Moving a 10,800-Pound Boat 2,119 Miles, Part I: Coming Up with a Plan

How I came up with a plan to move my R-29 CB from Washington State to a starting point on the Great Loop.

I completed the purchase of my boat — a 2019 Ranger Tugs R-29 CB — earlier this month. I covered the survey and the completion of the purchase elsewhere in this blog. I also blogged about my first few trips, which were out in the Puget Sound and San Juan areas near Seattle in my personal blog. Now I’m dealing with the process of getting the boat moved from its slip in Olympia, WA to a marina in Chicago, IL, — a distance of over 2,000 road miles — where I plan to start my own journey on the Great Loop in mid October.

Here are a few of the different ways you can drive from Olympia to Chicago with a 10,800 pound boat in tow.

Here’s what I went through to come up with a solid plan.

Deciding How to Move the Boat

The first step in my thought process was deciding how to move the boat. Ranger Tugs makes R-29s trailerable and I already own a truck that can pull it — a one-ton Ford F350 SuperDuty Diesel — so it seemed obvious that I’d move it myself. But this particular boat did not come with a trailer. That was the first hurdle: finding a trailer.

I worked the Internet and the phones. I quickly discovered that appropriately sized and equipped used trailers were relatively rare, a new one would cost between $15K and $22K to buy, and a new one might not be available when I needed it — unless I ordered right away. At this point, I hadn’t even completed the boat purchase, so I certainly was not going to order a $20K trailer for it. I put the trailer acquisition on hold.

I started exploring shipping options. I discovered that for the cost of a trailer — or even a lot less — I could have a professional boat transport company move the boat for me. True, after spending a big hunk of money, I wouldn’t own a trailer, but I also wouldn’t have the cost of fuel to get to Chicago (at about 10-12 MPG), the wear and tear on my truck, the cost of permits to take a 10-foot wide load through 7 states (each with its own rules), the cost of parking the truck and trailer in Chicago until I could get back to it, the cost of getting back to it, or the cost of driving the truck and trailer home to be stored until I needed it again. I also wouldn’t have the stress of driving 2,119 miles with a huge investment in tow or the worries about my truck and trailer parked in some long term lot in Chicago. (Storage of the trailer at home was not a problem; I have a huge garage.) And when would I use the trailer again? Not until I moved the boat back to the west coast, which could be two or three years. And who knows? Maybe I’d never bring the boat back or need the trailer again.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that just having it moved for me was probably the best option.

It was time to find a transport company.

Finding a Marine Transport Company

I started with Google, of course, searching for marine transport companies based in the Seattle area. I found two and got a quote from one of them. It came in around $15K. This was at the peak of the high gas price period. It seemed like a lot of money but given the above, it still didn’t make sense to buy a trailer now.

I posted a question about transport companies on the TugNuts forum — that’s a website that supports Ranger Tugs and Cutwater boats, which are made by the same parent company. The guy that had purchased Missing Chair — that’s one of the boats I’d considered buying — was using a company based in Florida (of all places) called Blue Earth Express. He said they were very helpful and responsive. He provided contact info. I called and spoke to Jess. I gave her my info and she worked up a price for the move that came in at just under $10K. They were bonded and insured and, as I later found out, did a lot of shipping for the Ranger Tugs company, which ships its boats all over the United States and Canada.

I asked if they could pick up the boat around October 3 and get it to Chicago by October 10. That was 7 days to go 2,100 miles, which I thought was pretty reasonable. Jess said that they could. Since I still hadn’t closed on the boat at this point, I asked her to pencil me into her schedule. She agreed.

Over the next two weeks, I kept her apprised of my progress in the purchase. She was prompt to answer my emails and very enthusiastic. It was a real pleasure to deal with someone who seemed genuinely happy for me instead of some stiff who was all business. When I told her that the purchase was complete and I needed to be inked-in on that schedule, she was fine with it. I had a shipper.

Now I just needed to find a place where the boat could be pulled out of the water and put on the shipper’s trailer and then put back in the water at the destination.

Finding the Destination Marina

The destination marina turned out to be relatively easy to find. Remember that other transport company I got a quote from? Well, they had a list of “partner marinas” all over the country. After wasting a lot of time trying to figure out which Chicago marina had a lift that could move the boat — and even making a few calls that were not very successful, I consulted that list. It included Crowley’s Lakeside Yacht Yard. They had everything I needed to get the boat off the trailer and into the water — except marina-like parking or fuel. They stored boats and worked on boats but didn’t provide docking.

