Inspecting the Aging Sailboat

Don Casey writes in a very understandable style and the text is full of helpful illustrations. This book gives you a lot of ideas of what to look for when you're first starting to shop. A survey is expensive, and if you can identify a lemon before you get to that point, you'll save yourself 10 times the cost of this book in time, heartache and money. And if you're not getting a survey, it may save you even more.

I'm in the market for an older sailboat. I'm not interested in spending the kind of money that many spend on their sailboats. This necessitates buying an older boat. This book is full of just the kinds of information that someone needs to make that purchase without regretting it. It covers everything you need to understand before making the purchase of an aging sailboat. I'm looking forward to using the information herein very soon. It is full of diagrams and illustrations that really provide an insight into what the book is saying. I highly recommend this book to anyone in the market for a used fiberglass sailboat.

A great little, well illustrated book that will aid any prospective buyer of an old or even new yacht. If you're thinking about buying a yacht it can be too easy to fall in love and see straight through some rather serious faults. This book will guide you through all the obvious and not so obvious signs of use and abuse, poor workmanship and design, giving you an informed opinion as to whether or not to call a proffesional serveyor or forget it and keep saving for a new boat - I think I'll keep saving. Maybe they should retitle it 'Inspecting the hole in the sea you throw money into' - Jokes aside, highly recommended.

This book is very easy to read and understand. When I wanted a book about surveying fiberglass boats, I was intimidated by the thought of 100s of pages of technical text. Luckily I bought this book. It includes many illustrations which added greatly. As informative as it is, it is also very quick to read. I found it a great coach to help me do my own non-professional survey. I also have Mustin's book about surveying. Also good but it is more laborious to get through. I read both books a good 3 times each before I survey about 4 different boats, and I really felt confident that I knew what I was doing. I am a fan of Don Casey's books. They are informative and easy to understand for the DIY person with limited experience.

I checked this out from the local library, and ended up with several pages of notes in the form of an outline of what to look for when checking a poential candidate boat for purchase. I highly recommend it. Enough so that I will eventually buy it simply to loan out to friends (I took such copious notes that I no longer need the book myself). If you are looking at older boats in a price range that doesn't justify a professional survey, this DIY survey could save hundereds of dollars spent on a survey of a boat of limitted value. If you already decided against a survey, it could save you thousands by steering you away from an absolute basket case.