Printable checklist: going round a second-hand sailboat

1 The rigging

• Go up the mast, or have someone go up: the bottlescrews, the chainplates, the shroud terminals, masthead included.
• Look at every terminal for a broken strand, a brown rust stain running down, a bent or cracked bottlescrew.
• Check the split pins and seizings: present, properly bent over, not worn through by chafe.
• At the mast step, look for a crack in the deck or a compression post that is working.
• Ask for the date the standing rigging was last replaced, and an invoice.
• Turn every winch and every block, clutches included.

Warning sign: No rigging invoice, or rigging more than fifteen years old: budget for replacement, not a service.

Rigging to replace, estimate: € 

2 The engine

• Have it cold-started in front of you. An engine already warm when you arrive is hiding something.
• Watch the smoke: continuous white, blue, or thick black is a signal.
• Check the cooling: a strong flow of water at the exhaust, the impeller, the heat exchanger.
• Open the fuel filter and look in the bowl: water, black deposit, sludge.
• Look for leaks under the engine and on the gearbox: diesel, oil, water.
• Ask for the hours, the service log and the date of the last oil change.
• Note the exact make and model, then check parts are still available.

Warning sign: A contaminated tank is not cleaned in an hour: it means dropping the tank, flushing it, the filters and often the injectors.

Engine and fuel system, estimate: € 

3 The deck and its core

• Tap the deck with a mallet or a screwdriver handle, area by area: a dull sound means a balsa or plywood core full of water.
• Press on around every piece of deck gear: stanchions, cleats, winches, sheet tracks, mast step.
• Look under the deck, inside: brown stains on the headlining, drips, swollen wood.
• Check the state of the deck seams, along the coamings and the companionway.
• Check the hatches and portlights: seals, cracks, run marks.
• Walk the deck barefoot: an area that flexes is an area to open up.

Warning sign: A deck with a waterlogged core can be repaired, but it is a job measured in months, not weekends.

Deck, seams and watertightness, estimate: € 

4 The electrics

• Open the panel and look behind it: wires crimped or twisted, labelled or not, sensible gauge.
• Look for signs of heat: blackened insulation, blued terminal, a burnt smell.
• Follow one circuit from the panel to its appliance and see whether it is protected.
• Ask the age of the battery bank and its chemistry, then measure it if you can.
• Switch everything on at once: navigation lights, pump, windlass, fridge, and watch the voltage drop.
• Check there is an accessible battery isolator and a fuse as close as possible to the bank.

Warning sign: An installation with no diagram, no labelling and no protection gets redone in full. That is not a detail, it is a budget line.

Electrics to redo, estimate: € 

5 Skin fittings and seacocks

• Count them all, from inside, list in hand: sink, heads, engine, pumps, depth sounder, log.
• Work every seacock by hand. A seized seacock is a dead seacock.
• Scratch the brass with a fingernail or a screwdriver: pink, porous or crumbling metal is dezincified.
• Check every hose clip: two stainless clips per connection, not one, and not galvanised.
• Look at the outside of the hull: a flange standing proud, cracked sealant, a stain around the hole.
• Check there is a soft wood plug near every skin fitting.

Warning sign: Original brass skin fittings on a boat over thirty years old get changed, all of them, no argument.

Skin fittings and seacocks, estimate: € 

6 The steering

• Turn the helm from stop to stop and listen: a tight spot, a knock, play.
• Open the lazarette and look at the quadrant, the cables, the wires or the ram.
• Check the state of the rudder stock and its gland.
• Look for play in the rudder by shaking it by hand, with the boat ashore.
• Check the emergency tiller exists and fits without tools.

Warning sign: Play in the steering can almost always be repaired, but the part that is missing is often impossible to find new.

Steering and rudder, estimate: € 

7 The sails

• Get them all out, ashore or at anchor. A sail folded in a bag cannot be judged.
• Hold them to the light: fabric that lets light through is tired fabric.
• Check the stitching, the corners, the reef patches, the slides and the bolt rope.
• Look for yellowing and mildew spots, especially at the foot of the mainsail.
• Run the furler through its whole travel, and unroll the genoa completely.
• Note the age of each sail and ask whether any have been serviced.

Warning sign: A full wardrobe to replace on a boat this size is one of the biggest items after the engine.

Sails and furler, estimate: € 

8 The paperwork and the debts

• Registration document or ship’s papers in the seller’s name, with matching ID.
• Check there is no mortgage registered against the boat.
• Ask for the marina or boatyard invoices: unpaid months follow the boat.
• Check the berth: it is not necessarily transferable.
• Collect the maintenance file, the manuals and the wiring diagram if one exists.
• If the boat is ashore, find out who pays for the lift and up to what date the storage is settled.

Warning sign: A marina debt or a mortgage comes to light after the sale. Ask the question in writing, and keep the answer. What happened to us.

Debts, berth and lift-out, estimate: € 

9 The equipment, one by one

The rule: everything has to run in front of you. A piece of kit you are not shown running is a piece of kit that does not work.

Equipment to replace, estimate: € 

10 What you saw that is not on this list