About Us
Sincerest of welcomes. I am honored you want to know more about us.
By having resources and information both for marine surveyors and the people who need them, we become the go-to for both. We are unique in that we include only credentialed marine surveyors from the most reputable organizations, and are not exclusive to just one of those organizations. Go to SAMS ® and you will only see SAMS ® surveyors. Go to NAMSGlobal ® and you only see NAMS surveyors, with a few exceptions noted. Come here and find both. Review our member or featured surveyors and find bios and pictures so you can feel like you know about them and what type of work they do before you call them.
Note: Credentialed surveyors on our site are not paying us to be listed here. They have earned their listing by their participation in their organization and by earning their credentials. That said, the featured and detailed profiles are subscribers and sponsor our presence. We can’t do it without them and we thank them. Their paid participation goes to providing the maintenance it takes to keep this resource current and relevant. We hope you’ll say thanks to them when you contact them and tell them you like our site.
NAMSGlobal and SAMS are both US-based organizations, but with surveyors all over the world. We expect to be adding other European organizations as we vet them.
In honor of the originator – Don Robertson
Tom Benton was the original founder of MarineSurveyor.com before he handed off the reigns to Don Robertson. Don went on to develop ad family of sites referred to as Don’s Marine Marketplace in the mid-nineties. Tom and Don were ahead of their time in these endeavors during the infancy of the internet. Don passed in 2020 and I feel it is important to have his name here. Tom is still a participant in MarineSurveyor.com and we hope to make him proud.
What we offer
In addition to being a directory of marine surveyors, we offer website development, hosting, domain naming and management, and advertising opportunities to select marine industry businesses. We hope you will visit the sponsors on our pages.
Proprietor – Geoff Grainger SAMS ® – AMS ®, CMI ®
I have been a very successful practicing marine SAMS ® marine surveyor since 2010. I have experience in pre-purchase and Insurance surveying for boat owners and boat buyers. I perform claims investigations for more than a dozen different insurance companies with damage claims experience in boats / ships from 10’ to 1,000’. I have done appraisal work for estates, divorces, and donations. I have some work in cargo inspections and cargo damage from both on and off the water.
I am a SAMS ® Accredited Marine Surveyor (#1202) ®, a Certified Marine Investigator (International Association of Marine Investigators), and a member of ABYC, (American Boat and Yacht Council). I let my USCG Mariner’s license expire, but I have 1000’s of hours boating on the Great Lakes and countless boat projects of my own, behind me.
I have referred to myself as a recovering computer geek as I have web and computer skills from my prior life working for Harley-Davidson Motor Company in engine diagnostics tool development, testing, and support. This experience gives me just enough knowledge to drive my true experts a little crazy, since that was back in 2003. We still used floppy disks back then.
Outside of my work, I am volunteer for the National Ski Patrol where I also teach the first aid skills, skiing, and toboggan handling. I am a substitute teacher for Spanish and English as a second Language in my local school district (basically as a volunteer activity). I am both a student and teacher of Spanish and I make annual trips to Mexico, Central, and South America as a volunteer to teach English and study Spanish.