Why ship Yachts and Boats?

One of the main reasons is to avoid ‘wear and tear’ on the yachts!

A yacht is not using any fuel, or increasing its engine or generators hours meanwhile being shipped or where possible being trucked!

On brand new boats the first service interval is usually after 100 hours - otherwise all warranty by the manufacturer states ‘void’ and most of the distances to be covered are huge and a lot of times, the next refuel possibility is simply ‘out of range’, hence not possible to reach!

Additionally most of the yachts have not the ‘theoretic range’ of making it to the next refueling station, mind you that in severe weather conditions, the ‘theoretic range is further reduced, by prevailing winds and currents and waves or by break downs of engines or generators!

Also bigger yachts have larger fuel tanks; you still will hear the engineer or captains on board screaming or mumbling the worst phrases or hear most unbelievable stories of all what can happen ‘out there’… and as a memorable wording by Captain Mike…: "No good calling for mum out here".

Depending on delivery location piracy is also to be considered and can result in major threads to yachts and crew (Somalia, Yemen, Some parts of Africa, Singapore Straits, Northern South America and other area’s).

And if this is still not convincing enough, check on these pictures and please note that the weather conditions are not that bad- but once you will hit the oceans, you most likely will encounter far worse conditions, where your calculated fuel range and time will automatically go down!

Last but not least, today’s ships are getting bigger and with larger lifting capacities of their cranes, the builders design and stability is tested – if the boats are strong enough and safely designed to be lifted and shipped in the first place, it can be shipped by a Heavy Lift cargo ship as not all destinations are served by semi submersible ships offering a float on/float off services – but most of the heavy lift ships are going anywhere worldwide!