ABOUT
My path to becoming a marine surveyor stems from decades of boating experience, and a rewarding lifetime on the water.
At the age of four, I was sent out into Belvedere Cove from The San Francisco Yacht Club, in my first of many boats, a wooden El Toro. Undaunted, I later raced any chance I could get, aboard SFYC boats, in the SYRA, YRA and Danforth Ocean racing series, and in the Hunt designed 110, the sport boat of the 1970s. As youngsters, my sailing partners and I maintained, modified, and optimized our boats creatively, with whatever tools, materials and gear was available to us.
The early experience gave me the knowledge and ability to start working in boat yards; Easom Boat Works hired me at age 17. Later, working at San Francisco Boat Works from 1985 through 2006, I became a trusted and knowledgeable project manager, running restorations, repowers, and all manners of repairs on sail and power vessels.
In the meantime, the top marine surveyors would come through SFBW, and encourage me to follow in their footsteps, and apprentice to become a certified marine surveyor. In 2006, I left the yard, with two parallel paths. First, I ran a racing yacht campaigning in the 2007 and 2008 Caribbean circuits. Secondly, between the Caribbean regattas I would fly home and begin building my marine survey apprenticeship, with the mentorship of top surveyors of that time.
Now in my 14th year as a marine surveyor, I’m typically conducting over 140 condition and valuation, appraisal and damage claims surveys per year. I’m the third owner/operator of the Worldwide Marine Surveys, LTD, which has been in business since the early 1970s. As such, I succeed two bay area survey icons, Peter Minkiwitz, and founder of the firm, James Jessie, a world cruiser. Through my lifelong maritime experience, and marine industry tenure, I’m well prepared to fulfill your marine survey needs.
