Watch out for hidden fees - yard fees, end-point delivery fees, insurance, shrink wrapping, travel, lo-ball estimates that soar,
failed bottom paint, delays, and damages - all costing you time, money, and aggravation. SeaSkills deliveries go smoothly and
you can be as involved as you like - no hassles, no arranging for pick-up in a strange port, no added cost and no headaches.
Example 1: 60' Trawler Yacht from San Diego to Ft Lauderdale (Feb, 2004).
SeaSkills Yacht Delivery: $24,000 total (fuel, crew, provisions, travel, customs, marina fees). 25 days and Owner's family
accompanies yacht through the Panama Canal - the trip of a lifetime!
Shipping: $43,000: $38,000 shipping fees plus insurance, yard fees, transport boat to Ensenada, and storage/marina fees. Boat
is in-transit and unusable for over 4 months.
SeaSkills saves $19,000 or 45%
Example 2: 47' Sailboat from Tahiti to San Francisco (March, 2004).
Shipping: $36,000 as follows: $28,000 shipping fee plus yacht is offloaded 800 miles north in Vancouver so there is still a
delivery even after shipping. Loss of use: 4-5 months because ship circles globe westbound so yacht sees 20,000 miles as
deck freight.
SeaSkills Yacht Delivery: $24,500 total (fuel, provisions, crew, marina fees, etc). Delivery can be as short as 5 weeks but owner
decides to cruise Hawaii for a month. No problem - the schedule is split.
SeaSkills saves $11,000 or 33%
- Expensive - often very expensive, even without hidden costs (added
insurance, shrink wrap boat, storage, transportation to final destination)
- Inflexible - Must adjust to 1 or 2 annual sailings
- Dirty - yacht shows up filthy
- Damage - ships move regardless of weather. And yachts are often
re-arranged enroute as new cargo/vessels are loaded.
- Hidden costs - insurance, marina fees, storage
- Slow - ships makes many stops before yours
- Bottom Paint - will your bottom paint survive being dry?
We're writing about the failure of Dockwise Yacht Transport to honor their advertised promises of "customary and reasonable" delivery of vessels
under their contract, and wish that other cruisers be fully aware of the risk.
My wife and I have been cruising from California to Panama for over two years, and have never experienced the kind of frustration which we had in
dealing with this company. Their ship, Dock Express 12, was originally scheduled to be in Golfito, Costa Rica, on/or about October 22nd. After
numerous date changes, it was rescheduled to finally arrive on/about November 25 to 27th. Because of this extreme lateness in shipping, about six
boats here have encountered additional expenses for moorage fees, the hiring of persons to load boats on DYT because the owners had to return to
the States for personal and business commitments, and penalties for having to change the dates of airline tickets.
After collecting from $15,000 to $31,000 in shipping fees from the owners of these boats, no discount from the prepaid fees was offered by
Dockwise Yacht Transport to aid in offsetting the additional expenses. There was some talk that the ship was late because of an equipment failure
the company hadn't responded to in a timely fashion. This seems to have been exacerbated by the fact that the company apparently found an
opportunity to load later scheduled vessels on the same ship, thus affording them additional profit from their original schedule.
One professional skipper has been waiting in Golfito for delivery of a boat loaded on Dockwise in St. Thomas 2.5 months before! And yes, Hurricane
Wilma hit Florida, but we're aware that the ship should have left the port in Florida at least five days before the hurricane even got that close.
Perhaps not all persons who have had their boats shipped with Dockwise have experienced such an extreme case of inefficiency, but it has been
common for Dockwise to be from four to 10 days late on their schedules.
I submit this information so others may be aware of these problems, and also to protest the total lack of concern Dockwise has shown to customers
who have suffered from such situations. As the result of this extreme and inexcusable delay of approximately four weeks, my wife and I had no
choice but to return to the United States prior to the actual arrival of the DYT ship. Obviously, we had to hire a person to load our boat/home on the
Dockwise ship - whenever it does arrive.
Please withhold my name as there may be pending legal action.
Name Withheld
California
LATITUDE 38: While we're sympathetic to your dissatisfaction with Dockwise, it's tempered by the fact that the company clearly issued the following
warning in their scheduling section: "All dates are approximate dates and without guarantee. Accordingly, any damage, delay and/or additional cost
such as, but not limited to, cost made in relation to travel arrangements and berth arrangements, shall not be reimbursed."
You might have an uphill battle overcoming that stipulation in court.
However, we do know that a couple of years ago some U.S. boat owners in Australia felt they really got screwed by Dockwise. According to them, they
paid to have Dockwise ship their boats back to the States. But when Dockwise managed to fill their ship in New Zealand first, they left the boat owners
in Australia high and dry. These customers weren't very happy, as their rather substantial plans had been destroyed, and they incurred significant
expenses. Nonetheless, some of them still shipped their boats home on Dockwise many months later.
Trucking is often the least expensive way to transport yachts under 45' or so. For many vessels that are not open-ocean its an affordable option,
especially if the boat was designed to be trucked (ask the dealer). But often the boat needs to be partially dismantled and there can be a lot of hidden
fees (yard fees, fuel surcharges, damage, insurance). Many owners prefer SeaSkills Yacht Delivery because it's easy, predictable, and I have never
had an insurance claim so chances are everything will go well. The owner doesn't have to worry about getting the boat to the yard, finding a reliable
yard in a new city, and all the delays and difficulties associated with working with both truckers and boat yards - businesses not known for accurate
estimates and reliable schedules.
The following comments were pulled from sfsailing.com, a San Francisco Bay boating portal. While I understand people are more apt to "complain"
than to "compliment," I was surprised at how consistently negative the experiences were - about half the truckers had comments made about them, of
those, three-quarters echoed high levels of dissatisfaction with their trucking experience. This contrasts sharply with yacht delivery in general, and
SeaSkills in particular. Personally - I will be a little more hesitant to recommend trucking. But make your own decision - I urge all clients to do full
due-dilligence so they are 100% satisfied with their SeaSkils experience.
(see http://216.119.65.226/cgi-bin/mbi/movers.cfm for direct link to comments page)
06-Jan-04
"[Trucking] cost went from $10,800 to $19,000. The driver told me he would have it in Seattle in about 10 days. 4 1/2 weeks later I received my boat.
I'd rather pay twice the money to some one else."
15-Jan-03
"My boat had numerous dings and a bent prop shaft from his mis-handling - avoid this guy"
20-Feb-03
"[COMPANY A] is also operating under another company name of [COMPANY B]. Books the load under [COMPANY A} then switches the paperwork to
[COMPANY B] which was uninsured. Afterward, denied receiving certified check - COD. BEWARE of these two companies"
18-Jan-03
"Watch out for their tricky pricing and "yard services" or they lien your boat, don't use these pirates"
23-Dec-02
"Delays, excuses, and broken promises and then delays, excuses and broken promises. I would recommend a contract that only has a 10% deposit
or none at all!"
