Check the boat before the money moves.
Most used boats are bought on a viewing, a sea trial if you are lucky, and the seller’s account of how she has been kept. A verified history gives the buyer something to read before that first drive to the marina.
Start with the hull number.
Every boat placed on the UK and EU market after June 1998 carries a 14-character hull number moulded into the transom. The report shows the number the seller entered, decoded: country, builder, month and year of build. Walk to the back of the boat and compare.
SoundHull refuses a second boat with the same number on another account, so one hull cannot quietly become two listings.
A dated inspection, worst first.
The seller walked the boat with the 46-point checklist within the last month and signed the result. You see every finding by severity, what is still open, the fix each one needs and an indicative range for labour and parts.
Two moderate items you can price are a different conversation from “she just needs a tidy”. Use the list to decide whether to pay for a surveyor and what to ask them to look at.
The paperwork, as it was.
Earlier surveys, service sheets, invoices and certificates the seller brought in are listed with their dates and, where the seller allows, the original documents. Each is labelled as an earlier record: SoundHull did not carry out that survey, and says so.
Where the seller declared there is no earlier paperwork, the report says that too. Silence is information.
Marketplaces: put this in front of every buyer.
Request a demo →Sealed at signing, verifiable later.
The inspection report is fingerprinted with SHA-256 when it is signed; the fingerprint is printed on the report. Change a finding or a price afterwards and the report shows FAILS VERIFICATION. The public report page carries its own fingerprint too.
The link is the owner’s to control: they choose how long it works and can stop it. While it is live, what you read is what was recorded.
Still get the survey — but now you know why.
The RYA recommends a survey before a second-hand purchase, and so do we. SoundHull flags what a guided walk and a camera can see. Moisture in a deck core, the state of a keel bolt inside the bilge, an osmosis reading: those need a surveyor and their instruments.
What changes is the order. You read the record first, decide whether the boat is worth the surveyor’s fee and the trip, and arrive with questions instead of hope.
- Not a marine survey, not a valuation. SoundHull flags what a camera and a guided walk can see; a surveyor with a moisture meter still finds what they cannot, and nothing in the report puts a price on the boat. Every report says so on its first page.
- The seller does the work; the record is what makes it honest. Findings are dated and sealed with a fingerprint at signing, so an edit afterwards shows as FAILS VERIFICATION. Earlier paperwork is kept as the original document, unchanged.
- Prices are indicative, never a quotation. Each fix carries a range for labour and parts so a buyer knows the scale of what they are taking on.
- Where a seller has no earlier paperwork, the marketplace decides whether an honest declaration is enough — and buyers see that declaration.
A history you can read before you drive to the marina.
Buying through a SoundHull partner marketplace? Look for the verified history badge. Running one? Talk to us.
Read next: the used boat inspection checklist and how to read a hull number.