Looking at a purchase possibility that would require shipping of a canoe from Arizona to Massachusetts. Thoughts?
shipping
I have shipped a couple kayaks all I did was bubble wrap them really well and put it on a truck line
Find someone that has a account with a truck line
it will cut the cost in half and insure them
Good luck
I’ve received two canoes shipped by truck. The first, a fiberglass canoe, was shipped from Wyoming to South Dakota, and was wrapped fairly well with cardboard, and arrived unscratched.
The second, a new Royalex Old Town, was shipped to me from Missouri. It was double bubble-wrapped, but apparently bounced or rubbed on the floor of the truck, perhaps on an exposed bolt, until a hole wore through both layers of bubblewrap and approximately 1/3 way through the Royalex. So my new canoe arrived used–very repairable, but also very frustrating. A friend, who was present when the canoe arrived, observed the truck driver sliding the canoe off the truck, and then dragging it by one end across the street until my friend ran to assist him. Fortunately, he had worn a hole only in one layer of bubblewrap at one end.
Consigning a canoe to a trucking line is a giant crap shoot. Make sure you reinforce the bow and stern stems with cardboard or styrofoam, and double bubble wrap at least. And make sure you are present when the boat arrives, inspect the packaging, unwrap the boat while the trucker is still there, and keep your camera available. And lotsa luck.
I used Forward Air for 2 WW kayaks
and did not have any problem at all.
Gorillas
The shipping gorillas can do some amazing things to a boat. I had 2 kevlar boats shipped by Forward Air with no problem. I just had a fiberglass SOT shipped in from South Africa and it was severly damaged. $690 to fix. The shipper used light bubble wrap and about 3 mil plastic. Barely enough to prevent a scratch. Minimum wrap IMOH is 2 layers of heavy bubble and a good tarp. A slick package will slide off a fork lift very easily which is I believe what happened to mine. Put fragile labels all over it and make sure they are in English and Spanish. Dont forget to pray a lot.
Boat Shipper
I heard about a fellow, Steve Skinner, who carts boats (shells,kayaks & canoes) all around the country. E-mail is kastransport@earthlink.net, I heard he is very reliable and insured, and uses a boat trailer, not a container truck. I plan to use his services if I sell a boat to someone out-of-state. Talked to him on the phone… sounds pretty good.
Stickman … I would highly recommend
Affordable Boat Carriers out of Florida… They carry the boats on dedicated racks with caring drivers who are professionals.
Please read between the lines here about any ‘other’ carriers … nothing positive to say and I have given them many chances.
Thank you
While looking at shipping possibilitys on the sale of my SuperNova I contacted both Forward Air and the gentleman you mentioned above. There was a large difference in quotes (and attitude). Steve responded rapidly to my e-mail and gave a much lower quote than Forward Air. The sale feel through but the info is invaluable. Should the need arrise he would be my first contact on shipping a boat. Thank you for the name.kim
Con-way
Con-way (www.con-way.com) is a truck line that I received my boat from yesterday and the box and boat were both in prestine condition. The employees were also concerned and pleasant. Whomever you end up shipping it with, make sure to mark it with no fork lift and top load stickers!!! I’ve also had some very sensitive and expensive equipment for work shipped by these guys and it arrived unscathed.
Just Buy Local
Something to think about . . .
Why go to all of the trouble of shipping across the country when you can buy locally? Besides, if you have any problems, that local dealer (that you are bypassing) will be the one that you will call for assistance.
Those few extra dollars that you might spend with a local dealer will be more than recovered with the value added service that you get when you need advice, repair, adjustments, or maybe even replacement due to freight damage.
I second Affordable Boat Carriers
My boat was shipped from BC to San Diego - took 3 days and the boat arrived in perfect condition.
contact a rowing club
Many rowing clubs in thje southwest have trailers making the round trip to the east coast and back (especialy to Boston) on a regular basis.
The college racing season is about to start and there are many divison one schools making cross country trips
http://www.row2k.com/links/links.cfm?cat=3
discontinoued
I aways wondered… Can boats out of production still be ordered ???
Buy local ???
– Last Updated: Mar-21-06 6:13 PM EST –
Some boats that people are interested n purchasing can't be purchased locally.
I own a 1995 Blackhawk Ariel; they went out of business a long time ago. Same thing with my 1963 Chestnut Pal. When I bought my Sawyer Autumn Mist several years ago, Sawyer was not in business. My Mohawk Probe 12II & Odyssey 14 had to be shipped; Mohawk had no local dealers.
I would like to have a Hemlock SRT. I'm in central Missouri; please help me out & tell me exactly where my "local" dealer is? I'm also looking for a Blackhawk Zephyr & a Whitesell Descender; my local dealers would be where?
BOB
some brit companies will
yank a boat off production but produce a few custom orders a few times a year. sometimes our of production boats can be ordered from a great shop like New England Small Craft which has deep stock.
That would be lovely if possible,…
but not always an option. The desired boats aren’t always available locally.
Twice the price
Onnopaddle… we looked into them (A.B.C.) but they were twice as high as Steve who also uses a dedicated boat rack trailer, and he drives himself.
Hi Stickman, ABC has been using
dedicated bunks for the kayaks forever. And NO Steve does NOT drive every run himself.
Yep, ABC has really come up on their rates, that is why I now crate and send Forward Air for 70 - 130. Trackable ( as opposed to have to track down ) gets there in a couple days ( not weeks )without a litany of excuses from whiny drivers piloting equipment with one to many thousand miles on them. All from experience …
I can rember ABC shipping any boat anywhere for 125.
The thing I do not understand is the " fuel surcharge" why not just put up the price … too painful to hear this quoted on top … and would they ever not charge it again ???