Shipping Your Ship: Yacht Transportation

If you’ve got a cool little Sea Ray runabout parked out in Montauk, and want to roll up to Cape Cod for the Blue Fish Derby, you shouldn’t have any problems transporting your boat with a quality aluminum trailer. (Keep in mind the legal height for the road is 13′ 6,” and look for any low-hanging branches.)

If your boatload is bigger and higher, your perfect Derby weekend will remain happily focused on fish if you engage the services of a professional and fully insured boat transporter, with drivers, loaders, and equipment dedicated to the art of moving boats domestically.

But, say, you’re sitting at a café under the 600-year-old chapel belfry in the ancient waterfront piazza of Palma de Mallorca, contemplating how to move your 163’ Perini Ketch sailing yacht to Phucket, Thailand – without the angst of hiring an entirely new crew or missing work back in New York City - then, you’re definitely going to need a top-tier international boat transportation company.

What Is It?

Good domestic boat transporters who move boats by ground carriers are fastidious in how they pack your skiff, schooner, or powerboat. They remove all the vessel’s equipment - such as electronics, radar, hailers, horns, antennas, and propellers – and pack them securely and separately. These transportation specialists make sure all windshields and cabin windows are fastened, and hatches sealed. If it’s a small sailboat, the mast is tied down after all rigging, winches, and lights have first been removed. Boats are often shrink-wrapped with heavy-duty plastic coverings – almost like storing a giant-sized slab of prime sirloin – so nothing flies off in transit.

When it comes to international boat transporters, the preeminent firms utilize mega- and semi-submersible vessels capable of carrying as many as 18 yachts at a time. If you happen to be hanging out near the harbor in Genoa, Honolulu, or Yokohama, you’ll easily spot one of these floating tractor-trailers miles away. Their beauty is you don’t need stupendous cranes to mount your 163-foot Perini Ketch to the deck of the vessel – you just sail right up and float aboard the ship’s submerged stern. Later, when all the other yachts have been safely herded aboard, and temporarily positioned, the huge container ship rises back up out of the water with its cargo high and dry.

These mega container vessels are not ordinary boats. The most famous, like The Yacht Express, are built in China. Their engine rooms alone take up five decks, and computerized ballasts handle the almost 35,000 tons of sea water allowing the 12-deck vessel to pull off its incredible flooding act.

Who Needs It?

Yachtsman, sailors, and people who love going fishing.

Benefits

The best-known yacht transporters who use these mega container ships build custom cradles for the yachts they carry, and secure them to the deck in advance of their boarding. Draftsmen design the supports based on your boat’s make, model, weight, and any other unique structural characteristics. Then, when it’s time to board, divers gingerly move your yacht across the submerged aft deck, ensuring a sailboat’s keel doesn’t strike anything. Then, one by one, each vessel is carefully fitted into its cradle.
All reputable yacht transporters carry full insurance on every boat. (There’s usually a $1,000 deductible.) Transportation fees often depend on the time of year. In general, yachts are charged by the amount of square footage they occupy. Rates are lower during off-season, which means, for instance, it’s more cost effective to cross from the East Coast of the U.S. to the Mediterranean in the winter months. (Spring is the high season.) In the fall, since most yachts want to escape the chilly Mediterranean weather for the warmer climes of the Caribbean, prices shoot skyward. Still, you can count on saving about $12,000 when you don’t sail your yacht across with your own crew.

What’s more, the ocean transit allows yacht owners to have some “bottom work” done, (that is, sanding and repainting below the waterline), which later translates into less time in the boat yard and more time sailing breezily around the French Antilles to the rhythms of Burning Spear.

Risks

Although your yacht is fully insured during transit, again, consult the “force majeure” clause of your insurance agreement. (I.e., avoid hurricane season.)