What comes out of the truck on inspection day.

Moisture meter (non-invasive)

A capacitance-type meter — the same model most yards keep in the office. Reads relative moisture content in the outer laminate to roughly 3/4". Does not distinguish fresh water from seawater from resin-bound moisture. A "wet" reading is the beginning of a conversation, not the end. I pair it with percussion sounding on every flagged zone.

^* Percussion sounding: tapping the hull with a small hammer and listening. A sound core rings; a wet or delaminated core thuds. The ear is older than the meter, and usually right.

Digital multimeter & clamp

AC voltage, DC voltage, resistance, continuity, and — with the clamp — current draw without breaking the circuit. Used to verify polarity at shore-power inlets, check reverse-polarity indicators, measure voltage drop at the battery under load, and confirm that the bonding system actually bonds. ABYC E-11 work.

Infrared thermometer

For engine observation under load: exhaust riser temperature, raw-water pump housing, injector return lines, transmission case, stuffing box during shaft rotation. A cold cylinder on a running diesel is a compression problem. A hot stuffing box is a packing problem. Both show up in a thirty-second sweep.

Phenolic sounding hammer

A small deadblow with a phenolic head. Heavy enough to get a sound out of a thick laminate, soft enough not to mark gelcoat. This is the oldest tool on the truck and probably the most important. I've had this one eleven years; it's on its second handle.

Compass deviation card & pelorus

A sea trial includes the compass. I run a six-heading swing with a hand-bearing pelorus and compare against the ship's compass; deviation over 4° on any heading gets noted and the card gets photographed. Most cards I see haven't been updated in a decade. Most of them are wrong.

Borescope

A small-diameter flexible camera. Goes down a spark-plug hole on a gas engine, through an injector port on a diesel, into a fuel tank inspection port, behind a headliner where the chainplate tangs come through. Pictures from places I can't put my head. Every report gets at least a couple of borescope frames.