Overland transport in US or Canada

[shamrock]

We're in the early stages of planning an 18 month Atlantic cruise in 07/08. Probably UK -> Carib -> East Coast US -> East Canada -> Great Lakes with me, my wife and our kids age 6 + 4 in 2007. At the end of that, we need the boat to end up in Western Canada. We expect to have a 45-47 foot boat, 20 tonne displacement.

Is road transport feasible from e.g. Montreal or further west in the great lakes? Any recommendations for getting a quote? Alternatives? (Panama, obviously, but the distances are large)

I'm sure I'll be coming back to the forum with many questions as we get deeper into the planning, so thanks in advance for your replies.

If anyone's done a similar trip, and especially the emmigration to Canada at the end, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

 

[twisterkai]

Not done any of that, but I'd try talking to Peters & May. If they don't actually do it, they'll probably know a man who does!

 

[davidbains]

It's an interesting idea, one that's occurred to me. But there's the small matter of the Rocky mountains and large distances. I suspect the cost will be prohibitive. Maybe you should consider
the boats that transport yachts. May be possible to be delivered from Florida to West Coast.
Be interested to hear what you discover.

 

[michael_w]

Chum of mine did this trip; I think she had her Rustler 36 trucked from Thunder Bay to Vancouver. I've no idea what it cost or who she used. I'm planning on doing the same thing in a few year's time.

Trucking charges are quite reasonable in the USA. Whilst we where in Ft Pierce, Florida; There was a 50' steel motor sailer, being loaded for a trip to Chicago. IIRC the cost was US$8,000.

 

[ccscott49]

My bruv has priced exactly this journey, with a 47' 22ton boat, this year. I'll find out and get back to you.

 

[shamrock]

That'd be fantastic, ccscott, thanks very much. And thank you to all for your replies so far.

nick

 

[beneteau_305_553]

Why not go through the Panama Canal and up the west coast?

 

[Lizzie_B]

Don't know about canada, but USa is very geared up to trucking boats long distances. Can recommend a good company if you want to compare with CCScott when he gets back to you. If you can be a little bit flexible with dates, can sometimes negotiate considerable discounts if you can tie in your pick up with one of the contractor's drop offs.
We saved about 30% by doing this when we had our 38footer trucked from St Petersburg, FL to Washington DC area.
Don't forget to add in strike down costs if not doing it yourself, and step/unstep mast, etc.....

 

[Abaker]

Try www.andrewstrucking.com Andrews is an excellent 30-year-old firm based in Canada which specializes in moving yachts and has the right equipment for the job. In 1989 our new yacht was trucked from California to Ontario. A US firm took it to the border, where the semi-trailer was unhooked from the US truck, and hooked up to an Andrews truck. The price and quality were fine and we were entirely happy. Generally quotes will be better if you load the boat in a place where there is a lot of demand, e.g. Toronto or nearby, rather than a small place with little demand, e.g. Lakehead. The truckers like to have loads in both directions.

 

[Lizzie_B]

Just remembered. Height and width seemed to be bigger concerns to the truckers than length. This presumably is because if boat won't go under standard freeway bridges, more circuitous routes have to be found. So buy a boat with low freeboard and modest draught!!!!

 

[J_Priedkalns]

The main problem in trucking accross Canada is the BEAM of the boat. If the beam is over 12ft an escort is required which may invole the Police from prvince to province. A quicker way to ship trans Canada would be renting a flatbed railcar; unfortunatley you have to rent the entire flatbed.