Catamaran - Road Transport

[david_c]

Hi,
I'm interested in building a catamaran at home and was wondering if anyone knew a ballpark price for road transport in Australia to get it to the water? I assume it would be thousands due to needing to close roads, get an escort, etc, but would it likely be over $10k? I would only need to get it transported about 15km's.

My other concern is whether it would fit down our narrow rural road. It has a beam of 7.4m and when I went up to the front of my house with a tape measure it looked pretty tight, at least when measured between the roadside white posts. Do the transport companies have trailers that allow the boat to be tilted if necessary?

I'm trying to work out if it is better to build it at home where I already have a shed, 3 phase power, etc or bite the bullet and rent a waterfront piece of land somewhere (I live near the Clarence River in NSW, lots of waterfrontage but some of it is flood prone). It's an aluminium Mumby 14 I'm looking at.

Thanks,
David.

[ausaviator]

Think BIG. To get it out of your place, you may require a large crane to lift if out and over to the road. Don't forget it will likely be very high up on the trailer, so rather than worry about white posts, you'd be more concerned over power lines and low hanging trees. They would have to likely make up a jig (or you would) to tilt it on the side and again, problems arise with power lines with that approach.

[dialdan]

I had my 9.3m cat transported by a house removal co. aprox 20 kms about 3 years ago , cost $3000. Also needed to pay for police escort $200. This was in Qld

[david_c]

Thanks for your help, you are right I was thinking too small.

I hadn't thought of a house removal company, that's a good idea.

[spiritcat]

David C,
A house removal company is ususally the best as they have a truck with a hydraulic lift trailer which makes loading easy. One thing to consider is how you get it off the trailer at the destination, some back the trailer down a beach at low tide and then drop it on the sand and drive the trailer out, provided the owner does not mind wet sand.

When we launched our 380 last year, it was going to cost close to $10k using a house removal company to get to the launch ramp which was about 10km away, but could not access the beach so needed to lift onto a launch trailer.

In then end I got hold of a mate who had a low loader used to transport excavators, but with a hydraulic lift of 150mm. We backed the trailer under the boat, dropped the trailer, packed under the bridgdeck with pallets, lifted the trailer, packed under the hulls, dropped the trailer, more pallets and on and on untill we had her high enough off the ground.

Down to the marina with police and escort, lift off truck with a crane and onto a launching trailer I had borrowed from a local cat builder, lift the mast on with the same crane and launch at daylight the next morning.

The whole deal cost me about a grand and a couple of slabs of beer.

Peter