When prepping for USCG annual inspection, we always left at least one blatantly obvious "defect" for the inspectors to find, so they wouldn't have to go looking for something else. A weeping injector return line was a favorite, and easy to do. Sounds like this "surveyor" might not have come up with his "quota" of recommendations and had to dredge up the one Jim's client related. After all, these guys have to find something wrong in order to look good to the underwriters. I would have insisted that he delete the requirement. A knowledgeable person should be able to negotiate a stupid requirement away. Insist on reviewing the surveyor's findings *prior* to his printed report, after which he will be reluctant to go back and change anything. Many boats and practically all ships have arrangements for emergency bilge pumping such as this seacock provides. In fact there is a USCG requirement that there be an emergency bilge suction connected to the largest (capacity) pump aboard. Often, this is the main engine seawater pump. To suggest that an inexperienced person would be messing with this device in an emergency is ludicrous. Should the SSB be removed, too? Regards, John Camm "Seahorse" lying St. Augustine Marine Reply to: John@Camm.us Jim McCorison writes: An interesting addition to this is that one of my customers was dinged by the surveyor about just such a seacock. It was listed under the "Recommendations" category to remove it. He was required to satisfy all recommendations by the insurance company. The surveyors reasoning, spoken to the owner, not written, was exactly what WM states in their catalog. That it is too easy for an inexperienced person, or a short handed crew, to disable the engine, thus complicating an already bad situation. I don't know if it is just a pet peeve of that particular surveyor, or if this is a coming trend. It would be interesting to see what would happen if such a surveyor did a survey on a fairly new Cabo. Speaking of Cabos, I was looking one over at the recent San Diego boat show. I got to talking to the sales person and one of the topics was the emergency bilge pumping seacock setup. His comments was that most customers either don't know what it is or where it is, and those that do probably wouldn't use it properly in an emergency if they had to. Not a very positive view of the customers of what is supposed to be a top line sportfisher.

Truelove39@aol.com wrote: > Sounds like this "surveyor" might not have come up with his "quota" of > recommendations and had to dredge up the one Jim's client related. > After all, these guys have to find something wrong in order to look good > to the underwriters. That certainly wasn't the case in this boat. The recommendations list was very long and for the most part reasonable. > To suggest that an inexperienced person would be messing with this > device in an emergency is ludicrous. Should the SSB be removed, too? I agree. It does seem like an odd requirement. I'm just relating the facts. Jim -- Jim McCorison Starfish Marine (619) 337-5370 http://manana.mccorison.com - Our Travels with Maqana http://www.starfishmarine.com - My Business This posting is for the exclusive use of the Trawlers & Trawlering (T&T) email list. Any other use, or posting to other lists or sites, is expressly prohibited unless written authorization has been given by Starfish Marine.