Six letters, each printed in full with the service it refers to and the date and time it was written. They are printed under the writer’s own name and with nothing taken out. There is no average, no star summary and no recommendation percentage, because six letters cannot honestly produce one.
01
Helena Brandt
I had been looking at boats online for a year and arrived with no real idea what thirty-four feet feels like underfoot. The hour was spent aboard three of them rather than in an office, and the broker pointed out a soft patch of deck on the one I had come in wanting. Nobody moved me along to a dearer listing and nothing was signed that day. I left with the engine hours and the service history of two boats written down, and a note of what each would need over the winter.
02
Marcus Oyelaran
I asked for an appraisal before listing my boat because two friends had given me two very different numbers for it. What came back was a list rather than a number: rigging past its insurable age, a weeping stern gland, and a mainsail the report called tired but serviceable. That was not what I wanted to read and it was accurate. The fee was agreed beforehand and did not change when the work ran longer than planned.
03
Dana Whitfield
The sea trial is the reason I did not buy the first boat. She started cold without complaint, but the alternator output fell away under load and the gearbox was slow to engage astern, and both went into the notes while we were still out in the bay. I was told plainly that neither was necessarily fatal and that a surveyor should price the repair before I decided. I paid for a second trial on a different boat a fortnight later and bought that one.
04
Peter Lindqvist
My forty-two footer sat on the brokerage’s books for seven months, which was five months longer than I had hoped. I was told at the outset that no date could be promised and that my asking price was above what the appraisal supported, and I ignored the second part for the first three months. When I came down to the appraised figure the boat sold in six weeks. The updates came every fortnight whether there was news or not, which I appreciated more than I expected to.
05
Ruth Abernathy
I bought in October with nowhere to keep the boat, so the lay-up was arranged before I had properly taken her out. The yard slot, the cradle and the haul-out date were booked and confirmed in writing, and I was told which parts the yard would bill me for directly rather than through the brokerage. One thing did go wrong: the shrinkwrap went on a week later than promised because the yard fell behind. I was called about it rather than left to find out.
06
Sam Okafor
The handover took most of a day and I am glad it did. We went through every seacock, the battery isolators, the bilge pumps and the winter drain-down, and the hours were logged as they went. The delivery itself was billed by the hour at the rate quoted, and the total came out slightly over the estimate because we waited out a blow for half a morning. That was explained on the day rather than in the invoice.
It carries no charge and runs about an hour, and it ends either with a boat worth a sea trial or with a plain statement that nothing on the floor fits.
It is published in the open, where anyone can copy it, so it is left short of its final polish and audit pass. The design chosen is fully audited and polished before it goes live.