Drive it or ship it

M

MarcJ

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Mar 6, 2008
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29549
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I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area but I'm thinking of purchasing a used boat in S. California where the selection is much greater and the prices are lower. My question is: should I take the boat up the coast by water or should I have it transported by road at approx. $5K. Does anyone have any experience in taking a 40' boat up the California coast?
Thanks
 
$5K doesn't sound too bad. You would probably spend that much on gas getting up here and face the possibility of heavy seas, breakdown, ect. Trucking it up would be the least stressful and easiest way to get it done.

Also, you may want to look around here too. Many people can no longer afford to keep their boats and are letting them go. Good deals can be found.
 
I shipped one from Newport to Sausalito with no problems. I was concerned about too many unknowns in an older boat but other than the pt. conception and all weather from the north problem i probably would have been fine. But with a job, etc the truck was better.
 
We trucked our 37' express from Huntington Beach to the Delta a little over a year ago. With twin 454's it would have cost just as much in fuel as the trucking expense. You don't say if you plan on purchasing a fly bridge boat but that has to be taken into consideration as it will have to be taken apart if you decide to truck. Also check with the transporters to see if you can be part of a back haul to save expense.
 
Which companies have you guys used or talked to for the transport. I have a 50 foot boat in SoCal I am looking to get up to SF Bay. The weather hasn't been favorable for the trip and I am getting to the point of considering road transport. I am pretty sure I will just end up waiting for a decent weather window as I assume the cost will be quite a bit more than 5k and I don't really want to have to mess around with disassembly of the radar arch.
 
kqd, the weather window may not open up until late July when we start getting winds going offshore. I believe the trucking companies do the disassembly/reassembly for you. Good luck!
 
Moger Transport has been around for years and is headquartered in Los Angeles. I have used them twice and they are professional and their pricing is competitive. Someone other than the trucking company, usually a yard, has to prepare the boat for transport (which would include the pertinent disassembly) and they drop the boat at a yard of your choice (for re-assembly?). That is how we did it and it worked out fine.

Bill Gillespie
 
From LA a Sundancer express. However, one year later we were looking at a 40 Sedan Bridge which would have been trucked up without disassembly, according to the Newport Beach dealer (whom I believed). We, of course, found the boat depicted in the photo for nearly the same price.

Bill Gillespie
 
I used Moger also. I was lucky and only had to pull all the canvas and radar dome and TV antenna off the top of the radar arch. No complaints using Moger.
 
Looks like there may be a break in the weather mid-week so hopefully I can make the trip North then. I would really prefer not to have to pull down the radar arch and canvas and other items for the trip by truck. I will only need two days for the trip if the weather isn't too bad so I will keep my fingers crossed.

Also, great day on the delta today. Spent the day pulling the kids around not too much wind and nice and warm. Can't wait to get the other boat up here!
 
Please write a report of your trip with pictures. A trip along the coast is always exciting.
 
I will report back along with a few pictures. Looks like there will be good sized swells most of the way but the wind is supposed to be calm. Hopefully the conditions won't change on the down side as the seek progresses.
 
i had a 34 foot boat with a fly bridge trucked from ventura to s.f. 4 years ago for $800. you might find a better deal than 5k
 
Made the trip Thursday and Friday. Oxnard to Santa Barbara Wednesday afternoon, Santa Barbara to Morro Bay on Thursday and Morro Bay to SF on Friday. Had a few hours of 12+ combined seas just north of Point Conception but not too bad after that. Was still able to make 15 knots in the large stuff while staying totally dry. Friday had mainly smaller swells (5 to 7 feet) but quite a bit of fog. Nice to have the boat home and start enjoying it.

We stayed 4 to 6 miles off shore most of the way so there was not alot of coastal scenery, there was also alot of fog on the run to SF. We did see alot of porpus and a dozen or so whales. Hardest part of the trip was avoiding the bouys for the crab pots. Most of them had bright bouys but a lot of them had growth and were pretty much black and really hard to see. There wasn't alot of vessel traffic. We tracked a couple dozen sail boats and fishing vessels in the fog on the radar but that was it.

Thanks for all the info on the ground transport.

Kris
 
Congratulations.
It looks like you had a great trip up the coast without any problems.
How many people on the boat and how did you manage the fuel stops?
At what time did you cross Pt. Conception?
We are waiting for pictures.
 
So glad to hear of your successful trip! Where do you dock her now that she is home?
 
There were 3 of us on the boat. We fueled once at Morrow Bay. Could have made the whole trip without a re-fuel but the diesel was under $5.00 a gallon there so I topped off the tanks. We left Santa Barbara around 6am and arrived in Morrow Bay around 1pm. My log is still on the boat but I believe it was between 8am and 9am when we rounded Point Conception. It was after Point Conception when the seas really kicked up. We stayed in Morrow Bay for the rest of the day and left the next morning around 5am. I keep the boat at PIER 39 and we were docked there before 6pm. I wouldn't want to do the trip with less than 3 people as you really need to have someone on watch the entire trip because of all the crab pots along the way which are really hard to see in the rough seas if the bouys are not clean, which many were not.

I have a ski boat I keep on the Delta so I will be making a few trips out there over the summer with the big boat for some extended weekends as well as another week of skiing.
 
Sounds like a really successful trip; one that you'll remember for many years to come! So great.
 
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