The Insurance Adjuster Who Came Diving With Me

By Nadia Fournier, Marine surveyor and insurance adjuster. Reviewed by Amanda McCallister, editor.

Underwater Inspection | Cathodic Protection & Anodes October 12, 2023. Tarpon Springs, Florida. The water was 74 degrees and turning. I passed a local claims adjuster a drysuit and a set of weights and told him to stop being nervous. He had asked to come because he didn't trust a single word my last written survey said. "Just show me the damage," he said. So I did. The boat was a 42-foot trawler that had hit something near the mouth of the Anclote River. The owner said it was a weathered dock piling. The adjuster thought it was a submerged rock and therefore a prerepair issue. Not one person in the insurance office had ever put a mask on in the water they insured. I figured it was time to change that.

What an underwater survey actually is

An in-water hull survey is not a quick look. You don't just float around and nod. I went down with a 4K dive camera and a ball-peen hammer. On a fiberglass boat, a tap is worth a thousand pixels. On a steel hull, I'd add an ultrasonic thickness gauge. The hammer tells you if the laminate is solid or delaminated. You also check every through-hull, the cutlass bearing, the shaft, the rudder, the propeller, and the anodes. Each one tells a separate story. That day the story was short: a scrape on the port bow, the gelcoat gone, the laminate exposed. No cracking. No impact breaching. It matched the owner's version. That's the core of it. The footage is raw. There's no filter. You see the barnacles, the trailing slime, the zinc anodes half gone. You also see what you can't see: the area under the keel is a blind spot on any cradle, and the rudder post sometimes disappears into a cloud of silt if you're not patient. A good diver waits.

Why the adjuster came down

Jim sat on the dock for a long time before he zipped up. He told me he had denied a claim in 2019 based on a surveyor's photo that turned out to be a shadow on a prop. The boatyard refloated it and there was no damage. His company paid legal fees, and the surveyor quietly stopped working. He said, "I've never trusted one since." I asked if he thought I'd fake a video. He said he didn't know. That was honest. Down there, he did all the things I do. He tapped the hull with the hammer and felt the delamination near the bow. He watched me measure the anode and explain that a half-wasted zinc is a zinc doing its job — not a sign of neglect. He stopped talking about "rust-worms" after I showed him what electrolysis really looks like: a scattered honeycomb, not straight streaks.

In-water versus a haul-out

The question everyone wants answered: is an in-water survey as good as a haul-out? No. And I tell every adjuster that before we start. A haul-out gives you the dry hull, the through-hulls out of water, and the entire running gear in clear air. But a haul-out costs a full day of yard time, a travel lift operator, and usually a second crew. It also takes the boat out of service for a day. An in-water survey is faster and cheaper, and it shows you how the boat actually sits in its element. Underwater, you'll see leak paths you'd miss when the hull is dry, because water pressure forces the truth out. But you won't see the hull above the waterline, and you'll miss the interior. Any surveyor who tells you different is selling something.

What he got wrong

Jim's first wrong idea was that barnacles meant neglect. Every boat in Florida has barnacles a week after a haul-out. They mean the boat spends time in the water. That's it. Second, he thought the shaft was "loose" because the cutlass bearing had some play. In fact, cutlass bearings are designed with a water-lubricated tolerance; if they're bone-dry rigid, they're on their way out. Third, he asked if we could swap the zinc right there. No — because we were there to look, not to fix. A surveyor's job ends when the footage is in the can. None of these are stupid thoughts. They're just thoughts from someone who's never had to breathe through a regulator while holding a video camera steady. That's why I now make a point of sending adjusters the raw video link before I send the report.

The raw footage rule

From that day on, I stopped asking adjusters to trust my written words. I send a link to the raw video, unedited, with the timestamp and the location. I also say in the "method" section exactly what the water visibility was. If I couldn't see the rudder post, that goes in the file. I don't gloss it over. That day, Jim saw me hesitate before I wrote "rudder post not fully visualized." He appreciated that. He said, "I'd rather have a report that says I don't know than one that fills in a line with a guess." That's not just good survey practice; it's the only honest way to do business. A local adjuster who dives with you once will never look at a hull survey the same way again. And that's a good thing. When you write a report for a person, remember they're not the one breathing the water. Tell them what you couldn't see. That's the part that matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an in-water survey replace a haul-out survey? No. It can answer routine questions and confirm a claim, but a full out-of-water survey is still the gold standard. If your insurance policy specifically asks for a haul-out, don't accept an in-water survey without getting the insurer's written approval. How much does an in-water survey cost? Most local surveyors price by boat length or a flat local rate, plus dive gear and travel. It's a fraction of a haul-out, but the only way to get a number is to ask three surveyors in your area. Don't trust a figure from a random website. What should I ask before hiring a surveyor for a diving inspection? Ask if they hold diver certification and if their footage is raw and unedited. Ask them to state water visibility in the report. Ask if they carry liability and dive insurance. A local surveyor should have no problem saying yes.