Getting the boat shipped from Port Salinac Michigan to Seattle didn’t ever strike me as an easy task, but it didn’t seem that difficult either. Of course, during the negotiation both brokers felt that it wouldn’t be that hard—of course both wanted to sell me the boat, but both also felt that the weather might shut the whole thing down. You never really know when the snow would show up in Michigan. I think they mostly felt I should leave boat where it was until Spring.
When I signed the contract to buy the boat, I was super clear that the deal was contingent on the boat leaving Michigan before the end of the year. My concern was that I really didn’t want the boat to spend a winter uncovered in the snow. Apparently from 2015 to 2020, the boat was stored in the Port Salinac Marina show room as it was a demo boat. Then for the last two winters it was either in heated storage or wrapped in when the boat was stored on the hard.
Since I really did want to buy the boat, so getting the boat out of Michigan was my problem, I started calling shippers from around the country…but mostly in the area. The broker from Michigan gave me a useful list of shippers to work from. (Interestingly, the broker in Seattle told me that it was somewhere between inappropriate and illegal for him to recommend let alone help me find a shipper…something that seemed pretty unique since basically every other broker I spoke to had a list of names and was ready to help).
Most of the shippers I called were basically shipping brokers who subbed things out to a network of truckers. All included insurance. Some said that they would include wrapping and most claimed that they could pick up the boat within days with 48 hours notice. The highest quote I saw was almost $20,000 (nearly 1/3 of the price of the darn boat). I got a quote from another guy who said he would ship the boat for a bit over $13,000, but that he would also include wrapping the boat for that price.
Given the amazing condition of the boat, I really didn’t want to boat beaten up by rocks, sand and salt of a winter drive. Most people I spoke to said that the wrap would come off the boat as soon as the truck hit 50 MPH. That said, I have seen many boats at the local Cobalt dealer in Bellevue arrive with a full wrap, so I figured if they can make it from Nebraska to Seattle then it should work from Michigan to Seattle. In talking to the super helpful team at my local boat yard in Seattle, CSR Marine, I learned that the ticket was to use thicker (I think 10 mm) wrap.
The shipper who I had agreed to use promised me that the always used that thicker wrap when shipping a boat.
Then the guy stopped returning my mails. It was weird, as the boat closing was about to happen. I finally texted the guy who apologized that he hadn’t seen my mail since he had left the firm where he worked but assured me that he could to the same deal from his new company—after all he was just subbing the work out to an unknown trucker. When I asked him about the wrap, he told me that he would just call a local wrapping company and get them to do the work.
About a day later, someone from the guy’s original company reached out to tell me that my guy had switched companies (something I had figured out on my own). He said that wrapping was a waste of time and money since it would just blow off the boat.
I was not happy with any of this, especially since at this point I owned the darn boat, and the weather was getting bad.
Good new came in the form of two great references from Port Salinac Marina. First, they hooked me up with John Woodruff of Latis. John is a great guy who has lots of experience shipping fancy racing boats around the country. In talking to him it was clear he had experience as well as set of drivers he knew well. He called me back within a day was the awesome news that he had a truck that had to go from the Midwest to Seattle empty related to another job and quoted me a much more reasonable price. John told me that it was a waste of money to wrap the boat, especially if the boat was wrapped before it was loaded since the holes for the straps would make the wrap tear. But he was up for doing it if I could find someone who could wrap that boat.
In the meantime, I found a great wrapper in Paul Cipriano. Paul wraps a lot of boats in the part of Michigan where my boat was and knew exactly which wrap was necessary for transportation. The problem was that he didn’t have any and wasn’t sure how fast he could get it. Given the uncertainty of when John Woodruff could have a truck, I took the risk and fronted Paul $1000 to buy the wrap for my boat. It was the smallest quantity you could buy, and it was about twice as much as I needed, but there you go.
Paul was super concerned that it would be windy in Michigan when he had to load the boat. I asked the marina if we could use their service bay to load the boat and of course their answer was no. We just had to hope for good weather for the day of loading. I called John and made him promise me that the driver would be patient while Paul was wrapping the boat.
The good news is that last Wednesday was a cold, not especially windy day. The boat got loaded onto the trailer and then wrapped over the straps to maximize the strength of the wrap. The truck made it out of town by noon or so with a professional looking wrap.
Unfortunately, the weather turned quickly, and the driver made the smart decision to go visit family in Indiana to wait out the weather. Word is that he restarted the adventure on Christmas Day and expects to be in Seattle by Wednesday. We shall see.
Special thanks to Paul, John and their teams for getting my boat the heck out of Michigan before the real snow started.
SV Twenty Questions 
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