D.I.Y delivery?

[Uricanejack]

D.I.Y Delivery trip , have you ever done one. Would you do one.

I know there are a few one here who do deliveries Professionally which I think is different.

Anyone else bought a boat some distance away and D.I.Y the boat home.
Just inspired by a couple of other threads. Any stories about D.I Y deliveries. At least one post suggest its when most accidents happen.

I have bought two sail boats and delivered both home myself.
The first one was small old and in need of some TLC. I did my own survey came to the conclusion the keel would probably not fall off, the motor started and the rigging looked ok. Sails were old but serviceable.

The trip home was one of our best trips ever. Just Me my 9yr old daughter my 11yr old son and a teddy bear. It took us 3 days.

My other one is a bit bigger, was a bit further, I did have a survey, fixed what absolutely needed fixing. Left the rest for later. My son and I sailed it home again it was a great trip. About 5 days and about 100 miles coastal off shore.

My planning probably wouldn’t pass muster to some people. But it was good enough for me and to get home safe and sound.

 

[MoodySabre]

I had only day sailed in a Snapdragon when I bought a Moody 31 in Plymouth and sailed it home to Essex. Just a series of day sails. Great way to get to know a boat. I suppose it depends when from and to. Seemed big enough for me at the time.

 

[capnsensible]

My wife picked up our Moody 33 with an oppo of mine and sailed the boat from Chichester to Haslar.

 

[Suttle]

Done three, one from the Bristol Channel, a Stella, and two from the Solent, Trapper 28 and a Rival all to the Medway. All surveyed prior to purchase but not much done prior to the trips. All enjoyable especially the Bristol Channel and Cornwall as it is an area I rarely got to sail.

 

[Madeo]

Haha. Bought an old folkboat on the east coast, in November (idiot!) then had to get it home to La Rochelle. Got across to Calais ok, then heading down channel in a good blow, found that it leaked like a sieve (or like a folkboat )! Retreat to Boulogne, then set off again with a good pump and a French forecast of force 3- 4 from the south-east. Later in the day, the UK shipping forecast gave 8 - 9 from the south-west. Horrible lumpy seas and 30 -35 knots of wind. One of the worst, coldest, most masochistic passages I've ever done! Eventually got stuck in Cherbourg... Nightmare.

 

[PeterWright]

Frankly, there's no other sensible way. If you don't feel competent as skipper for the trip, find a well recommended skipper (paid if necessary) and sail as crew yourself. I've never quite understood why anyone would buy a boat and pay someone else to have the pleasure of sailing her home while getting none of that pleasure himself. Worse still, pay someone to crane a perfectly good yacht onto the back of a lorry for a trip well within the yacht's capability.

Our current yacht (Moody 425) we bought on Clydeside and sailed home to Harwich 2 up until we picked up a mate in Falmouth. No more than F8 in the Irish sea. As Moody Sabre says, the best way to get to know your new boat.

Peter

 

[LadyInBed]

I helped make up th numbers for a chap who had just bought a boat in S Brittany and wanted to get it back to Salcombe.
A most enjoyable trip.

 

[Kelpie]

Seriously considered diy delivery of our new boat (Essex to Skye) but would have needed too much time to get her ready, and to actually do the trip. So we opted for the lorry. Our offer reflected that cost to us. If the boat had been less of a project, and/or closer to home, then would certainly have gone for diy sea delivery.

 

[Toutvabien]

Eastbourne to Burnham on Crouch, (pre gps days) and all went well until the electronic steering compass packed up, never to work again, half way across the Thames Estuary and we had to steer using the compass in a pair of binoculars until we saw another yacht heading towards the River Crouch.

Follow that boat.......... it worked.

 

[dansaskip]

Frankly, there's no other sensible way.
. As Moody Sabre says, the best way to get to know your new boat.

Peter

I quite agree, and it is a good way to sail bits of the coast that you might not otherwise visit too . Sailed current boat from Solent, where bought to North Wales, singlehanded. Got to know the boat well and some lovely sailing.

 

[rotrax]

Watchet to Gosport with a nice crew from Weymouth, fixed for me by an old bike racing chum. 11 days in total.

The acting navigator-very familiar with the area-did a great job, as did the crew.

Included five nights in Ilfracombe storm bound and a trip back to Watchet to get the fuel tank cleaned of water contaminated fuel.

Learned a lot about the boat-and ourselves.

 

[Mudisox]

5 done, all wonderful, some alone and others with old and new chums. Best was from Burnham to Portland view St Katts, latter half in thick fog.
Worst was Palma to the Clyde Christmas to new year, Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. No other way to do it. If you don't trust yourself to check the basics before you set off, think again.

 

[capnsensible]

My wife picked up our Moody 33 with an oppo of mine and sailed the boat from Chichester to Haslar.

Some years later she also took a crew of 2 with her and delivered it to Lanzarotte from Gib.

:encouragement:

 

[GrahamM376]

Bought 4 boats in the Solent area and sailed all to Conwy. 3 trips 2 handed, one trip 3. First one in a Centaur doing days skipper practical with instructor on board - January, no heater, no autohelm, one stop at Falmouth, cold and rough much of the way, steep learning curve.

