Boat Trucking Company

[AlanH]

I'm looking into trucking a 30 footer from Annapolis to San Francisco. It's a long story.....Anybody got a favorite trucking company they'd recommend?

 

[BobJ]

From the Pacific Cup website:

"My name is Larry Cummins and I am formerly from Loadaboat.. I have shipped many race boats back from Hawaii.. In 08 I shipped 13 boats back from both you and the Single handed sailing society.. You can email me at [email protected] or you can call me 619-792-5200"

Larry handled Ragtime!'s return from Hawaii in 2008 from Honolulu through San Diego and back to Alameda - with no problems. He handled several other SHTP boats as well.

He used to be based in Texas. If he still is, then Naptown to here might be something he could arrange.

 

[tcuevas]

I have a guy I used to bring my mini from Florida. A mini is a wide load and the price was right. If you want info let me know.

 

[tiger beetle]

I'm looking into trucking a 30 footer from Annapolis to San Francisco. It's a long story.....Anybody got a favorite trucking company they'd recommend?

Hi Alan -

this goes back a ways: when I purchased the Newport 33 in 1989 I had it trucked north on a deadhead run from Los Angeles to San Francisco by Dudley (based out of Washington state). The boat showed up in good order. I have no idea if Dudley does cross-country runs.

http://www.dudleyboats.com/

I would strongly recommend that you be be present when the boat is set up on the trailer. I watched the Dudley driver put together the load and he attached the hold-down straps to the boat by looping one over each primary winch and cranking down hard - ouch! I asked him to stop and we called in a foreman who drove over to the yard in a pickup truck to deliver longer straps that would reach from the trailer, up and over the boat, and back to the trailer. The original straps on the truck were abraded and therefore too short to span the boat (driver did not want to place loads on any length of strap with wear showing), and rather than find the correct strap he wanted to get going and hope the winches were strong enough to hold the boat onto the trailer...

I've seen Dudley delivering boats into Alameda, and other than the problem with the strap length and that particular driver trying to cut a corner, everything went well.

- rob/beetle

 

[brianlewis]

I trucked a boat (Ericson 32) 20 years ago from Long Beach to Richmond. Things I did not anticipate occurred. The vibration loosened my locking mechanism for my hatch (a simple threaded nut) and the hatch blew off somewhere along I-5. I also believe I took out a separate insurance policy. I would suggest you discuss how claims are filed and also talk to your own insurance company. Boat US might have a list of carriers. Good luck. Brian

 

[jfoster]

I'm looking into trucking a 30 footer from Annapolis to San Francisco. It's a long story.....Anybody got a favorite trucking company they'd recommend?

Put your parameters into uship and let the list know how it turns out.

http://www.uship.com/

John
Blueberry Nonsuch 22 sail #48

 

[AlanH]

Put your parameters into uship and let the list know how it turns out.

http://www.uship.com/

John
Blueberry Nonsuch 22 sail #48

My request for bids is now "out there" with uship. Uship tells me that the average price for a job like mine is about $5700. This hurts, since that's more than the asking price of the boat. In fact it's almost $1,000 more than the boat, itself. Let's see what the incoming bids look like, if there are any.

Waiting on information from Larry "formerly" from Loadaboat.

Update: just got the first bid. It's $6,440+ >>> **cough** The guys wants <$5,000 for the boat. Of course, add about $800 in yard bills at each end on top of that. Whooooiiieee. If I can't see something a lot lower than that, this isn't gonna happen.

 

[Mitch]

I've gotten lucky a few times - Trailer from my 34' contour, empty, came back to Cali from Florida for something like $1500, as the truck was coming back empty. I looked at UShip - but had better luck talking to the trailer company themselves who use various truckers. They hooked me up. Maybe talk to a few brokers here who know of boats going back east?

Does the boat have a trailer? Can you rent a U-Haul and drag her back yourself?

 

[AlanH]

I've gotten lucky a few times - Trailer from my 34' contour, empty, came back to Cali from Florida for something like $1500, as the truck was coming back empty. I looked at UShip - but had better luck talking to the trailer company themselves who use various truckers. They hooked me up. Maybe talk to a few brokers here who know of boats going back east?

Does the boat have a trailer? Can you rent a U-Haul and drag her back yourself?

No trailer, I'm afraid. Fingers crossed about Larry, he says he's got a driver headed that way in a couple of days and doesn't know if he's got a load to bring back or not.

 

[AlanH]

Larry Cummins from 360boatloader.com...$7,200 .... ouch.

Next day: two more bids from guys on uship, both right about $6,500.

OK, time to look at some other options.