Your yacht.
Our transport.

There is no list price, because no two boats are the same. The figure is driven by her length, beam and height on the trailer, her weight, the distance, whether the load needs permits and escort vehicles, and how tight your dates are. Beam is usually the biggest lever: a boat under 2.55 m wide travels as normal freight, while a wider one needs permits and escorts and costs more per mile. Send us the dimensions and the two locations and you get a firm, no-obligation quote, normally within 24 hours.

Anything from a small day boat up to a yacht of around 20 metres, plus catamarans, trawlers and RIBs. A load becomes an abnormal load – and needs a permit – as soon as it exceeds 2.55 m wide (8 ft 4 in), 4.00 m high (13 ft 1 in), 16.50 m long on a semi-trailer (18.75 m as a drawbar combination) or 40 t gross. Most cruising yachts break at least one of those limits once they are sitting on a trailer, which is normal and simply part of the job.

Probably. Around nine out of ten boats we move are over-width or over-height on the trailer and therefore need a permit for every country they pass through. We apply for all of them, in Germany and abroad, and we build the lead time into the schedule. You never have to speak to an authority yourself.

Usually, yes. Anything much beyond a trailerable boat is lifted onto the low-loader by boatyard or mobile crane, and lifted off again at the other end. We book both cranes, we make sure they are there when the truck is, and we make sure the slings go where your hull can take them – for which we need your lifting points.

Two to four weeks is comfortable, because the permits are the slow part, not the driving. Peak weeks either side of the season fill up first. If you are in a hurry, ask anyway – short-notice moves are often possible, and we will tell you honestly whether the permits can be turned around in time.

Days, not weeks. A run from northern Germany or the Netherlands down to the Med is typically a matter of a few days on the road, depending on whether the load needs escorts and night-driving restrictions apply. You get the exact window with the quote, and the arrival date holds regardless of what the weather is doing at sea.

Empty the fuel and water tanks down to a manoeuvring minimum, take off anything that catches the wind – sprayhood, canvas, aerials, loose gear – and remove gas bottles and loose batteries. On a sailing yacht the mast comes down; we can unstep and cradle it for you. And tell us the exact height and beam including anything that sticks out: getting that wrong is the one thing that stops a transport at a bridge.

Every load runs under CMR cover. Be aware of what that actually means: CMR pays out by weight, at 8.33 SDR per kilogram, which for a light, expensive boat is nowhere near her value. For anything worth real money we strongly recommend separate all-risk transport insurance, and we will arrange it for you. We would rather tell you this up front than after a bad day.

Yes, and we do it regularly. Outside the EU there is customs paperwork and, sometimes, a ferry leg – a boat bought in Norway typically goes on the evening ferry from Stavanger and is in Bremen the following night. The formalities are our job; you should just be prepared for any import VAT or duty that is due on your side.