The tool I wish my buyers had been using.
Boats first, servers second
I grew up in Orange County and have been on the ocean over half my life — sportfishing, scuba, PHRF racing out of Long Beach, a stint as a director of Shoreline Yacht Club. I paid the bills in IT — servers and networks by day, the harbor on weekends.
Pointing the bow south
I bought Volare in 2012 and spent three years getting her — and me — ready. In 2015 I left with the Baja Ha-Ha and didn’t look back. Seven years and 17,000 nautical miles later, all of it in Mexico, ranging from Bahía de Los Angeles down to Zihuatanejo, with more than 2,000 nm of that singlehanded. I lived on the hook in places most people will never see. Most importantly, I learned what was wrong with the boat I bought. Things I didn’t catch in the survey. Things the broker never mentioned. Things the previous owner certainly knew but had no incentive to disclose. By year three I had a list of mistakes I’d never make again, and a clearer picture of what to look for than I’d had on the day I signed the papers.
The broker years
I’ve spent three years selling boats internationally. Getting buyers comfortable with buying a boat takes a lot of trust and communication. I leaned on the latest technology when listing yachts — the most compliments came from shooting 360 photos that let buyers tour the boat and look all around.
I cared enough about the buying side to write a book on it — Buying a Cruising Sailboat in Mexico. eSurveyor is what happens when that book meets software.
Why eSurveyor
eSurveyor is the tool I wish those buyers had been using when they walked into my office.
It’s not a replacement for a surveyor — you still need one, and a good one. It’s not a replacement for a sea trial — you absolutely need that too. It’s the work before all of that. The work that tells you whether the boat you’re looking at is even worth the survey fee, the plane ticket, and the weekend.
The AI isn’t the point. The point is giving buyers the same pattern recognition experienced brokers and surveyors build over decades. AI just makes it scalable.
Welcome aboard.
— Jason Hite, Founder, eSurveyor
Elsewhere
- jasonhite.com — books, the story of Volare, and press
- Sea of Cortez Sailors — the Facebook group I run, 6,500+ cruisers