Dockwalk article, August 2004 - Dockwise Yacht Transport

Transporting Your Yacht Can Get You ThereSince the companystarted moving yachts in1993 when it shipped103 vessels, DockwiseYacht Transport hasbecome synonymous withthe easy transporting oflarge yachts.This yearthe company expectsto move yachts fromports as far apart asVancouver, Newport,Ensenada, Majorca,Toulon, and Athens.10 • DOCKWALK • AUGUST 2004By Roger MarshallJeff Last, Dockwise Sales Manager waits for his rideto the Dockwise Yacht Transport Mother ship.Suppose you need to get your yacht from Antigua to Palma de Mallorca, in three weeks.What are your options? You can hurriedly provision the boat and get underway for athree-week cruise across the Atlantic. Or you can turn to Dockwise Yacht Transportand give your crew a vacation. Using DYT, you will have enough time to also schedule a repaint ofthe bottom, touch up varnish work, and maybe even change the anodes or props before getting toPalma de Mallorca ready for a remunerative charter season. So which option would you prefer?Since the company started moving yachts in 1993 when it shipped 104 vessels, Dockwise YachtTransport has become synonymous with the easy transporting of large yachts. This year the companyexpects to move yachts from ports as far apart as Vancouver, Newport, Ensenada, Palma deMallorca, Toulon, Athens, Brisbane and Aukland. To find out how the process works, I boardedone of the Dockwise ships with Jeff Last, the Dockwise Sales Manager, just prior to the vessel’sscheduled trip from Newport, Rhode Island, to Palma de Mallorca.From the deck of Oldport Marine’s launch, the Dockwise ship looked huge. It must be to carryup to 35 yachts of up to 60 feet LOA. The actual number of yachts onboard at any given time isdetermined by the size of the vessels to be carried. Going to Europe on this trip there was a 150-foot Feadship occupying less than half of the Dockwise hold. In front of it was Jude, a 1964 30-foot wooden Cheoy Lee ketch sailboat being transported to Europe for a summer of sailing by theAmerican owner who lives in France. And in front of Jude was another yacht of about 60 feet. Theyachts were slowly settling on the blocks placed in the bottom of the ship as the water level insidethe hull dropped.The capacity of a Dockwise transport ship is limited by two factors: a yacht’s length and its draft.A Dockwise transport ship can sink, in what Last referred to as crash dive mode, to allow a 20-footdraft. In such a mode, the Dockwise ship draws about 45 feet of water. The largest yacht transportedwas the Presidential yacht Williamsburg with a length of 250 feet. Generally, smaller transportships are used from the Caribbean to Newport, than are used for Atlantic crossings.www.dockwalk.com

Photo credit: Suki FinnertyWhile we were aboard, Jeff Last madesome interesting observations about the yachttransport business. He said, “When we firststarted transporting yachts in 1993, the averageyacht length was 85 feet. Last year theaverage length was 125 feet. In 1993 wemoved 104 yachts. This year we will moveover 1,000.”So what does a captain need to do to useDockwise transportation? First, you should enquire as to availability.According to Last, trips are often booked as far as six months inadvance. However, if the DYT vessel isn’t filled, you can often getaboard on short notice.Second, you’ll need a docking plan. The docking plan is basically adrawing showing the shape of your boat’s hull, often called a linesplan by designers. The docking plan also needs to show any protuberances,such as keel coolers, stabilizers, water intakes, or exhausts, andwhere the rudders, props, and shafts are located. The docking planshould accurately portray the overall width, length, and draft of youryacht, along with its displacement. Such a plan can usually beobtained from the vessel’s designer or its builder. This plan should bepreferably electronically mailed to the Dockwise office in Ft.Lauderdale, Florida, where it will be used by the loadmaster to developa loading and blocking plan.Onboard the ship that I visited the loadmaster (who flies up fromthe Dutch office for every loading) was Pascall Minjon, who is normallybased in the Holland office of DYT. The loading and blockingplan drawing, when printed out, ends up being about three feet longand shows every yacht’s location aboard the Dockwise transport ship.It also shows the blocking required to support each yacht when it ishauled out, as well as the lines that will be used to secure it.Interestingly, the yachts are packed so tightly that they are often lessthan a foot from the side of the ship. This says that the docking planthat you send to Dockwise had better be accurate and include rubrailsand anything that protrudes from the hull side or bottom.The next thing for a captain using the Dockwise transport service toknow is that you must arrive on time. Yachts go aboard in a predeterminedorder, and a yacht that is late can hold up the boarding process.If a boat is extremely late, it may miss the ship altogether, althoughLast said that that almost never happens. “We rarely get cancellations,”he said. “Even after 9/11 we got only one cancellation.”Any crew that accompanies a yacht on a DYT vessel sleeps aboardthe yacht. But yacht crews eat in the ship’s mess. Typically, only onecrewmember goes with each yacht. However, the number may varydepending upon how many yachts are onboard. Riders are onlyallowed for yachts over 80 feet.Once the boat is high and dry, safely in the hold of the Dockwiseship, maintenance work is allowed to be done on the hull. For acaptain, this is a chance to schedule hull work at no extra cost andwith no downtime.www.dockwalk.comHow much time will you typically have aboard a Dockwise transportship? It usually takes about ten to fourteen days to go transatlantic,depending on the final destination. For trips from theCaribbean or Florida to Newport, three to four days is typical.Dockwise Yacht Transport has an extensive schedule. The companyruns several transatlantic trips every year, as shown on the schedulepublished on page 27 of this issue. In addition to its East Coast runsfrom the Caribbean and Florida to Newport, the company also has avessel dedicated solely to carrying yachts up and down the West Coastfrom Ensenada, California, to the Seattle-Vancouver area. When theAmerica’s Cup was in Australia and New Zealand, the company ranseveral trips to carry syndicate yachts to the venues. Over the next season,DYT expects to transport yachts to the Olympics in Greece, andnext year to Valencia, the new home of the America’s Cup.DOCKWALK • AUGUST 2004 • 11