Buying a boat is a high point in many people’s lives filled with excitement and impatience. It is a complex decision that even experienced boat owners are wary of making on their own.

Allport Marine Survey was established in 2004 to assist boaters with unbiased assessments of a boat’s integrity and value.

As a boy I covered the waterfront in Camden, Maine where I learned to sail in wooden catboats and mingled with master boat builders and historic vessels on a regular basis. As a teenager I worked as deckhand aboard one of the Windjammers, the 70′ ex-pilot schooner, Timberwind, offering week long sailing vacations between Boothbay and Bar Harbor. I learned to thread this 40 ton topsail schooner through intricate passages with only occasional use of the yawl boat, our only source of auxiliary power. In the off season I delivered yachts from Camden to Bermuda and the Caribbean Islands and pursued a passion for yacht design through correspondence courses and extensive independent reading.

I went on to work for M. Rosenblatt & Son, then the largest firm of naval architects and marine engineers in the country, as captain of their company yacht Rosa II: an heirloom ketch designed by the principals of that firm and kept Bristol fashion. See the cover photo and attendant article in Wooden Boat Magazine, July/August 1995.

As an active member of SAMS (Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors) I take pride in meeting their high ethical standards and exceeding their rigorous continuing education requirements. I have been standards certified by the ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) attesting to my knowledge of their exhaustive technical and professional standards for boats. I have also been ABYC certified as a corrosion technician. I have many years of practical experience owning boats, maintaining them, and sailing both offshore and coastwise. I have designed, built, and worked professionally on boats. I currently own the 30′ Albin Ballad sloop, Pleiades, a classic Swedish production boat from the mid 1970’s. I am very sensitive to the non-negotiable demands put on a boat by the natural elements.

I am also a master woodworker, writer, and an inventor with a U.S. patent to my credit. I know how boats should be built and have a discriminating eye for detail. Look for my technical articles in Good Old Boat and other boating magazines.