WHAT IS A BOAT DELIVERY?
Boat or yacht delivery activity is an industry engaged in moving sail or power boats from A to B, typically for a boat owner, yacht broker, or a boat manufacturer. There are two basic types of boat deliveries – ‘overland’ and ‘through-the-water’. The ‘overland’ method is, as it implies, transporting boats by truck or rail by qualified service providers with specialized trucks or railcars specifically designed for that purpose.
There is a great deal of preparation to make a boat ready to be transported over land. For example, sailboats must have their rig (mast, boom, arch, rigging, etc.) dismantled and packaged for shipment in order that the vessel is low enough to get under the roadway bridges during transport. Larger power boats also typically need some upper deck disassembly so they too can make it under the roadway bridges.
The ‘through-the-water’ delivery service involves moving the boat through the waterways from A to B, and therefore typically eliminates any disassembly of the vessel. An exception to this would be if the boat being delivered ‘through-the-water’ is going to pass through canal systems that have lower bridges. In that case, sailboats and some power boats will require some disassembly prior to entering a canal system that has bridges too low to allow passage without the disassembly.
Typically, moving a power or sailing vessel through-the-water places far less stress on the vessel. The boat to be delivered through-the-water does not need to be hauled out in order to prepare for shipping, and also avoids the re-launch of the boat at the destination – thus saving clients added expenses. In addition, vessel hulls are much better kept in the water where they are more ‘relaxed’ and keep their true designed hull shape.
There is one other unique ‘through-the-water’ service that larger yachts do use in transporting from A to B and is most often seen used in tropical parts of the world. For example, Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT) (URL: http://www.yacht-transport.com) is a company that has several large freighters which have been designed to transport yachts anywhere in the world. The yachts are still moved through the water, but they are placed aboard these specialized shipping freighters. In this case, the term used in the industry is these vessels are transported through-the-water, but ‘not on their own bottom’.
For some larger yachts, this method of transportation is necessary for much longer deliveries since the vessel would not have sufficient fuel to do the delivery ‘on its own bottom’. A good example of this is when larger yachts are being moved across the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean or from the Mediterranean back to the Caribbean Sea.
WHY A BOAT DELIVERY?
The most common reasons why a client would want/need to have a boat/yacht moved from one location to another are:
Owner purchases a yacht that needs to be relocated from the sellers location to the buyers home port;
Owner wants their boat relocated to a new location and does not want to endure a long delivery passage, or does not have the time or the skills to do so;
Boat deliveries arranged by manufacturers to move a new boat sold to the buyer’s location.
With some of our deliveries, the owner(s) will come and accompany us onboard as crew. This is particularly helpful on a new purchase as it gives the owner some hands on experience and familiarity with their new boat purchase before it arrives at their home port.
Boat deliveries are very tough challenging work! Many of our Great Lakes and Ocean deliveries are done on a non-stop round the clock operation. This means shift work for the crew. During the day, we usually run on 6 hour shifts, and then 2-4 hour shifts during the night.
Exceptions to delivering a boat on a non-stop basis are when navigating at night is neither practical nor possible on account of a number of factors which are: not enough crew for the shifts; boat lacks night navigating gear; traversing locks; navigating inter-coastal waterways; or extreme weather considerations.
Other important considerations are: avoiding sea sickness and dehydration, good nutrition planning, adequate rest to minimize the effects of sleep deprivation and being dressed for the occasion! Early/Late season weather, with wind chill effects, is very cold on the water – and so is the water!