ship’s log 1: Surveyday
After we saw our first Moody 40 for sale, we already fell in love with the layout, but since it was one of the first boats we looked at, we didn’t know it yet. We looked at many more different boat types and made a list of things we want and rated how important they are for us. When we saw the Moody 40 pop up again, we took a closer look and decided to call the broker for more informations. after that, it all went really fast. We made an appointment to look at the boat, and since it was in the UK and we live in Switzerland, and it was a 13h drive for one way, we went all in and booked a surveyor for the same day so we could be there when he looked at the boat.
After 8 hours of driving, we reached the northcoast of France and checked in in the hotel we booked that was located right next to the Ferryport. On the day of the survey, we had to get up at 4am to catch our Ferry over the english chanel to the UK. We then had a lovely drive through the south of England all the way to Brighton. As proud Swiss people, we arrived right on time - even a little bit to early to be honest. This gave us some time to look around the beautiful Marina and all the boats. When our Broker arrived and took us to the boat, the survey was already in full swing and we dove right in to inspection-mode. The closer we got to the boat and the better we looked at everything, the more we started to see all the little kracks and imperfections. There where many stainless steel fittings that where painted over, woodstain that was not put on carefully, fiberglass kracks and many holes in the wood. After a short lunch break and a walk through the marina, we had the chance of looking at the boat out of the water and we could also meet the current owners.
Even tho the boat didn’t look as perfect in real live as in the pictures - altho I think thats what shows that the broker is a good salesman - we really liked her. When we talked to the surveyor and recieved his survey, we where very unsure on what to do.
Now it‘s back home and doing a lot of thinking and debating on what to do next. But there is not a lot of time - if we concidre to put in an offer, we need to do this in the next few weeks - without the opportunity to see the boat again before that.
