Minehead is the second base, which makes West Somerset home ground rather than a long drive. It is also some of the most demanding water in the country to keep a boat in, and that shapes what a survey here needs to concentrate on.

Where surveys are carried out

Minehead — the harbour, the drying moorings and beach-launched craft
Watchet Marina — the locked marina in the old harbour, with its tidal gate
Bridgwater and the River Parrett, including Combwich
Burnham-on-Sea and the River Brue
Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Uphill
The Exmoor coast, Porlock Weir and Blue Anchor
Taunton, Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and inland moorings across the Levels

Drying moorings change everything

Most of the Somerset coast dries. Boats here do not float serenely on a deep-water pontoon — they sit down on mud, sand or shingle twice a day, every day, and that produces a set of problems you simply do not see on a Solent berth.

The hull takes her own weight, constantly

A vessel that dries out is repeatedly loaded through her keel, bilge keels, legs or a cradle, in a way she is not when afloat. On a GRP hull that means close attention to the keel and keel joint, any hull flexing around the point of support, and stress crazing radiating from the turn of the bilge. On a fin-keeled yacht kept on a drying mooring, the keel joint and bolts get looked at very carefully indeed.

Bilge-keel and twin-keel boats are common here for exactly this reason, and their keel attachments and surrounding laminate need individual attention — they take the whole weight of the boat, on uneven ground, thousands of times.

Mud berths and what sits in them

Silt in the Bristol Channel is fine, deep and everywhere. A boat in a mud berth has it packed around the stern gear, up the skin fittings and often well inside the bilge.

What it does: holds water against the hull permanently, so there is no drying cycle at all; blocks seacocks, strainers and cockpit drains; and on a steel hull sits against the plate in exactly the places nobody can see. On a wooden boat, mud held against the planking below the waterline keeps end grain and fastenings permanently wet, which is how rot starts.

This is why pumping and cleaning the bilges before a survey is not optional here. A silted bilge means the structure underneath cannot be inspected, and it gets written up as exactly that.

Grounding damage, intentional and otherwise

Drying out is normal; drying out onto something hard, at an angle, on a falling tide is not. Somerset boats accumulate impact and grounding damage at a higher rate than boats kept afloat — scuffed and abraded keels, damaged bilge keel fairings, rudder and skeg damage from touching down, and repairs of highly variable quality along the bottom. All of it is usually hidden under antifoul until the hull is washed off and properly looked at.

Trailer boats and small craft

Minehead and the Exmoor coast have plenty of trailered sports boats, RIBs and small motor craft. These are quick, worthwhile surveys — often for insurance or before a purchase — and the £300 minimum charge is what makes them viable. Worth checking on a trailer boat: transom condition and the outboard mounting, the trailer itself, and whether a boat that lives out of the water has been stored in a way that has done her any favours.

Tides and booking

Lift-outs and locking windows here are entirely tide-dependent. Watchet has a tidal gate; Minehead and Burnham dry substantially. A survey needs to be planned around the tide, and on drying moorings there is often a genuine advantage: the boat is accessible on the hard twice a day without paying for a crane at all, provided the ground is suitable and access is safe.

That can take a meaningful chunk out of the total cost of a survey compared with a marina lift-out — worth asking about when you enquire. Note that an inspection on a drying mooring is not always a substitute for a proper haul-out, particularly where an insurer has specified one, but for many smaller craft it works perfectly well.

Surveys offered in Somerset

Pre-purchase surveys — from £15 per foot, minimum £300
Insurance and condition surveys
Hull and structural inspections, including keel and bilge-keel attachments on drying-mooring boats
Damage assessment after grounding or touching down
Repair and engineering assessments

See the guide prices page, and how to prepare your boat for a survey — the bilge-cleaning advice there matters more on a mud-berth boat than almost anywhere else.

Local knowledge, thirty years of it

Jon Fairman has spent thirty years building, repairing and engineering boats in GRP, wood, steel and aluminium. On this coast that experience is practical rather than theoretical: knowing what repeated drying out does to a hull over twenty years, and being able to tell the difference between a scar that does not matter and a repair that was never done properly.

Boat in West Somerset?

Minehead is a base, not a destination — so a survey at Minehead, Watchet or along the Exmoor coast carries little or no travel charge. Send the vessel's details for a guide price.

Request a quotation Call 07763 334656

Other areas covered

Useful reading

Marinas, harbours and boatyards are named to describe the areas covered. No affiliation, endorsement or agency arrangement with any of them is implied. Lifting, haul-out and yard charges are set by the yard and payable directly to them. Cost figures are indicative UK ranges as at August 2026 and are not quotations.

Boat surveyor in Somerset.