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jeff cote here with votingtechtalk.com  so we've got a question from a fellow  boater named carl  carl asks jeff i'm about to purchase a  new to me boat  uh it's a 2006 camano 41 fly bridge  i know you always say if the wiring  looks neat and organized then it's  probably well maintained  well the wiring looks good but i'm  wondering what else should i be looking  for  so of course i can only talk uh  electrically here  um having worked and again i want to  thank everyone for inviting me on the  thousands of boats that we've worked on  the first thing is when you're buying a  boat you're actually not just buying a  boat you're buying the previous owner's  tolerance or sort of discipline in  maintaining that boat  so if a boat is not properly taken care  of  well maintained by the previous owner  even though it might have been an  amazing  boat out of the factory an owner a  previous owner can do a lot of damage to  the boat by not maintaining it or just  simply jerry-rigging everything  when it breaks so what i encourage  always  potential shoppers of boat to look for  is not only are you  looking for a boat but you're also  looking for a match with the owner  and you want to make sure that both of  you see eye to eye  both in maintenance right what are the  things you should do on a boat  and are you willing to cut as much  corners as the previous owner did or not  because some boat owners will maintain  their boat impeccably  and others won't and it's not so much an  issue if  if you've got an owner that takes care  of a boat great and you don't that's  okay but the biggest challenge that i  find and the  most amount of frustration is that these  boat owners are buying these boats  that have been effectively  quasi-abandoned by the previous owner  and now the new owner needs to bring it  to that high level  right where everything is reliable and  things are not jerry-rigged  so when you're actually looking at a  boat electrically speaking  besides the wiring you want to see what  sort of log book that owner  has been operating do you have all the  receipts are they showing you the  maintenance that they've done are they  proud of it  you know some boat owners have files  that are this thick of every single  thing they did and why  that level of diligence on their part is  really an expression of what they would  have done  aboard the boat that you're trying to  buy  and the good news is aesthetically you  can actually  sit back and see good workmanship  without  even knowing anything about electrical  if it's absolutely neat and organized  it's  definitely going to mean that the  previous owner was willing to take the  time to do things right  so look for things that just look off  look weird look  untidy look messy look for those things  and look at them  where the owner might have done projects  ask the previous owner  what sort of things did you do yourself  where did you do them what did you have  to repair  have him zero or point out what parts of  the boat have been  upgraded or fixed and to so that you can  look at it and make sure that they were  fixed  right because the bar is pretty low on a  lot of boats most people  are just happy with it working not  necessarily doing it right but just  working  so have the previous owner pinpoint to  you the places that have been  fixed or addressed and find out do you  do it yourself  do you hire someone who do you normally  hire all those qualifying questions are  going to give you  a sense on the history of the boat and  it's going to give you a little bit of  an indication of what's going to happen  to you  if you decide to purchase the boat once  you own it and it's  your boat your problems you want to  avoid all of that as much as possible so  ask lots of questions and find out if  that owner  has the same philosophy for boat  maintaining or maintaining  as you do great question and thanks for  asking  thanks for watching this video and we'll see you on  the next video  English (auto-generated)