Surveying Fiberglass Sailboats: A Step-by-Step Guide for Buyers and Owners Paperback – January 22, 1994

I purchased Surveying Fiberglass Sailboats to prepare for doing a basic review of boats before hiring a professional surveyor. This book was incredibly helpful in evaluating the various boats I was considering. It provided clear guidance on key aspects to inspect, allowing me to make informed decisions and know when to move on from a potential purchase. It’s an invaluable resource for anyone in the market for a fiberglass sailboat. Highly recommended!

Books like this are great for scaring one away from the idea of boat ownership. Much alarm is raised regarding blisters, osmotic or otherwise. It's not clear to me why they're considered an emergency, so perhaps they're more of a resale cosmetic / FUD issue than anything else. This book is perhaps most useful for the rarified crowd of people already surveying other types of boats, or with heaps of experience with fiberglass laminates. Much here is above and beyond what a typical boat owner/buyer would realistically be able to do on their own, and assumptions are made about the knowledge and skills of the reader.

A little dated with b/w pictures, but topics are well-covered and relevant. Great resource.

I purchased this book to help me while looking at boats to purchase. I was a first time boat buyer and felt lost. If I had taken the time to read this all the way through I am sure it would have helped me to make a very informed decision, but I was only able to skim it minuets before I went to look at the boat I eventually bought. That being said, the skimming I was able to do did help me to see a few flaws that I used to bring the price down. This book is chocked full of info, but I would not recommend this to a first time boat buyer like myself. This book is better suited for someone with a boat that is in need of restoration and does not know where to start. This book will help you evaluate the true condition of any boat and help to lay out a plan for repairs. For those of you that want to perform those repairs yourself you should look at "This Old Boat" by Don Casey.

I'm new to sailboats (not to boats overall) and I really appreciated both the content and the author's style.

Liked the writer, held my attention good illustrations , very informative!

For assessing a sailboats condition before you buy.

A great book to inform someone how to look at a fiberglass boat and how to they are made so that you can have somewhat of a better idea of what you are getting into when you finally buy one.