Appraisal – Pinning down the value on real estate and automobiles tends to be much more straight forward than with yachts. Aside from the obvious need to establish value for insurance policy coverage limits, there can be especially trying cases such as limitation actions where the post casualty market value must be nailed down as part of a defense.
The case above involved determining the market value of the vessel "the moment before it was struck." The discussion involved provenance, "collector value", and preexisting structural condition.
Wooden Boats – I apprenticed with a firm that was considered one of the premier surveyors for traditional wooden boat construction. I designed and conducted a week long course on structural inspection of wooden boats for the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, ME. My interest in the classics is reinforced every year as I head up the judging staff for the concourse d'elegance at the WoodenBoat Show in Mystic, CT. Structural assessment and failure analysis of wood construction has remained one of my special interests.
Fraud and Theft Investigation – As a Certified Marine Investigator with the International Association of Marine Investigators, I've had professional training in the seamier side of the marine industry. Staged accidents, tool marks, false statements, and switched parts all are a fact of life when money is involved. It takes a professional eye to spot the scam and an ironclad report to nail it down.
Close examination of this damage proved that the owner punctured his own hull in order to stage an SSO/submersion. Look very carefully at 12:00 and you will see a tiny scrap of paper towel that was used to plug the hole while the boat was motored out to where it sank. The clamshell chips on the right confirm that the blow progressed from the stern of the boat- the opposite direction of travel. This evidence was enough to close the case under no contest.
