Truck Shipping a Boat?

[Steuermann]

Does anyone have experience having a sailboat shipped by truck? The wife and I are interested in a couple of boats that would need to be delivered to be shipped to Olympia or Tacoma, WA by truck. No time, and wouldn't trust a new/used boat to sail until I had thoroughly been through it. My decision will hinge on the cost of transporting the boat to its destination.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bob Brigham]

Have trucked a couple of boats about 500 miles...about $1,000...here in New England there are several very good boat transport companies...sure the same is true on the left coast...

 

[windjunkee]

My experience with trucking was sub-optimal, though it had nothing to do with the trucking company.

We raced our Ericson 32 from Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta in 2007 and had decided to truck it back rather than sail it back (even for a delivery crew, motoring upwind with an 18 gallon tank and an Atomic 4 gas engine would be challenging). We arranged with the trucking company to pick up the boat in PV. All that worked out well, except that the paperwork was done incorrectly with customs and the trucking guys had to run around and actually get paperwork from a border crossing with the US - they handled it all beautifully.

Then came the problems. The boat yard charged us an arm and a leg for the haul out, which included dropping the mast. The trucking company was held up because of the paperwork and the boat left 2 weeks after it was supposed to. My partner and I were gone by then. They put the boat up in the boat yard to await the truck and charged us nearly $2000 for the privilege of lifting it out, removing the mast (which my partner and I did with the help of some other boat owners), storing in the yard and hoisting it onto the truck. Then, when the flatbed got there, the yard didn't hoist the boat high enough into the air and the flatbed struck the keel as it was backing under the boat. This shaved about 1 1/2 inches of fiberglass off the bottom of the keel, opening it up and spilling a lot of the lead shot that is used as filler around the lead ingots. They didn't tell us this happened. They just gathered up a few buckets of the lead shot and poured it into the cabinet behind the head.

Then, the trucking in Mexico is weird and they had to have permits to travel state to state. The drive took 5 days to get to the US Border. Then they had to switch trucks. Luckily they didn't have to switch trailers. Finally it arrived in Redondo. When we put it in the yard, we discovered the keel issue and had the yard repair it -- sort of -- they re-fiberglassed the area but did a crappy job, so when the boat went into the water, we started to fill up with water from below. We had to haul out, let it sit for two weeks to dry the inside out and re glass the area again.

All told, we spent around $10,000.00 between the trucking cost, permits, customs, PV yard expenses and repairs. The trucking was around $5,000 and those guys went above and beyond to help us. They even spent a full day driving us around PV getting some of the paperwork done that we didn't even know we had to do.

Bottom line - there are good companies out there - look for recommendations and for goodness sakes, make sure they lift the hull high enough to fit under the truckbed.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[Lucky Dog]

Trucking

We had our 35 haul through five states. Around Lake Michigan and into Minnesota. When we bought the boat part of the agreement was there was no outstanding bills at PO marina. We walked down to office together for confirmation. The boat was a stanchions at the time. There was cradle that I would need once it got to Minnesota. They don't travel at night, so a long one day trip took three. The price was fair with added surcharge do to changing fuel prices. The day before it was to arrive the new yard manager call and asked where I was attending to keep the boat. They do not have a travel lift and required a cradle. "There coming with one", no he said, the driver told him it was a piece of junk". I call the previous yard, the said the driver didn't" want to deal with. So as it turned out someone bought a brand new boat at the Minnesota yard and driver didn't want to deal with it, so left it behind. So for mere 12000 dollars I replaced a cradle that I never saw for 400 dollars of steel. Now four years later I can add that 1200 only gets one coat of paint. The short version, I do it again.

 

[Loren Beach]

Kinda Sorta

Does anyone have experience having a sailboat shipped by truck? The wife and I are interested in a couple of boats that would need to be delivered to be shipped to Olympia or Tacoma, WA by truck. No time, and wouldn't trust a new/used boat to sail until I had thoroughly been through it. My decision will hinge on the cost of transporting the boat to its destination.

Any thoughts?

Sounds somewhat familiar. When we bought our "fixer upper" O-34 back in '94, there was no possible discussion of sailing it north.
From Alameda to PDX there were (and probably are) several good boat hauling companies to choose from.
Pricing was sort inversely related to time and (in)convenience.

I can recall the approx $$ amounts, but they are not meaningful now without factoring in inflation and of course the increased cost of fuel these days.

I got a quote of about $2500. for a delivery upon my time table, i.e. the truck would pretty well haul it when I asked.
For about $1900, they would sched it as close as possible, but still make it fit around their needs, i.e. avoiding an empty backhaul.
I opted for the lower number and notified the yard approx. when a truck might show up...

So of course the actual haul was different from both scenerios.

I get another call from the boat hauler dispatch about a week before the expected time window and she wants to know if that boat can be lifted and prepped for travel in a couple of days! They suddenly have an empty backhaul from the Bay area to Tacoma. Price suddenly is about $1300. (!)
I say yes, provisionally, and quickly phone the yard owner I had met only once before when it was surveyed.... He audibly sighed on the phone and said he would get it ready and this kind on thing happens all too regularly. I thanked him profusely.

Boat was prepped very well, mast wrapped with copious amounts of carpet scrap and plastic.
Trucker got here with no problems and I paid him Cash -- only thing acceptable to his company-- and away he went to Tacoma on a hot Sept. day.

Sidebar: the yard only had to deal with the spar and the boat. I and a friend with a pickup truck had already driven back to PDX with sails, boom, spinn pole, radar pole, and about everything else we could jam inside the shell or put on the rack.

Quite an Adventure, all in all.


Loren

 

[tenders]

I shipped my 32 from San Diego to Erie, PA in 1995 and it turned out to be very simple. However, I stripped the mast and took everything off the deck including the stanchions - the holes were filled with West epoxy. I was on hand for both the loading and the unloading so there was no opportunity for skulduggery. If you have the luxury of a few weeks' of flexibility you can get a very competitive rate. Having lots of constraints on pickup and delivery time, and not being able to be on hand for the loading and unloading, I think really opens the door to a lot of potential problems. Same as home contracting!

 

[toddbrsd]

Try Uship.com

I just had a catamaran transported using UShip.com. I was happy with the service since you can check out the transporter's feedback. Once you enter the type of shipment, you will get recent quotes for shipments similar to yours. You have no commitment, so worst case is you get reliable quotes that you can use in your decision of if you want to negotiate with a local company. Hey, you might end up on "Shipping Wars" TV show! I actually received a quote from the older couple that was on the first season of the show, but I did not go with them.

 

[Steuermann]

My experience with trucking was sub-optimal, [snip]

All told, we spent around $10,000.00 between the trucking cost, permits, customs, PV yard expenses and repairs. The trucking was around $5,000 and those guys went above and beyond to help us. They even spent a full day driving us around PV getting some of the paperwork done that we didn't even know we had to do.

Bottom line - there are good companies out there - look for recommendations and for goodness sakes, make sure they lift the hull high enough to fit under the truckbed.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

Great! That's the kind of information I'm looking for. I have no problem dropping the mast, pulling stanchions, prepping the boat myself; I'd prefer to do that anyway. And I plan to be there loading and unloading and might even follow the truck North. (Guess I neglected to say, it would be from Los Angeles area to either Portland or Olympia or Tacoma, depending on cost)

UShip.com is another tack I'll try. I'm just trying to get a ballpark idea of what a 35-38' sailboat would cost to ship to Portland, Olympia or Tacoma, before I close the deal and make my purchase. At some point it might just be worth taking three weeks' vacation from work, bolt on a 3-blade prop and motorsail up the coast, but I really don't like the idea of doing that in a new (to me) boat. Sailing from Portland up the coast of Washington is no huhu. Morro Bay to Monterey, and San Francisco to Portland are legs I'd rather do downwind. Nothing goes to weather like a 747, as they say.

Thanks for the feedback. This is one area of sailing that I'm a novice at.

