T&T: Shipping Huckleberry

[john brees]

A few of you were interested in our experience with Yachtpath and shipping 
our boat from New Orleans to Victoria. Here is the abridged version of the 
saga. If anyone is interested in pictures or further details, e-mail me 
off-list and I'll send them.

Huckleberry is now a Pacific Northwest cruiser. After 6 months of planning, 
worrying, waiting, shipping and receiving, we are finally finished with the 
arduous process of moving a boat from one coast to the other. All and all, 
it was a good experience. Thanks to the great people at Yachtpath 
International (www.yachtpath.com), everything went very smoothly and 
Huckleberry arrived nearly on time and none the worse for wear.

Our story is not much different from many others who decide to take up the 
boating life. We have never owned a boat before and have had practically no 
boating experience. We started looking for our perfect boat about 18 
months ago. At first, we had a very general idea of what we wanted to do, 
but no clue what kind of boat we needed to do it. Living in Idaho, we are 
500 miles from the nearest salt water. We became very familiar 
withYachtworld and the Power Boating Guide. Several trips to Seattle and 
Puget Sound, looking at everything that floats, narrowed our search to 2 
specific boats, the Defever 44 and the Krogen 42. Unfortunately, the 
inventory of those 2 boats on the West Coast was limited. Our search 
expanded to the East Coast, Florida, and the Gulf Coast. Late last fall, we 
made a 2000 mile loop through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and points 
in between looking at 10 Defevers and Krogens. At last we found Huckleberry, 
a 1992 Kadey Krogen 42 wide body, in Houston.

Now the task of moving her to our preferred cruising grounds in the Pacific 
Northwest. Again the internet proved useful.  We found 2 shipping companies 
specializing in yacht transport, Dockwise and Yachtpath International 
(www.yachtpath.com). For various reasons, we chose Yachtpath and have not 
regretted our choice. From our first contact, they were completely 
competitent and professional. Yachtpath contracts with ships to carry yachts 
as deck cargo. They have a fleet of container ships that they use regularly 
and provide all the necessary cradles, tackle and equipment for safe 
handling and securing the boats to the deck. They send their own crews to 
load and unload. We were somewhat nervous about having Huckleberry lifted 
out of the Mississippi River onto the deck of a container vessel but 
Yachtpath crew was meticulously careful and thorough. They even had a diver 
to position the slings properly. Only after they were certain that 
everything was correct did they lift her out of the water and then ever so 
carefully. Once on deck, she was set in the cradles, the cradles welded to 
the deck and she was strapped down and secured. When she reached Nanaimo BC, 
again Yachtpath crew were there to insure safe discharge. The ship was 
anchored in Nanaimo Harbour and we were carried by water taxi to Huckleberry 
who was tethered to the ship. We boarded her and sailed away. Yachtpath even 
arranged through a local customs agent to provide us with the proper 
Canadian Customs forms in advance. Nothing could have been easier.

A few observations and suggestions: The shipping industry does not operate 
on a firm schedule. We were originally scheduled to sail out of Port 
Everglades, FL in mid April. Time and dates are only estimated until 2 or 3 
days before sailing. We left Houston on March 6 leaving us plenty of time 
for unexpected delays. Our planned cruising time was 18 to 22 days. About 
the second day out, Yachtpath called and offered the option of loading in 
New Orleans. New Orleans is not one of their usual ports of call. However, 
one of their vessels, PAC Athena, was loading grain to be delivered to 
Singapore and 4 yachts were in the New Orleans to be loaded. That saved us 
at least two weeks travel time and expense. It did mean that we would have 
to leave huckleberry in New Orleans for a month before loading and it 
changed our loading date. The discharge port was supposed to be Victoria BC. 
Once loaded, the voyage was supposed to take about 3 weeks. Yachtpath sends 
daily e-mails to track to progress but advises not to make travel plans 
until 3 days before arrival. We were anxious to receive Huckleberry and made 
reservations to stay in Victoria for a few days before her arrival. Our stay 
in Victoria turned out to be 3 days longer than expected (definitely not the 
worst place to be stranded) and the ship was not able to dock in Victoria 
due to port congestion. We had to rent a car and drive to Nanaimo about 60 
miles north on the Vancouver Island East Coast.  The point is: Flexibility 
and patience are key to mitigating stress.

The entire cost of shipping was $20,475 (after a 15% discount for early 
booking) plus $617 for shipping insurance (whichYachtpath arranged through 
an independent broker). Im sure that others may have had different 
experiences but we will highly recommend Yachtpath.  Special kudos to 
Colleen Cummings, our booking agent; Amber Post and Julez Chappell, 
scheduling and communications; Dennis Cummings, operations manager; Kevin, 
loadmaster in New Orleans; and all the Yachtpath crew. They made the process 
as easy as possible. They know their business and did their best to address 
our concerns. Thanks to them, Huckleberry is in safe harbor in Port Ludlow 
WA, ready to begin a new chapter in her and our life.

The usual disclaimer: No affiliation with Yachtpath; just a satisfied 
customer.

John and Karen Brees

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