Monday, February 25, 2008

Shipping Elise

I booked the return trip for Elise. Sailing a 27-footer against the wind for weeks on end isn't the most comfortable experience and finding a delivery crew would be quite tough. Besides, we have a race schedule to get back to as soon as the race is over and shipping the boat will be much faster than sailing it. She should be back within a week of boarding the ship. Plus, there's no reason why Elise shouldn't enjoy a little bit of sailing herself, when someone else is doing the work.

Shipping Elise back means first shipping the trailer to Hawaii and the pair back to San Francisco.

There were basically two options: one via Matson and out of Oakland and one via Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines, out of San Diego. The latter works with boat haulers and offers special deals for Pac Cup racers. This is the solution that we opted for. No hassle and cheaper than the other one for our boat. Don't take our word for it. Ask a quote from both and see what works best for you if you are considering sending your boat back by freight.

Load a Boat will come pick up the trailer right at its spot, somewhere around the end of June. They will drive it down to San Diego, put it on a ship to Hawaii and Pasha will send it over to Hawaii for free. Then Elise/trailer will get together, the mast will come down (us or Boat a Load for a little extra of course), board a Pasha ship and 6-8 days later arrive at San Diego. Load a Boat will then drive the set up to the Saint Francis...It couldn't be any easier! We now have all the time in the world to actually prepare the race!

Early August, we're back 100% into the Bay racing game.

It will be Elise's first cruise :)

No comments: