There are several steps required to ship your boat home. Different shipping companies will help with different parts of the process, while freight forwarders should be able to handle most of them and negotiate for you. Take a look at Michael Moradzadeh’s article in the Pacific Cup Knowledge Base.
Also, see the attached information (out of date) from Matson and Pasha, both experienced boat shippers.
It is very important to start early! Pick your shipping company or freight forwarder and schedule your haul out at the boatyard in Honolulu ASAP!
A summary of the ship-home process follows:
Obtain a trailer or cradle for your boat
Arrange delivery of trailer or cradle to shipper on mainland
If using a trailer:
- Pickup trailer in from shipper in Honolulu
- Deliver boat and trailer to location where boat will be de-rigged and loaded on trailer. This may be Honolulu boat yard or KYC. You cannot use the KYC hoists; however, you may use the KYC launch ramp to float your boat onto its trailer.
- De-rig boat
- Prepare boat and trailer for shipping
- Deliver boat and trailer to shipper in Honolulu
- Pickup boat and trailer at shipper’s location on mainland
- Deliver boat and trailer to location where boat will be re-rigged and splashed
If using a cradle, determine if boat will be loaded on cradle at boatyard or at shipper’s location, then:
- Delivery boat to location where it will be de-rigged
- De-rig boat
- Deliver boat to location where boat will be loaded on cradle.
- If the boat is loaded onto cradle at boat yard, then must be delivered to the shipper’s location.
- It boat is loaded onto cradle at the shipper’s location, then the shipper will arrange for loading the boat onto its cradle.
- Prepare boat and cradle for shipment
- Pickup boat and cradle from shipper at ship-to location on mainland
- Deliver boat and cradle to location where boat will be re-rigged and splashed