Advice for Sailing boat from North Lake Huron to Nova Scotia

[Ardbeg]

Just checking here however is this a US registered or Canadian registered boat. IF US boat or Canadian boat "in bond" you will have to pay hst on the declared value when you check in with Canada Customs. I assume you have considered this angle? Lake Ontario is my playground. It will likely be light wind in May and cool at night however you say you have a heater on board. I have done the Erie Canal, do not bother. I have sailed to PEI in my boat and returned. This year delivering a boat as crew to Le Have in Nova Scotia. I suspect you will be motoring from 1000 Islands to Quebec City. Easy run, the current is your friend. Agreed check opening dates for pleasure craft in the Seaway. Remember 2 locks are in the USA so you will not be able to debark from your boat during those two locks,. No problem though. You might want to think of the south shore of the St Lawrence east of Quebec. Tadoussac was below zero end of June when I was there.

[Scaramanga F25]

Any boat left on the hard for two years will need a lot of maintenance and new items.
I would plan for a month of work with heaters going full blast. I remember sleeping inside of two sleeping bags on the St Laurence river at the end of June. Delivering from lake Ontario to Montreal in mid-May was very cold sailing at night. Marinas were not open.

[Redline452]

Originally Posted by Ardbeg

Remember 2 locks are in the USA so you will not be able to debark from your boat during those two locks,. No problem though.

You can reserve and pay your lockage at greatlakes-seaway.com. The US locks do not require border formalities; there's no need to anchor or moor on the US side if just transiting. Do check the lockage schedule; in 2021 there were two lockages, one morning and one afternoon, for pleasurecraft (Iroquois, however, just want you to have paid; they told me they operate 24/7 regardless of reservations).

[Paul Howard]

I have sailed all of the Great Lakes except Superior, and the above advice is fairly sound.
I have also sailed out the St Lawrence twice.
The later you get through the St. Lawrence locks the better, a that is where and when you will get the cold, rain and fog. Once I left Lake Ontario end of June to Newfoundland, then left there late July to Azores, Madeira, etc. and had an OK passage. I had no radar that first time and swore I would never again sail out the St. Lawrence without radar. Second trip (with radar that was well used) was to Labrador and left Battle Harbour about July 6 and sailed the more northerly route to Iceland and Faeroe Is., Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, etc.
The hurricanes do not come up the U.S. coast very often until later in the season, so a more northerly route in July is probably OK with a good forecast.
Hurricanes tend to form off the coast of West Africa, so you will have lots of time to know if one is brewing.
The frequency of gales and rough seas is less later in the summer.
Study the pilot charts.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Emouchet

I did consider the Trent Severn waterway for a while. Un-stepping and re-stepping the mast is not that bad, but if I can avoid it, that would be better. Also, I think Trent Severn will take much longer in term of days. If I had the whole summer that would be a different story.

I have no first-hand knowledge; it's on the bucket list, but I've heard it takes 5-7 days. https://cruising.ca/trent/docs/facts.html

[My Wind Lass]

A couple of things to point out to other forum members here. You can also get into the US via Sorel and the Richelieu River into Lake Champlain and then on down the Hudson to New York. The Erie canal can be pleasant but it is a slow route. But if you have clearly decided you wish to avoid the US waterways, the St-Laurent out to the gulf, PEI and down to Canso is definitely a nice route to go. Will be helping a friend move his boat to Halifax this summer from Cornwall, Ontario. Looking forward to the trip. The Great Lakes may be cool near the end of May beginning of June but the Gulf will be far cooler. BTW, is the reason for bringing the boat across the pond to sell it on the other side? If it is for sale, I'd be interested to know what the boat is?
One further point, verify the rules for bringing the boat into Canada even for transiting. If the boat is registered under a foreign flag but none of the crew are foreign (i.e. all Canadian) there might be some issues. Not certain of that but I have been reading customs info and I seem to recall something about that. (Of course I may have misread something.) If someone foreign is representing the owner, then I doubt it would be an issue. If the boat is Canadian registered and Canadian taxes paid, no issue at all. If Canadian registered but no taxes paid, be prepared for a hefty bill. Just speculating as the information here is insufficient to assess. Have a great trip.

[kayakerChuck]

As others have said, early season on the northern lakes means fog. It rolls in at pretty much any time of day, in pretty much any weather conditions. It can be widespread or very local.

We brought our new to us boat up Lake Michigan & down Lake Huron in June of 2021. The admiral was not happy that I insisted on RADAR, until the 3rd day of our trip. By the end of the first week, she was VERY glad that I installed it.

[Symphony]

As MyWindLass mentioned - there are many good reasons to sell the boat in the US.

Import tax, cost of transit crew, immigration fees, customs and border fees, insurance to get to France. A "new" boat is likely to suffer some accelerated wear and tear on the voyage. And - - - - the boat's been dry and high for almost 3 years. there will 99% likely be pumps and valves which will fail during the first 90 days.

This would be a fantastic voyage and adventure if you have a full season on Superior or Michigan to get the boat settled and running fine. It's a beautiful area to be, why leave so quickly. Store the boat once more at the end of the season, inside where it can be the first boat out in May. THEN do this adventure.

There are many aluminum boat builders in France.
Whatever you do, all my best wishes for this endeavor and the owner's friends and family.

