How to Ship Your Boat: A Guide for Boat Transport

You could have heard about a great offer on a remote boat, driven to a distant boat show and made a purchase, or purchased a boat straight from the builder. It’s likely that you will now need to make arrangements for delivering your yacht to your residence or marina if any of these scenarios apply to you. Although it can seem significant, long-distance boat deliveries are really very routine and simple to plan.

Shipping a Boat with a Trailer of its Own

You’re in luck if you purchased a boat-motor-trailer bundle since you might be able to handle the delivery yourself for just the price of fuel and your own labor. This obviously means you’ll need a tow car of your own that can handle the weight. Otherwise, you may always hire a vehicle. However, we would advise hiring a pro if you lack the time or skills to feel confident trailering the boat yourself. In the meanwhile, familiarize yourself with Boat Towing and Trailering so that you can handle shorter tows to and from the ramp when the rig comes.

Shipping a Boat via Land

The majority of boats are transported on land, and those that are equipped with trailers are also delivered on flatbeds or bigger multi-boat trailers. However, shipping a boat down the roadway is subject to certain extremely precise limitations. Any vessel transported across land has to have:

Measure no more than 12’0″.

be no more than 13’6″ in height (although, sometimes, bridges, towers, masts, and related components can be taken down before shipment).

Have a location with at least 14’0″ of overhead clearance for loading and unloading, and be prepared for pickup.

If your boat satisfies all of these conditions, a professional can transport it to you over land. It goes without saying that this will be a little more expensive than towing the boat home yourself, but not prohibitively so. The boat’s size, the distance it must be sent, and its value—which may have an impact on insurance costs—will all determine the ultimate cost. The price range is rather wide because of all these different elements; the cost of transporting a boat overland might be in the hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars.

Shipping a Boat by Itself

For big boats and yachts, shipping them on their own bottom could be the best option. Once more, this is something you might want to attempt on your own. Actually, a lot of novice boat owners turn the process of transporting their own vessel to their home port into an experience by sailing up the Intracoastal or taking a lengthy voyage from the town where the manufacturer is based. But the time commitment can be too much, depending on the distance. A professional delivery captain delivers boats that are shipped on their own bottom more frequently. For really big boats and yachts, more crew members could be necessary.

There are several unique factors that must be taken into account while shipping a boat in this manner.

It might be essential for you to have certain insurance, that you provide the crew and captain with food and/or lodging during the journey, and in many situations, you will be responsible for covering the cost of the crew’s return flight following the delivery.

This kind of delivery occurs on the sea, therefore you also need to be ready for unforeseen circumstances, technical problems, or other things that might create delays.

You should prepare a backup plan in case the crew and boat are stranded in a far-off port for several days, as may happen during a hurricane.

Shipping a Boat Via a Yacht

When it comes to shipping particularly large boats and yachts that are going to far-off places, using a yacht transport ship can be the best choice. As one might think, these situations are far more costly (sometimes reaching the tens of thousands of dollars) and rather uncommon. Of course, securing a spot on a ship requires reservations, which often entail dealing with a “freight forwarding” business (also known as a “ocean transport intermediary,” or OTI) or a “non-vessel operating common carrier” (NVOCC). These businesses specialize in handling the associated paperwork and logistics for space reservations on ships.

Any size boat may be transported using one of these methods, regardless of its size. You’ll be one happy boater once that adorable new ride finds its new home, no doubt about it.

Tags: guide transport