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Recently completed delivery on Shiply

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20 ft Norman Motor Cruiser Boat
Orig: Norwich
Dest: Newbridge

Competitor Price Quote: £1,425.00

Price on Shiply: £580.00

Estimated Saving: £845.00

If you’re a first time boat owner, transporting your new vessel might be slightly alien to you. If you need to move a boat you can either use your own trailer, should you have one, or employ the services of a professional boat transport company.

Depending on the size of your boat, self-service might be unfeasible. If you’re going for a small craft that you’re keeping on land then investing your own trailer in the future might be prudent.

Before Your Boat’s Move

Whether it’s a yacht or a speedboat, you’ll want to plan as far ahead as possible to give yourself to time to prepare for the transport and to enable you to find a suitable transport service. However your boat is going to be moved, make sure you:-

Check the boat’s condition: Make sure you check the interior and exterior of your vessel for any damage, this way you can see if it suffers any damage during transit.-

Remove valuables: Make sure you take anything valuable off your boat before it’s transported as these will not be insured.

If your boat is being transported by land there are a number of preparatory jobs to do to ensure that the transportation goes as smoothly as possible:-

Drain the bilge: Pumping out waste water and other liquids will make the boat lighter to transport and prevent any potential leakages during transport.-

Empty water and refuse stores: Any freshwater tanks and rubbish should be emptied from your boat.-

Empty the majority of fuel: Disconnect fuel tanks and empty the majority of gasoline, it’s only extra weight and another potential leak.-

Disconnect battery and tidy cables: A precaution that will help avoid draining the battery and any shortages in electronics.-

Make things watertight: Despite being a waterborne vehicle your boat might be exposed to different weather conditions when it travels on a trailer. So make sure that all exposed electronics are covered and battery cables are tucked away.-

Make things secure: If they aren’t travelling separately make sure all accessories and life jackets are stowed away in lockers. Secure all doors and compartments in the galley and washrooms. Also make sure that the canopy is extra secure as it might not be built to travel at the speed of a trailer.

For sailboats: removing all winches and rigging etc. from the mast is important (also provide padding for points at which the mast will be tied down). Pulpits, stanchions and lifelines should only be taken off if they will make the boat too large to transport easily.

You can also check with your boatyard for any other precautions that they might think important for safe transport.

If your boat is going to be sailed to its destination make sure you arrange with the captain what preparations need to be made prior to the handover.

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As mentioned, there are two major ways to transport your boat, which method you choose will depend on where you need the craft transported to.

By road – If you’re boat is going up or down the country then a professional boat transport company is called for. Choosing a dedicated boat haulier will put you in safe hands; these specialists will know the ins and outs of working with marinas and ports and should help you out with all the aspects of the boat move. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions about the transportation process as they’ve probably got the answer!

Smaller craft can potentially be towed by a wider range of courier services, but be aware that they might not have as much experience as a specialist. If you’re moving boat parts or a non-starting boat then road haulage is your only option.

By Sea – If your craft needs to be sailed port to port then you can hire a boat delivery crew to do just that. In order to get the best level of service make sure you check the credentials of any skippers and crew hands. If you’re moving a sailboat then RYA or MCA accredited crews are the highly qualified.

Crews should inspect your vessel, plot courses and check shipping forecasts all for you.With any type of transportation it’s prudent to check the level of experience and professional insurance cover that they offer (do not accept personal insurance). 

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Finding the proper boat transport service can be fairly longwinded if you intend to compare all the prices and credentials. Larger companies might charge less, whereas smaller family run boat transporters could offer you a more bespoke personalised service.

Searching for boat transport can be done the old fashioned way, in the phonebook, or online. Because these are highly specialised services it might be easy to get recommendations from other boating enthusiasts, ask friends around the marina or boatyard for advice on boat transport companies.

Shiply can also help a boat transport service find you: Listing your boat move on Shiply will allow our network of transport providers to quote you a price for your boat’s transportation. You will be able to compare the cost and credentials of transporters as well as see what other Shiply users think about them via the customer feedback system.

Completing the Move

When your vessel reaches its destination your boat transporter should help you with the unloading or docking and may help you with other parts of the boat maintenance and checks (depending on what you agreed).

Either way, it’s important that you check your craft post-transit to ensure that it hasn’t been damaged and ask the transporter about any discrepancies.

Once your boat’s safely docked or secured you can remove tape and other securing materials, refill water tanks and reattach batteries and motors or re-rig your sailboat.

When you’re happy that the transportation job has been a success please leave a review for the service you used on Shiply. Feedback not only helps our other users compare services, it also helps transporters improve.

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Item
Collection Delivery
Mileage
19ft sea wych sailing boat with lots of extras Fareham, Hampshire, PO16 9DR Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4BB 171
Motor cruiser S31 7XN Dingwall, Ross-shire, IV16 9YN 588
Boat hull Anstruther, Fife, KY10 3XL Poole, Dorset, BH15 4EJ 496
Speedboat Palma, Illes Balears, Spain Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 6LR 1,104
Topper dinghy Macclesfield, SK11 8HN Ostersun, Sweden 0
Motor boat Worcester, WR8 0PB Shepperton, TW17 8NS 119
Outboard Nottingham, NG10 3NP Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1FJ 577
Speed boat on trailer Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8DE Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3LJ 113
Fibre glass evinrude 7ft 6 dinghy row fishing boat yacht tender pr... Sevenoaks, TN14 7QR Chester Le Street, County Durham, DH3 3UQ 291
Wooden canadian canoe open Braunton, Devon, EX33 2LE Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS16 7AE 308

Item
Left By
Comments
23ft mitchell day angler, bilge keel, 2500kg, pjgttdi (1) great deal
Fairline Fury 26 OldHotelier (1) Kept me constantly informed. Boat moved expertly.
5.8m boat from leicester to mondo marine - italy and return with the trailer to leicester atkins14 (1) Thanks alot great Service
18 foot work boat. wightinternational (1) Very happy with service, many thanks.
Short plastic kayak waterkitebob (0) Competative price, collection and delivery as arranged. Would recommend
4.5m rib with outboard on its own trailer scanlon (1) Bill kept in touch, was bang on time and delivered the RIB in perfect nick. Perfect.
6ft tender (small) and outboard kirstenjones (2) very prompt and careful thank you!
Rs 400 dinghy on trailer, hull weight 85kgs laser2 (2) Brillaint service!! Excellent communication. Ayrshire Couriers, can be recommended without hesitation. Thank you!
Rigid raider boat Kathy920gold (1) Very happy with service, many thanks.
Small (2.8m) rib acplus (3) collected and delivered and Ken even let me add to the delivery at the last moment. He may not always respond quick...

How Shiply Helps The Environment

Shiply matches users shipping boats with specialist yacht transport companies making similar journeys. By utilising spare capacity of vehicles running on the road, Shiply helps reduce the number of otherwise wasteful journeys needed to transport the item. This leads to less CO2 emissions being emitted from delivery trucks, lorries and vans.

Estimated CO2 Savings So Far

  • Since June 2008 we estimate that Shiply has helped save 37,661,747 miles - that's about 1,506 times around the world!
  • Over 13,369,927 kg of CO2 - about the same as you flying from London to New York 21,990 times!