Boats that can go in containers.

Actually on one occasion was going straight to USA after picking up around asia...

You need another "sigh"???

 

Mebe, I hope Bob has "counted to ten" by the time he gets here. I am not sure I could do what he'll probably suggest with that container

Sigh...

Deep breaths everyone...

 

I saw that Dockwise transporter loading in Fort Lauderdale a few years ago; had forgotten that they take smaller boats as well as 100'+ palaces. If the cost is affordable, it's a good way to move from, say, the Caribbean to the Med if the owner is still working for his/her wealth and can't afford the time for a trans ocean passage.

The ultimate answer, I guess, is that, like everything else, there are pluses and minuses, and the right answer for one won't work for another. You guys dredged up some good info, tho. :::::::: all around.

 

No idea what the cost is like, one would have to assume "reasonable", but what that is?

 

Customs officials in corrupt countries can and do hold up shipments and prevent them from being retrieved until they are paid off, too. Never underestimate a country's ability to screw up your plans big time, especially a third world country where anyone who ships something big and expensive is considered to be a valid target for extortion.

 

F33 squeezing out of a container.

 

Nice one Heinz, lots of good photographs to explain everything - even the1 should understand - bet Frosty is jealous with a pair of engines to crawl arounf and change the oil so he can put it in his car...

 

OK.

The F33 was originally conceived to fit in a container so that it could be built in Australia when the dollar was high and labor in Aus. was much cheaper. The boat could be built there and shipped to sell in the US at a competitive price. The economics have changed (which is why the F33 is no longer being built), but the idea still remains valid. A boat may only have to be shipped once, but putting it in a container is much cheaper than a yacht transport. A builder in one location can achieve economies of scale by selling all over the world.

Or say you want to sell a used boat. When I bought my trimaran, the fact that it was demountable for shipping was a huge advantage. I considered a tri in the Caribbean, but there's no way I could have taken the time to sail it through the Panama Canal and up to Seattle. And a delivery of that magnitude would have been way too expensive. But a boat that could be trucked within the legal width limit made for an expensive but doable proposition (less than the sales tax on the boat). If it hadn't been a matter of trucking only, but had required a water crossing (as with the boat in the Caribbean), then containerability might well have been a make-or-break factor. So fitting into a container can improve the resale value of your boat.

A wider range of cruising grounds is another motivation. The original owner of my boat lived in Brownsville, TX (on the Gulf of Mexico, right at the border with Mexico), and had it designed specifically for cruising in the Bahamas. They would demount the boat, have it trucked to Florida, remount it, and sail over to the Bahamas. They'd spend about a month cruising in the islands then go back to Florida and have it trucked home. It takes about a day to mount or demount the boat. So they lost 4 days out of their vacation, but saved much more compared to sailing across the Gulf of Mexico and around Florida to get to where they wanted to go. With a container, they would have had a rail option for transport, or been able to cross a water segment as well.

A containerable coastal cruiser starts to look competitive with a true blue water cruiser. It can be a handy boat in an archipelago and make modest passages from the mainland to the archipelago. Then go back in the container for shipment to another continent. Some people have neither the time nor the desire to make the long passages. They can trade the cost of shipping for the quality of the time they spend where they really want to be.

Racing is another option. A container allows you go to major regattas you'd never be able to participate in otherwise. Or be able to participate in more regattas in a season. Money isn't necessarily the biggest factor, here, but time is important. With a container, there're no long deliveries back from distance races.

Finally, if you have to lay the boat up for an extended period, storing it in a container is a secure, protected way to do it. And there are far more locations where you could leave the container than you could an intact multihull.

So containerization isn't for everybody, but I can see that it has its place. An F33 costs on the order of a quarter of a million dollars. It doesn't take a Vanderbuilt to own one, but we're not talking cruising on a shoestring, either. The market is for, say, middle-class professionals. People in that market value their time off and can afford some options in how they approach their leisure.

 

Hey Tom, do you keep posting/editing this? I am sure I have read this three times because of "email alert"...?????

 

Dockwise is expensive, roughly 30k usd NZ to USA west coast. But that's only expensive until you look at the real cost to move your boat on her own bottom across an ocean. Dockwise is a great opportunity for those with beam greater than about 7'10", folded or otherwise.

Dockwise only visits a few ports around the world, ie they don't go to Africa at all, nor South America.

Containers are much cheaper to ship and they currently go about anywhere. It's easy to leave them places, secure, safe, clean storage out of the weather. They go on trucks or trains easily, etc.

 

What size boat for 30k? Tonnage based price or volume? I'm guessing volume... Just curious.

 

It must be less than "deck cargoe" by a good amount, else it would not be used...

 

The pleasure boat stuff is small potato's to these guys, have you have a gander at the site and what they move? They are probably using boats/docks that are on their way out to pasture anyway. Mind you that first pic looks new. Yeah it would have to be similar at worst to deck cargo, it has advantages from a yachties point of view, looks safer, kinder to boat, specialised handling etc. Might get a premium ? mebe?

BTW... Thanks Tom.

 

www.dockwise.com

 

Neat website Heinz, as someone said?? It would be nice to have a "ballpark" idea on cost...