 

[steven]

has been quite a few years since I shipped a boat so I can't comment as to prices and competence. But it is still probably true that you need to make sure everything inside that can rattle or rub is secure and well padded. This includes for example, cabinet doors, anchor chain, winch handles, fold up tables, and hoses that are touching things. The roads are rough and at 60ish mph loose stuff can do lots of damage.

 

[Cory B]

Cost estimate

About 6 years ago near the peak of the gas prices it cost us about $3K to truck our boat from Alameda to Portland with a quality trucker.

We did most of the decommissioning ourselves. If the boat has sat for a long time, it can take a while to disassemble the mast/spreaders/shrouds/furler/dodger/pulpits due to corrosion, as we found out - it took the two of us close to 3 full days to disassemble and pack everything up - the only thing we had the yard do was unstep and wrap the mast, and lift the boat onto the trailer.

Don't cheap out on the transport or mast-wrapping. An acquaintance bought a boat down there around the same time we did, and paid less in yard and trucking costs than us, but had avoidable expensive mast repairs when done due to poor preparation.

Good luck.

 

[Mort Fligelman]

Shipped a boat February 2006, and then again May 2010

Purchased my boat in North Carolina Feb 2006 and shipped to Ft. Lauderdale, FL I was lucky as there was only one yard that could lift my 35-3 on Lake Norman, and I just had to take the gamble that they would do it right in preparing it for shipment. I paid them about 700.00 to do it, and the transporter that they suggested charged $2600.00. The boat arrived in very good shape with no complaints.

I shipped it to Chicago area in May 2010......I had the mast unstepped and painted, then proceeded to wrap it myself, and prepare the boat for transport...did all of the things mentioned above very carefully, and used a shipper that all in Ft. Lauderdale sung the praises of....I was not disappointed....as the pains that the carrier/owner took with the loading, and then unloading in Illinois was a work of art to behold......Part of my deal with the yard included pulling the boat and then loading instead of launching so I cannot give you a separate on that, but the shipping was $4200.00.

I have complete photos of the loading and mast prep.....If you want I can send you copies back channel....

Good Luck

 

[markvone]

Shipped an E36RH from Santa Barbara, CA to Annapolis, MD last July (2011)

A local yard, Bert Jabin's in Annapolis ships many race boats and others all around the country and last year they said to plan on $4/mile.

I used Uship only after I did a lot of research on the shippers. I would only use those that you have researched and have the highest ratings and are fully legal. There will be a full range of prices and quality with the bidders, throw out all those that are too good to be true and that don't seem right. REMEMBER, the service is only to solicite bids and contact shippers, they will not be any help to you if there are issues, you are on your own with the shipper!

I had several weeks to plan and wait for a shipper while in the owner's slip for free. I got a bid on Uship from a local (MD) shipper who was headed west with a boat and was coming home to MD after the drop for family matters no matter what. He gave me a good price, $6800 and did a great job. Mom and Pop owner/operator with full permits and insurance, very professional.

If I were doing it in the same ocean like you are considering, I would seriously look into a delivery captain. You can skip the prep and re-assembly and all those harsh road miles on the trailer. You can bet the delivery skipper is going to check everything he needs for his safety before he leaves and I'll bet he can (and has!) fixed most everything he needs to deliver a boat safely. You could go along for part of the trip and get a vacation or some offshore experience from a pro. I have seen delivery captains bidding on deliveries on Uship. This probably is not a great option for a "project" boat.

Contact me directly if you'd like more info.

Mark

 

[Steuermann]

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I also put in an informaton request to USHIP and it appears the cost would be around $4000-$5000 loaded port to port excluding the hauling, launching, preparation, etc. And now I have plenty of contact numbers. As to why I wouldn't consider sailing a boat on her own bottom that distance, it's 200 hours with wind and seas right on the nose, and some stretches with no shelter and plenty of hazards. Fuel cost alone would be close to a kilobuck, and wear and tear to sails, running rigging, etc., on a boat I don't yet know dissuades me from taking that tack. I'd rather ship it over the road.

Now I know what it costs to do so, I can take my time and find the right one.

Thanks again.