The Boat Buyer's Due Diligence KitA 214-Point Boat Inspection Checklist, From Viewing to Offer

Most buyers inspect a boat with a phone note and a gut feeling. The defect you noticed but did not write down is the one you cannot price, and the one you cannot price is the one you never negotiate on.

This kit replaces that with a fixed sequence: 214 numbered observation points, run in the same order on every vessel you look at, producing a record you can hand straight to your surveyor, your broker or your insurer.

In the Fillable edition every tick box, severity and field is a real PDF form field, not a printed line. Tap a box to tick it, tap a field to type; long findings wrap onto the next line. Your entries save into the file itself, so one copy carries the whole record of one vessel. In Adobe Acrobat Reader, free on computer, iPhone and Android, the severity counts, the defect matrix, the cost models and the offer are worked out for you; in Apple Files each model is set out step by step.

Prefer a pencil? The Pencil & Print edition is ruled for handwriting in GoodNotes or Notability, or on paper, with linked contents and edge tabs that take you to any part in one tap. Once downloaded, neither edition needs an account or a signal, which is the point, because the places you need it are a boatyard, an engine compartment and a mooring three miles out.

The sequence does not change with the boat. What changes is where you spend your attention, and the kit is built so that reordering your priorities costs nothing.

A first boat. The structural and through-hull sections come first: what you record there is what you weigh before you commission a survey on her or walk away. They never replace that survey. Work them before you let yourself look at the interior, because the interior is what sells boats and the hull is what costs money.

A cruising boat. The systems parts carry the weight: tankage, ground tackle, charging, and whether the engine arrives with a history or with a shrug. An undocumented engine on a boat you intend to take offshore is not a bargain, it is an unpriced liability.

A boat you intend to live aboard. Ventilation, heating and condensation matter more in February than anything you will notice in August, and almost every buyer views in summer. Read those points in the order printed and be unsentimental about what you find behind the lining.

A club racer. The rig and sail points are where the money hides, and they are the easiest to underestimate standing on a pontoon looking up. A wardrobe and a rig of unknown age can be a five-figure correction to the price you were about to offer.

A boat in another country. You may get one visit. Run the full sequence in the printed order and photograph against the point numbers, because the second look you are assuming you will get is usually a flight you decide not to take.

This kit records what you find standing still. Two other documents finish the job, and the three share the same severity logic so nothing is retyped.

The Sailboat Sea Trial Log records what she does moving: the RPM ladder on reciprocal headings, twelve timed manoeuvres, and the cold start you only get one chance at. The Boat Purchase Budget Worksheet prices whatever either of them turns up, with a 40-line defect register and a dated walk-away figure.

All three together are the Boat Buying Command Kit, which is the cheaper route if you already know you want the sequence from first viewing to signed offer.

This document records and organises. It does not judge. Every point tells you what to look at and what to write down; not one of them tells you whether what you found is acceptable, because that judgement is not ours to make from a distance.

It is not a marine survey and not a substitute for one. It is designed to make you a far better-prepared client of a qualified surveyor: arriving informed, knowing which questions are already settled, and able to define what the survey is actually for.

Instant download. Your links appear on screen the moment payment clears, and a copy arrives by email, usually within a few minutes. They do not expire.

2026 Edition, Revision 2.1, AML-DD-2026-01. Apex Marine Labs designs the organisational process behind good seamanship. Our documents record and organise; they do not replace a certified marine survey, nor professional advice. Apex Marine Labs does not survey vessels or assess their condition.