Seeking advice on shipping canoes

[debzvt]

Does anyone have a recommended method of shipping canoes? I have been trying to find an affordable used OC-1, but the ones for sale all seem to be located in the Southeast ... bit of a drive from Vermont. I tried getting a quote from ABF, and they want ~$350, assuming the seller drops it off at a terminal near him/her and I pick it up at the one near me.

Any ideas?

[John Coraor]

This topic has come up alot previously. Air shipment via "Forward Air" seems to be a popular choice. However, for more advice, check out the following thread: http://cboats.net/cforum/viewtopic.php? ... pping+boat

You also might search deeper in the archives for other old threads on the topic of "shipping."

John

[billcanoes]

You might be able to arrange a series of shuttles- southeast to armada to northeast???

[debzvt]

Thanks for your replies. I tried all of the resources mentioned in the topic link provided by John, and they are all falling in the range of $280-$350. In talking with the freight services, it sounds like for large objects they are required to use the dimensional weight and not the actual weight - which for canoes means pricing based on ~500 lbs and not 65 lbs. I find it hard to believe that in less than a year, the costs have gone from the $100-$150 range discussed in the previous thread to the $280-$350 range that I am now being quoted. I know fuel is more expensive now, but not enough to explain the 2-3x increase in shipping costs. Very strange.

Has anyone had any success shipping it at a class with more favorable rates than the 300 class? I was told by several freight services that canoes need to be priced in the 300 class, but I wonder if that is really true. This might explain the price difference.

I like Bill's idea about enlisting the help of a kind cboat'er from the SE who is attending the Armada. I will likely attend (worried that camping full/almost full, though - need to look into that), so I wouldn't even need to arrange for someone for transporting the armada to VT/NY/NH/MA leg. I probably won't get this figured out before that Dagger Ovation on eBay is gone, but it is certainly worth pursuing for other canoes w/o the deadline (and commitment) of an auction.

[kaz]

Yes it's true. Fuel prices have doubled in the past year. I usually ship by class 400, which is more expensive than class 300. Class 300 requires a crate or a skid, I believe, Class 400 does not.
JK

[John Coraor]

Deb:

Definitely give the ride board here a try.

Last year I was able to get a used slalom C-1 picked up from Davey Hearn by someone attending a pre-Armada clinic with Davey. He took it to the Armada where he passed it off to another paddler who was attending the Fiddlehead Slalom in VT the next weekend, at which we were also racing. As we live on Long Island, I got a boat from DC to WV to VT to Long Island in only a week and a half, and at no cost!

John

[dafriend]

Deb,

Check out uship.com It's kind of an ebay for shipping. You put out your item/when/where and shippers submit quotes to you.
Might be worth a try.

Dave

[jscottl67]

I'm not sure if you won on the boat on e-bay or not, but taking a wild guess that with you knowing the shipping costs, you backed off on that boat. It was a nice boat, but $840 for an Ovation, $250+ to ship it, and a few hundred more to add bags and the rest of the outfitting?? At that price, I would be looking at a new boat, outfitted, that you could paddle before you bought it.

Somebody wanted that Ovation bad!

[debzvt]

We didn't win the Ovation on eBay. By the time we figured out shipping, the highest bid was already beyond what we were willing to pay. For us, $840 is way too high for a used boat, especially when there are lots of nice new boats to choose from. There was some risk involved, too, as there was no picture of the bottom of the hull, and when I sent the seller a message asking if s/he would be willing to wrap the canoe and take it to a nearby freight terminal, the seller never replied. I wasn't going to bid on a boat if the seller wouldn't even let me know that s/he was willing to package it properly and take it to a freight terminal - didn't want to find myself in a situation where I won the boat and had no way to get it.

This thread has been great, because I now understand the freight process better, as well as the Armada-transport system. When the next opportunity comes around, I'll be able to move faster.

Thanks everyone!

[H2oratt]

I paid gas for a couple of friends to pick up 2 boats in VT for delivery to FL... Just got lucky they were leaving on vacation the same week I found the boats...Good luck