Boat Transport Process
How to Start The Boat Transport Process
I try to keep your boat transport process as simple as possible because I’m sure you have enough to think about. It all starts with either a phone call or email.
Quote
Once you’ve contacted me and provided me with the information found on my Contact page the process begins. I will reply promptly with a quote for transport.
Insurance
If you accept I will then need your mailing address, hull number, and approximate value of your boat in order to have my insurance agent (Adrianne) forward a Certificate of Liability Insurance (see sample) directly to you. This is done for your protection because if a certificate is made out and sent to you directly from my agent it never passes through my hand so I have no way to modify the information contained in it. The insurance companies direct contact information is found on it and you may contact them to verify the authenticity of it if you choose. This further protects you because if any of the listed coverages are cancelled, changed, or otherwise modified the insurance company is obligated to inform you.
Contract
Next, I’ll send you a simple “Contract” (see sample). This outlines the key details of your yacht transport, including pickup and drop-off addresses, your boat’s dimensions, scheduled dates, and the agreed-upon price.
Acceptance
Once you’ve received both the Contract and your Certificate of Insurance, you can send the signed contract along with a 50% deposit to secure your slot in the schedule.
Please keep in mind, I book on a first-come, first-served basis. While I do my best to keep you informed about current availability during our discussions, I can only reserve your spot once I’ve received both the signed contract and the deposit.
Contact
Shortly after I receive your deposit we will make contact with your marinas to introduce yourself, if we haven’t been there already, and make sure we are on their schedules. If you have any changes in the schedule between the time of booking and pick up we will contact both marinas to inform them of the changes if you haven’t already.
Follow up
As your pick up date approaches we will again contact the pick up marina to confirm everything is all set on their end and ready to go. We typically show up for pick up the night before and spend the night at the marina. This gives us extra time to prep the trailer to accept your boat in order to make the loading process go smooth. Typical loading times are 1-1.5 hours for power boats and 3-4 hours for sail boats.
Loading
Once we’ve loaded and secured your boat, we text you photos along with a Glympse tracker, then hit the road. We handle all permits and routing in advance, so there’s no downtime after loading.
Transport
We transport mostly oversized loads, so we travel during daylight hours only, with few exceptions. You can expect us to cover 500–700 miles per day, depending on conditions. DOT regulations cap our driving time at 11 hours per day, and many states impose a 55 mph speed limit for oversized loads.
We will contact the drop off marina once on route to confirm we are on their unloading schedule. I make every effort to stop and snap a photo with your boat whenever I spot something interesting to share with you. While transporting your boat we are available 24 hours a day via cell phone and email if you have any questions or concerns.
We typically call both you and the drop off marina the day before arrival to give a time of arrival so that everyone is on the same page and the unloading can go smoothly. Final payment is due upon arrival at the marina, before we unload the boat from the trailer. We will then unstrap the boat and assist the marina with the unloading. This typically take under 1 hour to remove all the straps and bunks and stow them away to head out to the next boat.
Sample Insurance Certificate
Sample Contract
