A new build survey checks a yacht while it's being built, or just before it's handed over, against the contract and the specification. It's less common than a pre-purchase survey on a used boat, but new boats have defects too. Yachting World puts it bluntly: almost no new boat is without a snagging list.
Why buyers bring a surveyor to a new boat
Yachts are still largely built and assembled by hand, which Yachting World says leaves room for errors in production. The defects surveyor Nick Vass gives as examples on new boats include bubbling antifoul from poor surface preparation and priming, deck fittings without effective sealant, and saildrive and hull anode bolts corroded by stray current.
Some are worse. Yachting World reports a UK court award of about £1.6 million to the owner of a two-year-old 58 ft yacht that the judge found was delivered without an adequate sea trial or commissioning.
During the build
On custom and semi-custom yachts, YachtBuyer recommends a build team with an owner's representative, an experienced yacht professional, and a lawyer who reports on the build. The representative monitors the build schedule agreed in the contract and checks that the right progress has been made before each stage payment is signed off, from keel-laying and engineering through to paint and interior fit-out.
On production boats it's different. Yachting World says a surveyor at each construction stage isn't practical in most production yards. Builders run their own checks instead: Neel Trimarans, for example, has a three-stage quality check on the production line and a final check with a sea trial before the boat goes to the dealer.
What a surveyor can't see later is what gets covered: bonds behind joinery, backing pads under deck fittings and cable runs behind panels. Ask the yard to show those before the next stage closes them up.
Before delivery
YachtBuyer describes a thorough inspection by both the yard and the future owner before delivery, with discrepancies fixed in that phase, and sea trials to confirm the yacht performs to its specification. See boat sea trial for what's tested under way.
Agree early who handles snagging. Yachting World advises buyers to find out who's responsible and whether they'll come to the boat or expect the boat to come to them.
One snagging list, carried forward
Keep one list for the whole build, numbered once, with the date each item was raised and closed. It becomes the warranty list after handover. YachtBuyer notes the yard stays available through the warranty period to resolve issues, and Yachting World describes builders who check everything again after the owner's first weeks of sailing.
Surveyors have limits here. Yachting World notes they aren't structural engineers, so they can say whether a boat appears built as expected, not certify its design.
The new build survey report template carries the stages and a punch list in Word. With Axsail you dictate each snag as you find it, with the photo on the item, so the list is written before you leave the yard.