[ebs001]

Originally Posted by My Wind Lass

A couple of things to point out to other forum members here. You can also get into the US via Sorel and the Richelieu River into Lake Champlain and then on down the Hudson to New York. The Erie canal can be pleasant but it is a slow route. But if you have clearly decided you wish to avoid the US waterways, the St-Laurent out to the gulf, PEI and down to Canso is definitely a nice route to go. Will be helping a friend move his boat to Halifax this summer from Cornwall, Ontario. Looking forward to the trip. The Great Lakes may be cool near the end of May beginning of June but the Gulf will be far cooler. BTW, is the reason for bringing the boat across the pond to sell it on the other side? If it is for sale, I'd be interested to know what the boat is?
One further point, verify the rules for bringing the boat into Canada even for transiting. If the boat is registered under a foreign flag but none of the crew are foreign (i.e. all Canadian) there might be some issues. Not certain of that but I have been reading customs info and I seem to recall something about that. (Of course I may have misread something.) If someone foreign is representing the owner, then I doubt it would be an issue. If the boat is Canadian registered and Canadian taxes paid, no issue at all. If Canadian registered but no taxes paid, be prepared for a hefty bill. Just speculating as the information here is insufficient to assess. Have a great trip.

If the boat is American and he is Canadian he will not be allowed to bring the boat into Canada and if he is, he will have to pay HST. I'm not sure if it is still broken down as GST and PST, in which case he would pay the GST at the border and the PST later.

As his friend is deceased he no longer has the authority to deliver the boat but would require a statement from the estate.

Which brings me to my third point, does the estate really want the boat let alone in France? By the time all expenses are covered, repairs, taxes, import duties, insurance, operational cost not to mention any delivery fees for delivery, it would have to be a pretty unique boat to justify bringing it to France.

My person opinion is that the OP should advise the estate to sell the boat in the US.

[Emouchet]

The boat is French flagged. It is a one-off, specifically designed according the owner desire.

Crew will be Canadian, so ebs001 is right. We need to look if this will be an issue bringing the boat to Canada, even if this is temporary en route to France. Definitely, there is no intention to pay the GST and PST plus extra 9.5% duty because this is a made in France boat as well another extra 10% luxury taxe on imported boat!

Currently, the family wants the boat back in France, and have no intention to sell it yet.
I agree that this is far from the easiest solution, but I do respect their choice.

[valhalla360]

Make sure you get all your legal ducks in a row.

In addition to border crossings and import taxes, will you be compensated making it a commercial delivery? Are you licensed? Are you insured?

As someone else mentioned, the estate is presumably the owner and will have to authorize the trip.

x2:
- Plan on a month or so to get the boat prepared. Early season, there may be limited facilities to get things taken care of on the fly (marinas in the area will be busy getting their regular customers ready for splashdown).
- Even with pulling the mast, the Trent-Severn may make sense. It's one thing to be out on rough water mid summer but in May, the water is going to be very cold. The canal route avoids most rough conditions. While you have to deal with the locks, it's also much shorter in terms of miles.

A big question for you: Is this primarily a delivery job or are you using it as a pleasure cruise that gets the boat where it needs to be?

[hpeer]

I am an American/Canadian dual citizen. I have sailed my American flagged boat from the USA to Canada, circumnavigated Newfoundland, and returned without being accosted to pay taxes. Now if I tried to IMPORT the boat into Canada I would be open to these taxes because the boat was constructed outside the North American Free Trade agreement zone (UK).

I keep my Canadian boat in Lewisporte. We have folks from around the world come there, Swiss and German for sure. There are issues with leaving the boat more than a single year/season but baring that there are no additional taxes.

If, in extremis, the boat could not make it back this season, and taxes loom for some unfathomable reason, then get at least to St Pierre where she will be in France.

I have kept my Canadian in the US for several years without importing or paying taxes. The problem in the US is the customs laws are interpreted differently in different districts, I think there are 7, NY district being a PITA. Baltimore district gave me an annual cruising pass, if I returned the pass before the end of the year and the boat was in immobile in “dry dock” then the next hear they would give me a new one year cruising pass. Florida has some similar such interpretation allowing snow birds to keep boats there. Maybe going to the Bahamas is enough to rest?

[emilecantin]

Originally Posted by Ardbeg

Remember 2 locks are in the USA so you will not be able to debark from your boat during those two locks

I did all of the locks in late August last summer, and you actually couldn't go ashore at any of them because of COVID. You had to stay on the little dock. US lock had a little sign telling you not to go beyond a certain point, but at least you had a good view of the lock operations. Canadian locks had huge chain-link fences. One of them (Beauharnois) has the waiting dock under a huge highway bridge, not exactly a "nice" location.

[BoatBumm]

Regarding the Erie Canal route, I took it in the East to West direction this past summer, from Waterford NY (the East entrance to the canal) to Oswego. I was told that trip typically takes about 5 days. It took me 18 days due to long canal closures due to high water in turn due to heavy rains, and associated tree debris in the water. And I was lucky to get stuck at small towns, usually with available shore power. Many others were stuck tied to rough concrete lock docking walls in the middle of nowhere. The overall experience was great. I got to know some great fellow “stuckies” really well, but don’t take the canal if you’re on a schedule. Just saying…

[cdcorl]

May is fine for the lakes. We actually prefer it. No bugs, no other boats, some marinas may still be closed, but they are usually open for docking, you just can’t use the facilities and they don’t charge. We sometimes see ice, but nothing to worry about, the thick ice is almost non existent in May. Pick your Lake Erie days with the wind abaft the beam. It can get steep and uncomfortable. I know nothing about Ontario and beyond, we have only done the Erie Canal. Great time to sail!