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Old 05-23-2019, 05:52 PM   #15
guy with a boat
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City: SoCal and Vancouver Island
Vessel Name: Tortuga
Vessel Model: Nordhavn 63
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 749
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedtree View Post
Just bumping this thread to see if there is any update. Did United Yacht Transport deliver as promised? Has the boat been shipped? Any feedback at this point?
I’ll provide feedback. My boat was shipped from FLL to Victoria, BC and arrived a few weeks ago. I learned a few things in the process.

The choices in shippers are far fewer than it at first appears. Your origination and destination points, along with your schedule, determine which ship can move your yacht. More than one company can sell you space on that ship. United says they have their own ships, which really means they charter the ship, which is operated by someone else and owned by yet another entity. Peters and May books space on the best available ship, which in most cases will be the same ship that you will be on if you book through United.

In my case, I looked at the available offerings and booked through Peters and May. The ship was the same one offered by United but P&M was willing to make the deal slightly more attractive (pricing and insurance coverage). I also talked to Sevenstar but they didn't have a sailing in the time frame that I needed.

The contracts are terrible and the shippers accept essentially no liability for anything, including their own negligence. I did request and review contracts in advance from each shipper and they are all very similar and very one-sided in favor of the shipper. This is workable because they provide (for a cost) insurance for the boat owner to cover losses. They can do it because the competition in the yacht shipping business is very limited.

My boat was loaded and delivered within days of the promised dates, so I'm happy about that. You don't get much notice in advance of loading and offloading, so it is hard to plan, but that's part of the deal.

My boat arrived in generally good condition but has very extensive rust staining all over the boat. This seems to be from grinding dust from whatever source on the ship creating still particles that rust where they land. In any case, my boat is covered from top to bottom with rust stains. I have been in touch with the shippers and they seem willing to remedy this, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm hopeful that they will step up and make it right. They have made motions in the right direction still unresolved. The boat will take many man hours of rust removal and then a complete wax job to replace the wax that must be stripped off to remove the stains.

I'll report back when this is resolved. How it is handled will have a big impact in my overall rating of the experience.

I did have our tender shrink wrapped before shipping, and it stayed clean. Shrink wrapping the whole boat was priced at several thousand dollars since it has to include window openings and zippered doors to allow loading etc., and that still leaves large sections of the boat uncovered to allow crew access to bollards etc for tie-down on the ship. The benefit didn't seem worth the cost and complication. Had I done it, the rust problem would be less but would still be a problem.

What have I learned? I learned that I hope I don't have to ship a boat again.
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