Boat Transport

[Rick Johnson]

It looks like I may be buying a C34 in Long Beach CA.  Does anyone know a good transport company or have any advice on what to look for?  I would like to move the sailboat to Corpus Christi TX.

[Ron Hill]

Rick : Contact all of the marinas and long haul transporters in the Corpus area and see if anyone is transporting a boat from your area out to Long Beach.  You might be able to get a ride back.  

[Roland Gendreau]

I recently had my boat transported from Florida to Mass.  I got a few quotations from haulers but there are hauling brokers out there that arrange transport with multiple haulers.

The broker I used was www.boathaul.com.
Their pricing was competitive because they arrange deliveries so that they pick up a boat for the return trip.


They provided the best price and the hauler they used did a fine job. The driver contacted me en route by cell phone to keep me abreast of progress along the way.  The key thing you need to do is to properly prepare the boat for shipment. They will provide you good guidance in what needs to be done before shipment.

I entrusted the preparation task to the yard where I purchased the boat and was disappointed in their lack of thoroughness.  So my advice is to make sure to inspect it before it is loaded on the trailer.  I wasn't able to do that and found that the yard didn't secure all of the hatches nor stow everything properly.

Roland Gendreau
Gratitude #1183

[captran]

In October I had Voyager moved from Ft Pierce Florida to Anacortes Washington.  I used a company called Dudley boat transport because they also move the new Catalina 35s and came well recommended.  They were the highest of the quote at about 8000.  It turned out the boat was moved by someone that used to contract with another company called Planet transport, so I really thought I was dealing with a local but in fact, he contracts with Dudley.  We actually got quotes from 5 companies.  There are some that haul with a big pick up.  You will want to check their DOT safety records and references.  Probably any of the folks would have done as well as Dudley, but I wanted someone local on this side to deal with if there was a problem.  I was very pleased.  If you are going from LB to Texas should be a whole lot cheaper.  Ditto the comments above.  If you can get a "back haul" it might reduce the price.  And if the mast is well wrapped and protected and the trailer has a mast carrier rather than placing the mast up on the boat, you'll be alot better off.