A survey report is read by people who weren't on the boat: the buyer, an underwriter, a lender, sometimes a lawyer. The NAMS guidelines for writing yacht survey reports set the goal as reports that answer questions rather than raise them. Most of that comes down to how the report is written.
Plain style
The NAMS guidelines give practical rules:
- Terms, not jargon. Keep the marine terms the reader needs. Drop the ones that are archaic and convey nothing.
- No royal we. Write in the first person if you surveyed alone, and keep most of the report in the third person.
- Active voice. Active sentences give more accurate verbs, which matters most when you're describing a cause of failure.
- Short sections. Large blocks of narrative are hard to get through. Break the report into a logical order of short parts.
- Tables for particulars. Make, model, serial numbers and dimensions read better as a table than as sentences.
NAMS adds one more about the vessel description. A pre-purchase buyer knows the boat, so skip the tour of the interior and let the photos show it. Avoid flowery description: it's a technical report, and effusive wording can suggest bias.
Name the client, the use and the survey type
NAMS says the report should start by stating the client and the intended use, and repeat them in the conclusion, especially when the report gives a value. That stops a third party using the conclusion out of context.
The survey type belongs in the title, the introduction, the conclusion and the page headers, so a copied page can't be mistaken for another kind of survey. NAMS suggests "Pre Purchase Survey" for the full inspection and "Underwriters Marine Risk Evaluation" for the lighter insurance inspection, and calls "Condition and Valuation Survey" somewhat arcane because it doesn't tell the two apart.
What an insurer checks
Jackline's survey guidelines, for the program Markel underwrites, list what a report needs to be accepted:
- Who requested the survey, and whether they or anyone else was present.
- When and where it was done.
- The vessel's identification and specifications, with the source of any figure you didn't measure.
- A logical format covering each area of the yacht.
- A detailed section of recommendations affecting safety and seaworthiness.
- The surveyor's opinion of current market value.
- The surveyor's name, credentials and signature.
See how to write survey recommendations for that section.
A value that holds up
NAMS asks surveyors to research the actual market. Its cautions:
- The asking price on a listing isn't the market value. A boat listed for over a year is priced too high.
- Market data that isn't from a confirmed document, such as a purchase and sale agreement or an accepted auction bid, should be weighed for its source.
- What an owner spent on upkeep, the cost approach, shouldn't be the only basis for a higher value.
- On an underwriting inspection, the value shouldn't rise because it will become the agreed hull value. NAMS calls that creating a moral hazard.
Disclaimers and boilerplate
NAMS is direct about both:
- Disclaimers. A surveyor can't limit or disclaim professional responsibility. Hold-harmless wording at the end of a report, after the work is done, holds little legal weight and casts doubt with the client. "Without prejudice" fares no better: the client is bound by the findings in practice, so NAMS calls the phrase meaningless.
- Boilerplate. Keep canned clauses to a minimum. In NAMS's words, no report was ever criticised for too little of it.
Agree the scope and limitations before the survey instead. See scope and limitations.
A draft that starts in plain words
Reports written from dictation start close to plain speech: "starboard sheet winch base, bedding failed, water staining below". Axsail turns that into a finding with its location and recommendation, puts the particulars in a table, and drafts the report under the survey type you chose. You edit the wording and sign. The marine survey report guide covers the sections in order.