When the survey report reaches you, half the job is done; the other half is turning the findings into a repair plan. The plan puts safety first, fits the haul-out and the season, and checks each item when it is finished.
The grade sets the priority
- Grade A
- Put right before going to sea. The first lines of the plan.
- Grade B
- Within the season. Items that can be done at the same haul-out are grouped.
- Grade C
- Taken into the planned maintenance schedule.
Building the plan
- Group. Work ashore, work afloat; jobs for the same tradesman.
- Get quotes. A written quote for each group; tie the scope to the report finding.
- Schedule. Around haul-out, parts lead times and the start of the season.
- Check. When the job is done, the finding is rechecked and closed with a photo.
Why recheck?
A job reported "done" and the job that needed doing are not always the same. A surface repair made without removing the cause carries the problem into next season. The check uses the same method as the report: moisture, sounding or sea trial.
Sequencing the work
In a repair plan, jobs are ordered by their dependencies as well as their priority. Bottom repairs and antifouling, for example, go in the same haul-out; rebedding deck hardware comes before renewing the headlining. The wrong order means opening and closing the same area twice, and paying twice.
Budget and time
Each job gets a written quote, and quotes are gathered in a table: job, grade, cost, time and where it will be done. Grade A jobs are planned before going to sea, grade B in season or at the first lay-up, grade C spread across the maintenance calendar. The same table serves the purchase negotiation and the refit budget alike.
Verifying the repairs
Each repair is checked against the finding in the report: moisture read again, connections tried, photos set side by side with the earlier state. Verified work is marked closed on the findings list and added to the boat's papers.
Which yard?
Where the work is done depends on where the boat is, the type of work and the yard's experience of it. Structural and systems work may need different workshops; they are then coordinated to fit one haul-out. Quotes from more than one yard let both price and method be compared.
Follow-up
Check points are set for areas that must be seen before closing. If the owner is not on site, these checks can be followed remotely through photo reports.
In a purchase
During a purchase, the repair plan underpins the negotiation: the total cost of A and B jobs forms the basis of a price reduction or of the list of work the seller has done before handover.
The plan is kept with the boat's papers; as each job is ticked off, it becomes the starting point for the next survey.
The plan is the report's most practical output: one page showing which job, when, where and roughly at what cost.
It keeps seller, yard and insurer working from the same data, which speeds up every decision that follows the survey.
Keeping it current costs minutes and saves hours later.
For owners
An owner can update the plan to their own priorities; apart from grade A jobs, the order can flex with budget and the boating calendar. Keeping the plan with the boat's papers means that, as jobs are ticked off, the boat's current state is always documented and the next survey starts from a clear record rather than from memory.