About Severn Estuary Yacht Surveys

Our principal surveyor, Bernard Merryweather, spent his summer holidays as a young man working on a fishing boat on the South Dorset coast. It was during this time he built his first boat, a small GRP boat, at what is now the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis.

Over the years he has restored and maintained a number of yachts including a Westerly Centaur, an 18 foot trailer sailor, a Sadler 29 and a 10 ton Hillyard. He has also carried out the maintenance of a small fleet of Sigma 38's in the Solent which were chartered for both cruising and racing.

As an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor he wrote and ran the maintainance week for Hamble School of Yachting's Professional Sail Training Course, teaching candidates the basics of yacht maintenance.

He served as the engineer on an 86 foot Bennetti on a 5500 mile delivery from Palma to the Maldives, joining the boat again later the same year for a further delivery from Phuket to Bali. He has also worked as the sole engineer on a 37m Brookes Yachts motor sailor, where major work was carried out to the engines and generators, the engine room Halon fire extinguishing system was replaced and the mast unstepped for a Lloyds inspection.

For nearly six years, he was the captain/engineer of a 72 foot San Lorenzo motor yacht based in Mallorca and has practised as a surveyor for a number of years in the Balearic Islands and mainland Spain.

Now, being more land based, he offers his practical experince to potential yacht owners and insurance companies.

He holds a Diploma in Yacht and Small Craft Surveying from Lloyds Maritime Academy and is an accredited member of the Yacht Designers and Surveyors Association (YDSA). As such he complies with their codes of practise which includes carrying an appropriate level of professional indemnity insurance.