Forty-one boats shipping from Newport, R.I., and two from Freeport, Bahamas, will arrive in Crown Bay around mid-November — all at the same time and without really getting their keels wet.
Transported on a semi-submersible dedicated yacht carrier owned by Dockwise, the boats will ride high and mostly dry on the deck of the Super Servant 4, a 169-meter-long and 32-meter-wide vessel weighing more than 10 tons.
Loading the record 49 boats that will make the trip from Newport to Freeport went smoothly Monday under overcast skies.
"It was a very good day for loading with very little wind, flat seas and [we were] right on schedule," Dockwise’s Ann Souder said. Souder was interviewed just after she returned to the office after the Super Servant 4 was loaded in Newport.
"We loaded them in about three hours, but then we have to get them all supported and the sea fastenings welded to the deck," Souder said.
At the end of the trip the process works in reverse: Super Servant 4 gets pumped full of water and divers undo the fastenings.
"It will be a two-day process to get them unloaded," Souder said.
The ship and its 25-member crew are scheduled to leave Newport late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning for Freeport, where it will drop off eight boats and pick up two before heading for Crown Bay, Souder said.
All 43 boats on board will off-load on St. Thomas. Souder said this load is bringing a large number of Canadian-owned boats and just two race boats.
Super Servant 4’s cargo includes boats as diminutive as a Boston Whaler (9.81 meters) and Whitbey-Alberg sailboat (9.83 meters). The largest vessel is a Cheoy Lee at more than 24 meters.
Safety and a reduction in wear and tear on a boat lead customers to use the yacht transport, Souder said. She also noted that some of the smaller vessels are not big enough to make the crossing.
She can’t recall any situations where boats have been damaged on Dockwise.
"They don’t shift because their supports are welded to the deck bed of the ship," Souder said.
The cost for shipping a 30-foot sailboat with a 10-foot beam is between $7,500 and $9,000, according to Souder.
A lot goes into the planning for the trip, including careful distribution of the boats’ weight on the ship’s deck.
"We have a whole team of draftsmen and loading masters who design the stowage plan," Souder said. "The owners have to give a whole slew of information. We have to take bowsprits and swim platforms into account."
Crown Bay Marina, located adjacent to where Super Servant 4 will offload its cargo, will play host to a number of the boats while they fuel up at and provision for wintertime Caribbean cruising, according to Christine Starshak, office manager at Crown Bay Marina.
Crews often stay in nearby hotels while the boats are offloaded and provisioned, Starshak said.
Fifteen of the boats have advance reservations already, and Starshak said the marina usually gets 30-40 of Dockwise’s boats.
For more information about Dockwise, visit www.yacht-transport.com/float-onfloat-offservice.
