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Looking at a used boat and the surveyor spotted that its owner installed wiring, check out this video to find out what it means. Whether you need a remote consultation design or perhaps inviting us aboard your boat, Pacific Yacht Systems [music] is here to help. Check out the links in the description below. Hey everyone, Jeff Cote here from Pacific Yacht Systems with another installment of Tech Talk. We've got a fellow boater Edwin ask, "Jeff, why is it that surveyors flag electrical work either owner or non-factory work when doing surveys? And uh what should I glean from it?" Well, Edwin asked a good question. So, for all of us that are considering buying a boat either obviously new or used, it really doesn't matter if the boat is new or not. What makes a really big difference is the moment the boat has been modified. Boat builders have reputations and those reputations are hard to earn and easy to lose. So, they generally meet a certain standard and if you're going to buy a boat from a certain manufacturer boat manufacturer, you can make certain assumptions and I'm not to say it's always true, but of the quality of the electrical system on that boat. And they're going to meet to a certain standard and of course there's exceptions, but for the most part you can sort of abstract yourself and say, "Oh, you know, the electrical system is at level and different builders have different levels of electrical, but you can sort of know." When a surveyor comes aboard a boat and notices anything that is non-factory, right? There's where their eyes open up and they slow down. If the whole boat looks factory, the electrical system is not going to be that interesting. It's going to be interesting to see maybe wear and tear and corrosion and water damage, but they're not going to be questioning the electrical integrity of the boat. Especially if it's a general surveyor, they just won't have that much time. No matter like how much time they're going to spend, they're not going to spend that much time reviewing everything. But as soon as they start noticing things that don't look factory, that's where the surveyor is going to now start giving it a little bit more attention. An upgrade could be done right, or it could be done wrong, or it could be done so-so. It's not to say that if it's installed by a reputable outfit, or it's installed by an owner, it's one is bad or the other one is good, because I've seen both sides. And I've seen owners that do work on their boats that do amazing work, and they're not technicians, but they could be. And I've seen people that do phenomenal work, and they have no real like technical background. They just care a lot, and whatever they do, they do right. So again, it's not like easy to say. So, you could have do-it-yourself work that was done great, even without it being done by a professional. But of course, more likely than not, the trend is do-it-yourself in general is not as great as a professional outfit that's got a great reputation. So the surveyor might actually be able to distinguish that, and in the survey might point out, "Okay, well and might put a question mark like unknown." Right? They're They're not going to even qualify it. They're going to say, "It should be looked into further." And that's generally where For example, in in our industry here where we are in the Pacific Northwest, uh we would be called upon, and we would come in and do a specific electrical survey to inspect the work and to find maybe things that were missed or not done to completion or not done right. The other advantage, too, is if the work has been done by a professional outfit, and you know who they are, and you They've got a good reputation in the industry either through, you know, time or whatnot, and this is going to apply in all the areas, that also might even help with the sale of the boat. Like we've had many owners that have come to us after buying a boat and saying, "Oh, by the way, I bought this boat that you guys did work on. I have your invoices. I know what you did, the owner told me, and it brings their confidence level up because then they know that the work was done to our standards. That's our business and it's our reputation. A do-it-yourself owner, some of them just simply don't know the mistakes they're making. It's not intentional, they just don't know what they don't know. So, it's a whole spectrum and when the surveyor is checking that, he's going to be looking for risks, right? Cuz he doesn't have time to go through every single thing on the boat. He's looking, spot checking at different places and trying to see what's maybe done right or maybe not done right, and then doing question marks on things that are have been done post factory. So, that's really what Edwin is getting at is some surveyors will spot anything that's been done post factory and put a question mark to it. It can be done right or it can be done wrong, but it certainly deserves more inquiry. If you're checking out a boat, and I've said this in other videos, remember, you're not just buying the boat or the boat's reputation, you're also buying the risk tolerance from your previous owner. And some owners simply don't care as much as others. It's not to say they don't care good or bad, but some of us care more about our boats than others. And when you're shopping for a boat, I always advise at the very least, find an owner that cares as much as you do. And then when you end up buying that boat, you'll find out that they took care of the things in the way that you would have. So, you always buy a boat based on reputation and based on the previous owner's risk tolerance, and that's where you have to do your diligence and get to know the owner if you can to find out if you're on the same wavelength. Because that's going to make a big difference down the road if you don't care about that, especially if you care more than the previous owner. So, great question from Edwin. If you're in our service area here in the Pacific Northwest, we do electrical audits and electrical surveys all the time. It's a big part of our business and it helps owners figure out if they're buying a boat that is going to give them troubles down the road or a boat that is sound and is going to be more worry-free than what they might have feared. So, it might sort of reassure you of what you're getting yourself into. And yeah, that's basically it. So, thank you everyone for watching. Again, help us grow this channel by subscribing. Curious about electrical audits or our services? Check out the links below. Be safe on the water and we'll see you in the next installment of Tech Talk. Hey fellow boaters, we're going to be doing a lot more Tech [music] Talk videos. If you've got any suggestions for future videos, leave them in the comments below. Once again, thank you for watching.