I spoke to Ken there and he was very helpful. Yes, they could do the job in the window I had provided. They could also provide assistance reassembling my dinghy, which would have to be deflated and stowed inside the boat for transport. And they could even provide one or possibly two nights at their transient dock so I could get the boat ready to cruise. He told me the closest diesel fuel was about 20 minutes away by boat so I needed to make sure there was some fuel on board when the boat arrived. (I figured 10 gallons would be enough and checked with Jess to make sure that was okay; it was.)

Contrary to the facility’s name, Crowley’s is not on Lake Michigan. It’s on the Calumet River, about five miles in from the lake. I wanted my Great Loop experience to include the lock at the mouth of the Chicago River, so I’d still need to find a marina on the lake to park at for a day or two after leaving Crowley’s. I added that to my list of things to do.

The Pickup Marina

Finding a marina to get the boat lifted out of the water and put on the trailer was a bit trickier.

By this time — early September — I had completed the boat purchase and taken delivery of the boat. I’d even cruised about 250 miles with it, from its home marina near Olympia, WA — Zittel’s Marina — to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island via Kingston and then back via Anacortes and Kingston. The previous owner very kindly allowed me to keep the boat in the slip it had always lived in until I was ready to move it. He didn’t even ask for money.

I had seen the equipment at Zittel’s and I wasn’t terribly impressed. Or I was, but for the wrong reason. They didn’t have a big Travelift, like the one I’d seen working in Georgetown that spring. Instead, they had a funky trailer with straps that was pulled in and out of the water with a tractor. They’d used it to pull my boat out for its survey in August. I couldn’t imagine how they could use it to put a boat on a long, flatbed trailer. Jess called them and assured her they could, but I wasn’t convinced. Surely there was an operation with more capable equipment nearby?

Here’s my boat lifted out of the water by Zittel’s lift setup when the boat survey was done in August. This setup only works when the tide is at or near high.

I consulted that list of “partner marinas” and found Swanstown Boat Works in Olympia, about an hour cruise away. I was certain they could handle it.

But then I started thinking about the facility in Des Moines, WA, where I had to take the boat to have a bimini top installed over the command bridge right before shipping out. That was the facility Ranger Tugs shipped their boats out of. I mentioned it to Jess and she was excited. They moved boats from there all the time so they knew it well. But when I worked the phones, I discovered that the outfit that operated the lift was booked out to December. Jess’s call had better luck — sort of. They told her they could do it, but only if I brought it to them on a trailer. Huh? If I had a trailer, I wouldn’t be looking for transport. I’d just do it myself.

So we were back to Zittel’s or Swanstown. I was at Zittel’s during the week of September 19 and made a trip up to the office to talk to them myself — after taking another look at their lift rig. I started thinking about how they might do it. In the office, an older woman who I think may have been the owner, explained how it would work, going so far as to draw me a picture. It was as I had imagined it. I’d have to back the boat into the lift so they could pull it out backwards. They’d then drive the lift over the trailer — the lift was wide enough to straddle it — and lower the boat onto the prepared cradle. Easy.

Except for the part about me backing the boat into the lift — but there would be plenty of hands to help with that.

I liked the idea of moving it from Zittel’s. First of all, it would save me a ton of money. Probably hundreds of dollars. The reason? I wouldn’t have to make the one-hour cruise to Swanstown and then park it for a few days before the move. I’d be able to move it at the last minute, so if the truck and trailer were delayed, I could wait for them without incurring additional costs. I also suspected Zittel’s was going to be cheaper for lift services. Best of all, they could also power wash the bottom for me quickly and easily before putting it on the trailer; I wasn’t sure if Swanstown would bother.

Of course, the only problem was that Zittel’s could only use the lift when the tide was in. That was around 1:15 PM on October 3 and 3 PM on October 4, the two potential move dates.

I called Jess. I told her I was confident Zittel’s could do the job. There was plenty of room for the truck and trailer to maneuver. We went back and forth on details, including the tide-related timing restrictions, and I even told her what route to avoid with the truck and trailer to get there — damned roundabouts!

It was a week before the planned pickup date and we finally had a solid plan.

I’ll cover the actual move in another blog post. Stay tuned.