
DATE: Sunday, May 25, 1997                  TAG: 9705230309

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY F.G. EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:  129 lines

AN EYE FOR BOATS IN 1987, STEVE KNOX STARTED A MARINE SURVEY COMPANY, AND THE BUSINESS IS RUNNING AT FULL SAIL.

A BOAT BROUGHT STEVE Knox to Hampton Roads in the 1970s, and boats have kept him here since.

The one-time Navy officer left the service in 1979, but stayed in the area to work for a couple of naval architecture firms. In 1987, he started Knox Marine Consultants Inc., a marine survey company.

``The first two years, I thought I was going to starve to death,'' Knox said recently, with a laugh.

He can laugh because of the turnaround his business has seen. In 1996, he performed 300 marine surveys. He has become much in demand in survey work, his area of specialty.

Knox travels across the United States and into Canada. His services are sought by accident investigators, boat owners and sellers, insurance companies and others with a monetary interest in boats.

From his desk in his high-rise office on Crawford Parkway, Knox has a commanding view of the Elizabeth River and its bustle of maritime activity.

``My first concept was to divide my time between naval architecture and surveys,'' Knox said. ``I started doing small architecture work that the larger companies couldn't, or wouldn't, bid on.''

``For the last five years, I've done surveys almost exclusively,'' Knox said.

A 1974 graduate of Texas A&M University, Knox left College Station with a nuclear engineering degree and joined Adm. Rickover's nuclear Navy as an officer.

Knox married a local woman, Annette Wilkins, in 1979, ended his tour with the Navy, and moved from working with large, gray ships to smaller, private craft.

At his job with Associated Naval Architects Inc., a Portsmouth naval architecture firm, Knox spent his workday using his engineering education and Navy training supervising ship repair and overhaul.

His boss, Bill Craft, president of the company, said Knox's combination of education, naval experience and ``street savvy'' enabled him to do an excellent job.

``He came here as our yard supervisor, and although he had an outstanding formal education and five years as an officer, he wasn't afraid to get down in the dirt,'' Craft said.

Knox started his own business with two other employees. Now he has just one employee - office manager Roni Lacher.

Lacher has been with him for two years, and Knox credits her yeoman skill with allowing him to work outside the office without concern.

``Roni's a great asset. I know she will take care of everything and do it well,'' Knox said.

A marine surveyor's job is similar to that of a real estate appraiser. In fact, Knox belongs to the same professional organization as his land-locked colleagues, the American Society of Appraisers.

And the man loves his work.

On an early March morning in a Virginia Beach boat yard, the northerly wind blasted off the nearby Chesapeake Bay at 25-30 knots. The temperature hovered in the high 30s. The boat Knox was to inspect had been hauled from the water and was undergoing pressure-washing of its bottom. The spray from the hose added to the morning's chill.

``What a great day,'' Knox said, smiling, and removing what he called his four most important tools from a bag. They are a small, yellow plastic hammer, a flashlight, an inspection mirror and a tape recorder.

Knox was inspecting a 35-foot sport fishing vessel to diagnose any problems and assess its value. He will spend about four hours physically inspecting the boat, and another four to eight office hours working up data about comparable vessels and arriving at an estimate of its worth.

He tapped the hammer against the bottom of the boat. He looked like a doctor checking a patient's chest. He tapped every few inches up and down against the hull and listened closely.

He looked for blisters in the fiberglass, which can be expensive to repair. He removed a metal tool from his bag and scraped barnacles from a propeller.

``Even a slight bit of deposit on the prop can affect a boat's performance,'' Knox said. ``This is a 25- to 30-foot boat and barnacles can slow it down maybe five knots.''

Knox's work doesn't usually include high-seas adventure, but he does recall one such incident.

A New York couple was taking a houseboat from Florida back to New York in 1990. As they crossed the Albemarle Sound, an 8-foot wave swamped the boat. The couple survived, but lost the boat and several valuable items, including an engagement, ring a watch and some cash.

The insurance company brought Knox aboard to check over the sunken boat.

``I usually don't get involved in the salvage effort, but I did that time,'' said Knox. ``I checked the bilge, sifted through mud and found the engagement ring. No cash.

``But I was able to personally return the ring to the woman, and that was a good feeling.''

Investigating insurance claims constitutes a large part of Knox's work. He has served as an independent surveyor specializing in recreational boats for 10 years, said Carroll Robertson, vice president in the claims division of BOAT/U.S, a Northern Virginia company that offers insurance to boat owners.

``Steve is knowledgeable and extremely adept at explaining problems to boat owners,'' Robertson said. ``For instance, if a boat owner has a collision, Steve would look over the damage, determine the extent of the problem and how much it would cost to fix the boat.''

Independent surveyors for recreational boats are a fairly small group, even in a busy area like Hampton Roads. There are many surveyors for large, commercial vessels, but relatively few for smaller, private craft.

Knox spends an increasing amount of time in court, too. He is called frequently to appear as an expert witness in litigation, property settlements and the like.

``It's challenging. I get to travel. It pays well,'' Knox said. ``I tell the attorneys my fee, and they either accept it or reject it. I'm working on about 10 cases like that now.''

One such case will take Knox back to Texas soon, to Brownsville.

As busy as Knox stays, he still finds time for work in the community. He coached youth basketball teams for three years, served on the city's Wetlands Board from 1989 to 1991 and has been an active fund-raiser and volunteer for PortsEvents since 1989.

Does the man who makes his living on boats enjoy being on the water in his leisure time?

``Well, we don't own a boat right now,'' he said. ``We had three until the kids reached college age. Now, they're graduated and out on their own, so we might get another.''

Knox smiled again.

``My wife wants to get a boat. Can you believe that?'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including the cover, by BILL TIERNAN

After a boat is pulled from the water, Steve Knox checks the

propeller during an appraisal. ``Even a slight bit of deposit on the

prop can affect a boat's performance,'' he said.

Steve Knox helps push a boat off the dock during his appraisal.

Demand for his services has grown since the company began. ``The

first two years, I thought I was going to starve to death,'' he

said.