Insurance survey ready — a pre-survey checklist for owners abroad

Most insurance surveys on the Costa Blanca happen on a schedule the surveyor sets, not the owner. If you live in the UK and your boat is in Torrevieja, that often means flying out for a specific window — and arriving to find the boat isn't in the state a surveyor wants to see.

A bit of prep, either by you on a previous visit or by someone local in the week before, makes the difference between a survey that goes smoothly and one that flags a long list of trivia.

What surveyors care about

Surveyors aren't looking for the boat to be clean. They're looking for the boat to be accessible, presentable, and not hiding obvious issues. The list below is roughly in priority order.

Access to inspect everything

This is the biggest one. Surveyors get grumpy when they can't see what they need to see.

• All lockers emptied or at least accessible
• Cushions and bunks lifted; floor boards liftable
• Engine bay clear of stowed gear
• Lazarette and cockpit lockers accessible
• Chainplates visible (often means moving headlining panels — talk to the surveyor in advance about what they want exposed)
• Bilge dry and visible

A boat where the surveyor spends 30 minutes moving the owner's gear is a survey that runs short on time and over on cost.

Clean enough to see

• Bilge wiped down — you want them to see whether stains are old or new
• Engine bay reasonably clean — fresh oil drips are a flag; the surveyor needs to know if they're recent
• Hull above the waterline rinsed
• No standing water in lockers, cockpit drains, or the bilge

Systems live and working

The surveyor will want to:

• Run the engine
• Test bilge pumps (manual and automatic)
• Test navigation lights, anchor light, instruments
• Verify gas system pressure
• Open and close every seacock

If anything is known not to work, tell the surveyor in advance and have it noted as "owner aware." Surprises mid-survey become "items requiring rectification" on the report.

Paperwork ready

• Previous survey (if you have one)
• Service records for engine, rig, liferaft, fire extinguishers
• VAT status documentation
• Insurance policy

Email these to the surveyor 48 hours before. They'll appreciate it and the report quality goes up.

The week before

In the week before the survey, the boat should be:

• Visited and tidied — not necessarily deep cleaned, but presentable
• Bilge dried
• Hull rinsed
• Locker contents at least sorted so access is possible
• Engine run briefly to confirm it'll start for the surveyor

This is the work most owners ask us to do in the week before a flight-in survey. It removes the "arrive and panic" element and means the survey itself is mostly a formality.

After the survey

• Get a copy of the report in writing — not just verbal feedback
• Address any "must do" items before the next insurance renewal cycle
• Photograph the boat in its post-survey state for your records

If you've got a survey coming up and you'd like someone to do the prep week, drop us a message and we'll sort it.