The right combination of experience & education.

Captain John B. Wenz started "messin' about in boats" with a couple of childhood pals on the South Shore of Long Island, NY.  "Don't tell our parents, but we were fishing offshore when we weren't supposed to go near the inlet!"  Wenz graduated from SUNY Maritime College in 1980 with a USCG license as a deck officer on unlimited tonnage vessels and a Master to 200 tons.  A professional yacht captain since 1977, he has served on a wide variety of sail and motor yachts on both coasts of the US, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Hawaii, and Western Australia.  Some notable vessels include the first Hinckley 59 ketch (served as build captain), a 78' Tom Fexas designed motor yacht, a 76' topsail schooner, the 192' dinner cruise ship "Spirit of New York", historic Herreshoff sailing yachts "Neith" and "Spartan", "Rosa II", the solar-powered catamaran "Sun21", and "Betsy", the tender to Dennis Conner's "Stars & Stripes" America's Cup winning team.  Wenz has racing experience in everything from ocean sailing yachts to personal watercraft.  Known as a "toolbox captain", his specialty has been new-build and re-fit projects and he has accumulated years of hands-on experience with virtually all kinds of boat projects.  Captain Wenz is an Accredited Marine Surveyor and a member of the Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors, The American Boat & Yact Council, The National Fire Protection Association, and the Boat/US Technical Exchange.  Wenz has authored numerous articles and boat reviews in consumer boating magazines and has completed nearly 100 online boat test video segments.         

Experience Counts - here's a quote from "Surveying Small Craft" by Ian Nicholson:"... Surveyors need a deep knowledge of small craft construction.  They must know all about mast making, keel casting, the manufacture of fastenings and cushions, the ins and outs of engines and electrical equipment, insurance and salvage, glass cloth lay-up and lamination, corrosion and erosion, and many more technicalities.  But, above all, they need experience afloat.  Boats get into trouble on the water and that is where surveyors have to start learning their job.  Anyone who has been through a big gale in a small boat is unlikely to make a slovenly surveyor..."