Trawler Lifestyle | PassageMaker Magazine & Events

Have you ever wished you could spend a little time cruising in new territory with new sights, new challenges, and new fun? What's stopping you? If the daunting prospect of ocean runs is holding you back, there is another option. Yacht shipping services are available that can transport your boat to new locations, saving you the worry, the time, and the wear and tear that long ocean runs mean for you and your boat. Whether you have a 30-foot sportsfisherman or a 100-foot luxury yacht, you can easily ship your boat to new cruising or fishing territory. When you compare the costs you would incur to move your own boat with the cost of shipping it, you might find that shipping your boat is well worth the expense. When my friends Dave and Amy Fulton decided they would take their Anacortes-based Nordhavn 76, Cadenza, to La Paz, Mexico, with the FUBAR rally last December, they soon began to weigh the options for returning their boat by yacht transport ship. They had their hearts set on winter cruising in the sunny Sea of Cortez, but they wanted to spend their summer cruising in British Columbia. And having moved their boat north from San Diego the previous year in March, they knew how tough the trip north along the Pacific coast at that time of year could be'on both boat and crew. With the help of their captain, Bo Larson (who also happens to be my brother), they contacted two shipping companies that transport yachts by ship. The first company, YachtPath, uses a lift-on/lift-off method that employs heavy cranes to lift the yachts onto waiting cradles on the deck of the transport ship. Since Cadenza weighs in at over 125 metric tons, she was too large for the YachtPath cranes, which are rated up to 100 metric tons. Next, they contacted Dockwise Yacht Transport, which employs a float-on/float-off method that can accommodate quite large yachts. Dockwise has four semi-submersible transport ships that transport yachts exclusively (no other cargo) and they have destinations in the Mediterranean, northwestern Europe, the East Coast of the United States, West Coast North America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. According to Dockwise, pricing depends upon the season and upon the amount of deck space in square footage a yacht takes up on board the yacht carrier dock bay. Bo filled out Cadenza's length and beam for the online 'quick quote' form to determine cost and availability. Shortly, he received a reply by email. Yes, the Dockwise yacht transport ship, Explorer, would be traveling north up the Pacific coast at the right time. And yes, there was room for Cadenza to ride along from La Paz to Nanaimo, B.C. It wasn't going to be cheap. Their number was north of $30,000. But as I mentioned, Cadenza had just made the trip up the coast in March and Dave and Amy knew what a difficult trip it could be. It didn't take them very long to decide to catch a ride on a big ship instead. In May, I got to participa...