When buying or selling a Nonsuch, dealing with insurance, or just assessing the state of your boat, it’s highly desirable to have a marine surveyor who does a good job of assessing the boat’s condition. Because our masts have special issues, the same is true of those who assess rig condition.
The INA’s looking into setting up a list of such people.
If you know one who you think should be on this list, would you please post on this thread:
We recently used Morman Marine Surveyors (Office: 586-469-3898). We purchased the boat in 2020 and have since done a number of upgrades and enhancements. We wanted to update our insurance policy from the original stated value version to reflect the current state of the boat. We had Morman do a “Marine Inspection for Insurance” survey. Matt Morman is a second generation surveyor, and he is accredited (SAMS-A.M.S.#985). The experience was very good from the first phone call with the office staff to the final email when we received the survey. The cost to survey our Nonsuch 30U was $700US in November 2025. They serve Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. They do not cross over into Canada. Matt is professional, punctual, responsive, personal, and friendly. We will use him again if the need arises.
I’m a yacht broker and I work with a number of surveyors on the Chesapeake but I haven’t surveyed them on their Nonsuch knowledge. If you need one near Annapolis ask me for my list.
You want to be careful what you let a broker do while you are not on board your boat. There were two guys at the brokerage which had my boat listed when I bought it. One was very knowledgeable about Nonsuches and the particular boat. The other was not and maybe not even competent with any boat. At least once he left the boat in a state where expensive damage occurred. I suppose that could happen with any old sloop, too, but this was just one of a seemingly endless series of marine business professionals, not just brokers, who don’t know enough about Nonsuches to actually do a professional job. It’s understandable because our boats are so unconventional, but you really do have to keep an eye on them.
Sorry, maybe this should have been in the broker thread. It kind of works for both.
I recently had an insurance survey done by Mr. Barnaby Blatch. He was friendly, patient and thorough. He did his research and came prepared to survey a Nonsuch. He did not mind me asking questions and offered some useful insights. I highly recommend him. I’m not sure how far he’ll travel but I would say he has SE CT. and SW RI covered.
When I was looking at Whisker last fall, I had Rope Monkeys examine the rig as my first step in my pre-purchase surveys.
My thinking was if the rig didn’t pass, move on because any major fix would be prohibitively expensive.
The crew that showed up were on time, very thorough (climbed the mast to the top, and returned to deck riding down the topping lift to inspect all of the wishbone while aloft).
I must have at least 60 pictures and a very comprehensive and timely written report.