actually were. But mostly, he blessed failing systems. Can't recommend him. Considered reporting him to SAMS.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by doncx

David Duong's survey for me was complete, er, JUNK. Awful. I would never hire him again. Sure, he was nice. I paid him but he did not do the job I requested. Many, MANY things were uninspected or simply screwed up. Both ways. He actually said some things were not onboard that actually were. But mostly, he blessed failing systems. Can't recommend him. Considered reporting him to SAMS.

can someone recommend an alternative to David Duongs. I have a FP 40 Lavezzi in St. Martin to be the surveyed.


I tend to agree with you that he is junk....
why:
i posses a insurance survey of Mr. Duong about this cat taken a year ago which states all electronics are working properly. Well boat is equiped with Victron Li-Batteries as house and he attached a picture of the electric panel which shows analog meter labeled house and this meter shows 10.8V and radio display next to it is on
Means Victron LI the low voltage shut of is at 11.2V, so battery is discharged below critical voltage and be possibly damaged plus BMS didn't operate properly and cut the loads (radio is on!) to protect the battery. What else doesn't work properly in this 25000Euro all Victron installation (2x3000W inverters, LI,solar panel&charge controllers....). not unimportant...

[boatman61]

You may be better served flying in someone from the BVI's..

Maybe research these guys..
https://www.caribsurveyors.com/

[louielouie]

We used David as well. Yes nice guy but if ever again I'd fly in a surveyor.

[mlahrkamp]

We used David Duong for a pre-purchase inspection for a fully loaded 2011 boat that included washer/dryer, genset, power winches, watermaker, full electronics, A/C, heating, etc. This survey included rig, sea trial and haul out bottom inspection. David is a generally personable fellow. Started at 8am and was done by 2pm. Finished everything in 6 hours including sea trial and haul out! As you will guess, many things did not get checked and many defects were missed including numerous cracks in standing rigging swages and that the engine blew blue smoke. Did I mention about the hull void (delamination) he missed? Missed the starter battery being less than 12V too (although it still started the engine). We also noted him talking regularly with the selling broker about the boat. His survey was sloppy and incomplete with many systems simply not checked. Before he left he verbally indicated the boat was in great shape and we were lucky to have found her. Later that day and before a written report was provide by David, we told him we would not be accepting his report.

We subsequently obtained separate rig and engine inspections. The rig was determined to be unsafe. The engine was determined to need an overhaul.

We don't recommend him. He appeared to be aligned with the boat broker we were dealing with and we felt he was not working for our best interests. As mentioned by someone else, fly someone in as David appears to be the only accredited surveyor on St Martin (as of this writing). Will cost a bit more but at least you'll have more peace of mind regarding what you are buying.

David also provides as part of his terms and conditions the following: "Survey reports are submitted Without Prejudice by Marine Surveyors and they are issued subject to the condition that it is understood and agreed that neither this office nor any surveyor thereof is under any circumstances whatsoever to be held responsible in any way for any error in judgment, default, or negligence, nor for any inaccuracy, omission, misrepresentation or misstatement in the survey report, and that the use of the report shall be construed to be an acceptance of the foregoing conditions." Kind'a sums it all up.

[DavidSurveyor]

A client of mine brought my attention to this forum post, and I thought I would answer directly:

Doncx: I found back the survey I did for you back in 2015. I also carefully checked my file and I couldn't find any complaints of yours about the said report. I actually believe you are mad after me because I didn't want to spend a full day sea trialing the vessel. I also confirm that you never reported me to SAMS. I suggest you to come back directly to me next time for any issues you may have with my work, rather than exposing it on forums without checking with me first.

Captain Rivet: you're complaining about an insurance survey report that I did not compile for you. but for another client, which ended up in your hands, which was not written for pre-purchase purposes but for insurance. So you're not a client of mine, but yet you complain about my work.

Louielouie : I have checked my files and could not found the vessel I would have surveyed for you. I would be grateful if you could elaborate what was exactly the problem with my report ? I can't believe you would be the seller of that cat (Fountaine Pajot or R&C, I can't recall) I surveyed in the lagoon back in 2017/2018. My report blew the sale off. It would not be very elegant from you to damage my reputation only because you missed a sale.

mlahrkamp: you're complaining about my work, when you actually never had a report from me. I inspected a vessel on your behalf before being told that you were not interested in my report. You went to complain to SAMS about me. They could not believe me when I told them I actually never charged you nor sent you any report. By the way, there was no delamination on the vessel.

I founded my business in 2005, almost 20 years ago. I surveyed more than 1200 vessels all over the Caribbean. At the end of the day, having 4 gentlemen complaining about my work, out of which 2 are not even client of mine, is to me an acceptable ratio.

[mlahrkamp]

Originally Posted by DavidSurveyor

mlahrkamp: you're complaining about my work, when you actually never had a report from me. I inspected a vessel on your behalf before being told that you were not interested in my report. You went to complain to SAMS about me. They could not believe me when I told them I actually never charged you nor sent you any report. By the way, there was no delamination on the vessel.

Need we remind you we were present when you conducted a survey on our behalf for a boat that we were exploring to purchase. My original post (click here) enumerated serious boat deficiencies including an unsafe rig and engine that would require a rebuild, a void in the hull, none of which you discovered during your survey. Many items were not even checked such as the washer dryer, AC units and battery conditions, burned alternator windings to name just a few. Given the 6 hours that you were in attendance that included sea trial and haul out, it was not unexpected that your report would be lacking and could not be replied upon to gain confidence for the boat. We wanted to know the true condition of this vessel. On this you failed us. Your report, should we have accepted it, would have been severely lacking and beneficial only to the yacht brokers who were selling the boat. You were supposed to be working for us but you spent an inordinate amount of time talking with the broker about the boat's condition. You were recommended to us by the selling broker. We suspect we know why. I note that my original post addressed areas of deficiency, yet you failed to argue or counter my statements in your reply post.
Extracted from your survey agreement:

Originally Posted by DavidSurveyor

"Survey reports are submitted Without Prejudice by Marine Surveyors and they are issued subject to the condition that it is understood and agreed that neither this office nor any surveyor thereof is under any circumstances whatsoever to be held responsible in any way for any error in judgment, default, or negligence, nor for any inaccuracy, omission, misrepresentation or misstatement in the survey report, and that the use of the report shall be construed to be an acceptance of the foregoing conditions."

As I said in my original post: Your disclaimer kinda sums it all up. David: Can you not see why your survey for us would be construed as questionable?
We stand by our original statement that we would not recommend you and would advise caution to anyone engaging yourself for survey.
Epilogue: We ended up getting a survey done by Geoff Williams from the BVI. Even got a better price.