Need some Advice from NH / MA sailors

[seanlabrie]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post, so if it's in the wrong area please let me know. My Buddy and I just picked up a boat that's currently moored in Marblehead. He lives near the Merrimac and myself near the Piscataqua. We need to move the boat to either a marina / storage facility near Salisbury, MA. or get the boat to Kittery/York/Portsmouth and then have a hauling company move it to winter storage in Rochester, NH (25 miles over land).

Can anyone recommend a company that can take the boat out of the water somewhere near ME/NH and move it to Rochester, or a marina that has winter storage/electric in the Salisbury area? Cost is a factor. If you can recommend anyone that can help us it would be a big help.

Thanks everyone,

Sean

[catamount]

Why not have the boat hauled out in Marblehead and trucked from there? I have used Marblehead Trading Company to truck my boat to Keene, NH in the past. I have been very happy and recommend them. The other hauler you might talk to is Independent Boat Haulers out of Eliot, Maine. They haul boats out of Kittery and Rye, and they also have a storage yard in Eliot.

You don't say what size boat it is... that might be a factor.

[seanlabrie]

Thanks for the advice. The boat is a 27 foot catalina. Do you mind if I ask what they charged you for the trip to keene?

Thanks

Sean

[catamount]

MTC's rate sheet is here: Marblehead Trading Company - Policies and Rates

Unstepping, diassembling and storing my mast in their shed, craning the boat out, power washing the bottom, and trucking to Keene for my 34-footer cost in the vicinity of $1200. The trucking time is 6 hours (3 hours one way, 3 hours going back empty).

[DrB]

live near the Merrimack and the Piscataqua? Contact Overland Boatyard in Newburyport. Great yard. Reasonabley priced, secure, full electric/water at each boat. No boats blocking you in. Jack Chapman runs the place.

Convenient to Salisbury, NH/Portsmouth and it's on the Merrimack River in Newburyport.

I had my boat there the first year I owned it and couldn't have been happier with the place. Clean warm bathrooms, 24/7 security, on-site maintaince shop.

If you are going to truck it, MH Trading is competent, but expensive. These guys, Curtis Custom Marine, can haul it too and maybe for less. I have no affiliation with these guys nor I have I used them.

Remember if you haul it to Rochester and it's say $1000, it will be $1000 back to. If you leave your boat at Overland, it will probably be around $1300 and that includes winter storage, haul and launch in the spring.

So my recommendation would be to sail the boat up to Newburyport and leave it overnight at the city dock or on a mooring, have Overland pull it and store it the next day. It's a day sail from MH. The only thing to be aware of is that the mouth of the Merrimack can get a little nasty, so enter it near slack tide. If you try to go in during max ebb flow, with the natural river current, the current can be around 6 kts. If there is any on shore wind, it can get a little bumpy.

DrB

[catamount]

Originally Posted by DrB

Remember if you haul it to Rochester and it's say $1000, it will be $1000 back to. If you leave your boat at Overland, it will probably be around $1300 and that includes winter storage, haul and launch in the spring.

The cost differential may depend on the size of the boat, in other words most yards base their storage fee per square foot (max length x max beam), whereas the trucking cost is usually on a time or mileage basis and is largely independent of boat size. For my dad's Cape Dory 36, he found it was essentially a wash whether he had the boat trucked from the coast to his home in New London (NH) (and back again in the spring) versus storing it at a boat yard on the coast.

In my case, $2500 for a round trip between Marblehead and Keene versus $2270 to store at a yard (using Boothbay Region Boatyard in Maine as one example, at $6 per square foot, including haul, wash, block, and launch, but not including unstepping the mast).

If you have a lot of work to do on the boat (as I did), it would likely be worth the added cost of trucking it home, where it is more convenient to work on, versus commuting from home to boat yard to get your projects done (and trying to make sure you've got all the necessary tools and supplies on each trip...)

[seanlabrie]

Thanks everyone, this is just what we need to make a good decision as to what to do with the boat, thanks for all the information.