For decades, in the prior art, when a private boat owner or potential private buyer of a boat wanted to inspect a boat for structural defects, the owner or potential buyer hired a private inspector who examined the hull of the boat usually by tapping the hull with the back of a screwdriver and listening carefully to the sound made by the tapping. Depending of the sound, an experienced inspector can usually tell if there are any structural defects in the hull that are not visible.

This method of boat hull inspection is not optimal for several reasons. It is very dependent on the skill of the inspector. Even a skilled inspector may have difficult time interpreting the taps and what may sound like a normal tap and a structurally sound boat hull to an inspector, nevertheless, may be defective. Further, the results of the inspection may not be reproducible. A different or even the same inspector may perform a second inspection on a boat hull and come up with different results than the first inspection. Moreover, sophisticated technique utilizing thermal or infrared imaging, only structural defects involving moisture or thermal differences can be detected. Therefore, the inspector may not find defects that have not been subject to environmental conditions, or simply equalized due to dry and warm storage conditions.

Hence there is a need in the art for a method of boat hull inspection that is accurate, has reproducible results and can detect defects, which have no moisture or thermal differences from the non-defective areas.

The HullScan Process is a method of boat hull inspection that is fast, accurate and has reproducible results. First the boat to be inspected is removed from the water, and placed on land, preferably on blocks (although hanging in the travel lift or on a trailer is acceptable). A chalk line is used to create a grid on the hull to ensure quality control by the technician. The technician then uses the HullScan equipment, to scan the probe across the hull while watching the received waveforms.

The HullScan team has developed a criterion for different defects in different materials and boats successfully passing this criterion are issued a HullScan Certificate and are recognized as "HullScan Certified Hulls" very similar to the certified used car market that is so popular today.