Move a trawler east coast to west

What are the options to move a 40' trawler from NY state to CA?
...other than take 30 days navigation trough Panama off course..
Can be moved by truck? Or only option is merchant ship?
If somebody did recently I would love to read numbers (read $$$) and experience.
I did for myself time ago but I do not want to spend a month off in the ocean (again)

garrobito said:

What are the options to move a 40' trawler from NY state to CA?
...other than take 30 days navigation trough Panama off course..
Can be moved by truck? Or only option is merchant ship?
If somebody did recently I would love to read numbers (read $$$) and experience.
I did for myself time ago but I do not want to spend a month off in the ocean (again)

Click to expand...

It can be moved by truck in most cases. Without knowing the boat, hard to tell you what is involved. Typically removal of flybridge. As to shipping by water, the challenge is getting to and from a shipping point. You'd probably ship from RI but could need to go to FL. Depending on where in California you're going, your best place to receive it is probably Ensenada. Because of the Jones Act, you have to either receive in Mexico or Canada. For a boat that size, truck is generally the best choice.

I looked into moving a 44' from FL to CA and it was going to run around $18K - $20K. Plus around $2,000 - $2,500 on each end to remove and replace the bridge. So figure around $25K. Bridge may or may not have to come off (assuming there is a bridge).

Moved a 53' Hatteras on Dockwise from Florida to Vancover BC, float on and off...required no hardware removal...cost $30k.
Also was quoted a delivery to Idaho on the Columbia River but don't recall vendor and price.

There is a ship that comes in and out of Newport RI every summer. Call Newport shipyard. They should be able to get you pointed in the right direction.
Newport Shipyard

Or New England Boat Works

http://neboatworks.com/

The boat will need to be cut down to no more than 14ft high sitting on the trailer.

Sometimes this is impossible.

Moved a 36 foot boat from Florida to Bellingham. No problem.

mike50 said:

Moved a 53' Hatteras on Dockwise from Florida to Vancover BC, float on and off...required no hardware removal...cost $30k.
Also was quoted a delivery to Idaho on the Columbia River but don't recall vendor and price.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Dockwise's only location on the east coast is Port Everglades and on the west coast it's now Golfito, I believe. Now, their parent, SevenStar, sails from Palm Beach to Ensenada or Victoria. There are some occasional ships transporting out of Newport, but not regularly scheduled. There and other locations are often handled by brokers and booked on ships not transporting only boats. Some brokers are better than others. Also, you can get into multiple ships with your boat offloaded and reloaded at several intermediate stops.

I've found yacht transporting is great for those shipping back and forth to the med. It's good for coast to coast, if Victoria or Vancouver or Ensenada and South Florida work for you. These are regularly run routes. For larger boats water is the only option. Still for most boats 50' or smaller, road presents a better alternative if the prime yacht shipping locations are not convenient.

I would suggest Associated Boat Transport to do the haul. Very experienced, good equipment and drivers.


Another suggestion: Once you find a marina or boat yard in CA that will put it back together, fly one of their techs to the yard where the bridge is going to be removed and have him do the work. There are too many schlock yards out there that will just go in and cut wires without marking them. If they do that, the reassembly is a bear because nobody knows what wires go to what equipment.


I flew a tech from Portland, OR to the Detroit area to do the takedown on my boat. He was very careful to mark both ends of every wire before cutting because he knew he was going to have to put it back together.


I figure that even with the airfare, rental car, hotel and meals I came out money ahead and had the satisfaction of knowing the job of putting it back together would go smoothly.

GFC said:

I would suggest Associated Boat Transport to do the haul. Very experienced, good equipment and drivers.


Another suggestion: Once you find a marina or boat yard in CA that will put it back together, fly one of their techs to the yard where the bridge is going to be removed and have him do the work. There are too many schlock yards out there that will just go in and cut wires without marking them. If they do that, the reassembly is a bear because nobody knows what wires go to what equipment.


I flew a tech from Portland, OR to the Detroit area to do the takedown on my boat. He was very careful to mark both ends of every wire before cutting because he knew he was going to have to put it back together.


I figure that even with the airfare, rental car, hotel and meals I came out money ahead and had the satisfaction of knowing the job of putting it back together would go smoothly.

Click to expand...

It's like moving, you eliminate 90% of the problems on long distance moves if you have a crew that stays with your goods and does the packing, loading, unloading and unpacking. And the bridge removal is far more complicated than a move should be.

For those who have gone before, what else is involved in a boat ship? Do you have to empty all tanks? In that case, do you sell your fuel back to the marina shipyard? What about your propane tanks if you have them?
Probably a good time for a bottom job. Any problem getting it done before the ship?
What other prep work has to be done?
And on the receiving end. What services do you contract with the receiving yard to restore, inspect and test?
Thanks,

I once looked into trucking a trawler from San Francisco to the Mississippi river. We would have had to saw too much fiberglass to get it down to the max height of about 13 feet.
Sending it by ship didn't work either since there is a law that cargo moving between two US ports can only go on US registered ships, so we would have had to go to either Canada or Mexico to load.

Acheron2010 said:

For those who have gone before, what else is involved in a boat ship? Do you have to empty all tanks? In that case, do you sell your fuel back to the marina shipyard? What about your propane tanks if you have them?
Probably a good time for a bottom job. Any problem getting it done before the ship?
What other prep work has to be done?
And on the receiving end. What services do you contract with the receiving yard to restore, inspect and test?
Thanks,

Click to expand...

In my case... (hardtop so no need to remove bridge, winter transport to NE)

• FW & black tanks were empty & winterized
• Fuel tank was left as-is (approx half full)
• Pro removed
• Batteries (3 8D's) removed (mine were stowed on the flat bed some may require palletizing / boxing or shipping separate)
• I had the boat shrink wrapped for transport - caution different than
  conventional shrink - have someone experienced if you do this
• If not shrinked - windshield wipers, antennae, anchor(s), fender racks, etc, etc removed / stowed / secured

I can send a copy of the transport agreement that covers above + other details. I also have some pics of transport shrink wrap.
PM me w/ email if you'd like copies of above

Acheron2010 said:

For those who have gone before, what else is involved in a boat ship? Do you have to empty all tanks? In that case, do you sell your fuel back to the marina shipyard? What about your propane tanks if you have them?
Probably a good time for a bottom job. Any problem getting it done before the ship?
What other prep work has to be done?
And on the receiving end. What services do you contract with the receiving yard to restore, inspect and test?
Thanks,

Click to expand...

On my recent shipment of a 44 footer the boat was going to potentially pass through area where the temperatures could have gone below freezing, so the engines were winterized and the water tank was emptied. Otherwise that wouldn't have been necessary. Fuel remained in the tank and the tanks were about 90% full. The yard it was offloaded at suggested it might be worth painting the bottom but it had just been done 5 months prior, so we skipped it. I did change the zincs.

Boat was hauled backwards so windshield, etc. faced backward. The boat did need a thorough detail as diesel soot from the truck got all over the stern including the underside portion of the bridge that covers the cockpit.

Good luck!
Mike

OP,

No one has asked the question. Why are you moving a boat 3,000+ miles by land or ship? Is the boat a family heirloom? Did you buy the vessel for next to nothing? All good reasons to move.

Why not sell the boat in NY and purchase another on the West Coast?