 

[johnalison]

When we bought our HR in 2000 we had the option of collecting the boat ourselves or paying £2,500 for delivery. We were informed by our friends that they each required a week on board and so we got assistance much of the way, and a Baltic holiday for "free".

Having said that, we have met some delivery crews her and there and I have always been impressed with their commitment and professionalism, and in particular, the polite way they addressed each other.

 

[LittleSister]

I would always want to do some local trips or short hops before heading out on a long leg with no available stops. There's often something that doesn't work or needs adjusting/fixing.

Bought a 22' boat up the Fal, and after a few days sorting her ashore had her launched, did a few 'shakedown' day sails around Falmouth Habour then set off for the Exe. Conditions were rather boisterous in head winds on the Fowey to Plymouth leg, and I had to cast adrift the towed rigid dinghy which had become full of water. I had tried to bail it but the conditions meant I was in danger of getting a hand or arm crushed in the attempt. Not far short of Plymouth the tide turned against me and I decided to turn back. It had taken me many gruelling hours to get that far, but with the wind and tide up my tail I was back in Fowey in no time. Just short of Fowey I fell on the tiller and it snapped off! Fortunately, there was enough left to steer with, and back in harbour I was able to substitute the rough, stubby spare that had come with the boat. Wind eased the next day and the rest of the trip was relaxed and pleasant.

Another time I helped someone deliver a small catamaran he'd bought, just 'round the corner' from the River Medina to Yarmouth. A stiff westerly on the day we picked it up from the previous owner meant we took a tack over towards Calshot, where one of the rudders broke. We then didn't have enough control to tack to windward in those conditions, but fortunately the outboard motor worked OK and we were able to use that, first to steer then to drive us into the wind and rain to our destination.

A different type of delivery trip was by road with a small trailer sailer I bought near the Solent. The boat was quite old, but very smart and amazingly well maintained, and the trailer (which had toured Europe) look sound and had recently had new wheel bearings. Half way home to Devon an oncoming car was flashing me so I pulled over to check, and found one of the trailer wheels running at a very jaunty angle, held on by just a couple of seriously mangled bolts, the others gone! The remainder of the delivery trip was done on the back of a breakdown truck with me following behind.

Another trip wasn't strictly a delivery, as it was a friend's boat he'd long owned, but it hadn't been used for a couple of years. In the interim he'd had friends and the yard undertake some 'upgrades' to the boat. We headed off from Essex for Brest. A few nights later off the south coast, the nav lights and VHF failed, at which point we realised the domestic batteries were flat and the engine not charging. As the only one aboard with the slightest clue about electrics (but not much more than that) I was volunteered to hang upside down into the engine compartment (under the saloon table) with a torch as we rolled under sail and try to find the problem. I found the basic engine harness had been extended to reach the controls and batteries with a random collection of wires, with no relationship between the colour of wire at one end with the other, and the intervening joins hidden and inaccessible. After a very long and bilious time I eventually deduced that it wasn't a breakdown as such, just that the alternator had only been partially wired up when it was 'upgraded', and was incapable of charging as a result. We had been running the boat off the charged at home batteries since we departed. Having stopped to sort that, a few nights later the new wheel steering developed pronounced play, which had to be diagnosed and fixed by feel by me (never having seen a wheel steering mechanism) reaching under the cockpit and shouting to the helm to hold the wheel still for moments at a time between steering. How I came away from that with a full set of fingers, or why I did it at all, I still wonder to this day!

 

[ronmarson]

Southhampton to Galway in my new(?) Macwester 27. April to September. Best summer ever.
But you need time, best if retired or unemployed.
It was just a series of day sails and a lot of sitting waiting for the weather and drinking strange ales.
Capt. RoN

 

[Uricanejack]

My deliveries were not epic voyages.
They took me to places I would otherwise not have gone. They were a couple of my best sailing trips ever. I really enjoyed them. I almost repeated the first one a few weeks later taking my wife back to some of the really nice places we stopped.
The only real constraints on my most recent delivery trip were time and crew availability. If I ever am in the position of buying another boat I will make every effort to get the time to go and get it myself. For me it was well worth the experience.
I would certainly consider helping someone else but again my difficulty is finding the time.

 

[jwilson]

snipped - I've never quite understood why anyone would buy a boat and pay someone else to have the pleasure of sailing her home while getting none of that pleasure himself.
Peter

Some of the deliveries I've done were definitely not pleasure. Sometimes you do get a nice boat all ready to go, other times you get one that has not seriously been to sea for years: first time in any weather the engine dies with crud stirred up from the bottom of the tank, and almost every bit of string on board breaks, boat leaks, electrics go down etc. And the new owner won't pay for a week's work pre-trip. "I'm going to get all that done at my local yard, much cheaper than at XXX"

 

[BlackPig]

I got Carrie in St Vaast intending on sailing her back to the Clyde.. Naive, stupid, lucky/unlucky. Things started to pull out, fall off, electrics failed, the engine broke/never ran after coming out of the marina. Ended up in Yarmouth, got towed across to Lymington and lorry back, the way I should have done it if I had planned it properly.