Does the owner or seller of a vessel

ever try to mislead the buyer?

     With over thirty years of marine surveyor experience logged, I can say with

certainty that most sellers and owners make very little effort to divulge all the of the

pertinent information about their vessel, especially any possible defects. There are

occasions when the owner, usually because of lack of experience, is not aware

of many subtle faults with his vessel. There are also many occasions when the

owner tries to deceive the buyer. A couple of examples follow.

Not long ago I inspected, with the buyer and owner present, a five year old runabout

with a raw water cooled, four cylinder MerCruiser engine, which was newly painted

 and looked like it had been used very little. The vessel was on  a trailer in the owners

 back yard and he was prepared to run the engine for us. It is my normal

practice to have a sea trial, but in this cast the buyer was happy just to know

the engine sounded OK. The owner had him convinced that the vessel looked and ran

 like new. So the sea trial was out. The owner told me the vessel, including the

 engine and running gear  were in excellent condition and ready to go. The owner

hooked up the garden hose, started the engine, and let it run for a few minutes.

The engine sounded very good, and except for some excess exhaust smoke

appeared in good shape. To make a long story short the boat checked out fine

and the sale was consummated. The new owner used the boat for a week or so and

noticed the engine becoming more noisy with each use. Finally the engine failed

and was taken to a mechanic for diagnosis and repair. The mechanic told the new

 owner the exhaust manifold was shot and would need to be replaced.

    The owner called me complaining that I should have picked up this problem during

the survey and what would I like to do about the repair cost. I met the owner at the

vessel the next day and re-inspected the engine. I found a small hole in the side of the

exhaust manifold, between the manifold and the head, just beneath a fresh coat of black

paint. After poking around the small opening I discovered a much larger hole and evidence

of a badly rusted manifold that had been repaired with Bondo, sanded and then painted.

The manifold looked like new and except for the part along the inside edge,  sounded

fine when tapped with a hammer.  The seller had removed the manifold and attempted

to repair it.  He seemed like a pretty  good fellow when I met him, so I am not sure

whether he thought he was making a good repair or just hiding the hole. He was

employed as a computer technician and appeared to lack any type of mechanical

 background when we met. This fellow probably spent more effort, time, and money

making this faulty repair than he would have if he purchased an after market

manifold and installed it himself. He did mention to us during the survey that the vessel

was original. His quote was, "Just like it came from the factory".  He did a pretty good

 job of concealing the defect.