I did have my Caliber 40 trucked from
San Carlos, Mx (west coast NE part of Sea of Cortez) to Tacoma WA - that was Aug 2004 and was about $8,500 inclusive of all costs. I did all the
work preparing the
boat to go on the truck in
Mexico and paid only $75 to have the
mast removed and $150 to have the
boat hauled out into Marina Seca.
I did all the
work to put the boat back into the
water in Tacoma and paid only $300 to have the
mast put back on the boat and to have a Travel
Lift put the boat back into the
water. The boat was on the jackstands in Tacoma for two weeks while they painted the bottom and I rubbed out and polished everything. That is why the cost to step the mast and launch the boat was lower.
I also had to pay $750 to transfer the boat from the Mexican
trailer to a US
trailer in Tuscon. I am not clear if this kind of transfer is still required.
Earlier in 2004 a friend had his 47’ boat moved, via Dockwise from
La Paz, BCS,
Mexico to Victoria BC. His cost was about $10,500. Four years later the quote I got from Dockwise for the same trip for my 40’ boat was $15,000.
In 2007 I helped a friend get their Caliber 40 from
Annapolis to
Seattle.
- $1,500 in
Annapolis to remove mast and prepare boat for trailer
- $15,000 cross country
- $1,200 in
Seattle to prepare the boat and launch it
They were in no rush and were able to wait for a backhaul and got a lower
price
Last fall I helped a friend plan the transport of a Caliber 40 from
Beaufort, NC to Los Angles and the costs were about the same as the 2007 trip. Again, he found a boat transport company from
California that had an empty trailer coming back from the
east coast.
Cost Items that might significantly change the
price by up to 50%:
- the length of time you can wait for a discounted backhaul
- your willingness to put the transport out to bid on U-Ship
- the amount of work you do to prepare boat for transport
mast stepping in
San Diego is $350 and the haulout is another $350
my brother and I (we installed EVERY item on my boat when new) spent 20 hours preparing the boat for transport – that is a lot of
money if you are paying someone to do the work.
- the amount of work you do to prepare boat for launch
- width of boat (will it require escorts?)
my Caliber 40 was wide (12’ 10”) enough it needed an escort in
Oregon
- height of boat (will it fit under all the bridges?)
-
route your driver takes
my driver got caught in
Oregon on Friday afternoon and was not allowed to proceed until after 8 PM Sunday
my driver avoided I-5 in
California to prevent need for California escort
- if
shipping from Mexico – will that trailer be allowed into US?
Some of the things we had to do to prepare our Caliber 40 for transport
- remove
solar panels
- remove
solar panel arch
- remove outboards
- find a place to store the above
- remove anchors from bow
- remove
radar from mast
- remove loud hailer from mast
- remove
dodger and
bimini frame (to make room for arch storage)
- drain water
tanks
- secure all lines and shrouds on mast and put bubble wrap everywhere
- find place below to store main and
genoa and
sheets
The cost of moving my boat on it’s own bottom was mentioned. The cost of taking a sailboat from Cabo San Lucas NORTHWEST to Cape Flattery is unique in the US coastal situation. That is 1,900 nautical miles directly into the prevailing NNW winds and six foot swell. I had already done the southern part of the trip two times and KNEW that we would
motor almost every inch of the way.
I knew, based on 10 years and 15,000 miles, that our
Yanmar cost $0.48 per nautical mile to operate, excluding
rebuild costs. The
rebuild cost is about another $0.50 per hour.
So – my costs to move the boat on her own bottom:
235 NM Puerto Escondido to Cabo San Lucas
750 NM Cabo San Lucas to
San Diego
1100 NM San Diego to Cape Flattery
150 NM Cape Flattery to Tacoma
assuming I sailed all the way from Escondido to Cabo and Cape Flattery to Tacoma and had a 3-person crew were:
$900 for
fuel at $3.25/gallon 5.5 knots/hour & 1 GPH pounding into the swell
$170 for
engine rebuild (usage)
$540 for 12 nights at the
dock at $45/night
$900
food for 12 days at
dock at $25/person/day
$1125
food for 25 days underway at $15/person/day
$3,635 and about 40 days of miserable pounding upwind. Compare that to trucking the boat – I spent two days preparing the boat for the truck, one day to fly home, and four days preparing the boat to re-launch – all in complete comfort!
I don’t think you can extrapolate much from my experience because the OP was talking about a downwind trip for much of the time.
The only possible way to make an educated, rational, economic decision is to get firm bids from truckers, Dockwise, and other transporters, and then use real numbers based on actual experience for the cost of operating the boat, feeding the crew, and dealing with other expenses such as dockage and
canal fees, so you can compare costs and time.
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