How bad is it to remove flybridge for shipping

Any good yard should be able to do it. The first time "learning curve" is the wild card. Perhaps best to find a Meridian Yachts dealer to prep the boat. Certainly they have done this job before. Next will be choosing who to put it back together when she gets home.

Why not run your new boat home?

Here is 39 going down the road in Detroit after the Detroit Boat Show.

the transport company posted a bunch of cool pics to their FB page.

Hurricane Marine Transport (I have no affiliation with them)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.573130882698148.1073741825.232500316761208&type=1

O K, I'm a dummy but have to ask; What's wrong with a trip by water to the north and west?

I have never been up that way (on inland water ways). I had just assumed there were canals in western New York or from Lake Erie that joined the Ohio river.
Another assumption I've always had (but without thought) was Pittsburgh did join The lake system easily.

I had always envied the interior folks for their ability to move from lake to lake to river to river so easily. Mostly from assumptions with out really checking into it.
I'll have to google-earth it when I get in tonight.

I've been through what you're looking and I think I can offer some tips on making the whole job easier. I bought my 550 in the Detroit area and shipped it to Portland, OR.

First of all, you're going to be involved with lots of people in this effort. The shipping company, the load driver(s), the people who do the tear down, the people at the receiving marina who reinstall the flybridge, etc. You will feel like you're herding cats while you're trying to keep them all on the same page and headed in the same direction.

One of the smartest moves I made in the whole process was to make arrangements with the marina that was going to reinstall the flybridge to have their lead tech fly back to Detroit to supervise the disassembly. The selling broker was a bit of a schlock outfit and probably would have just gone into the flybridge and just cut all the wires. The tech from the reassembly marina marked each wire on both sides of where he was going to cut it before cutting them. The tech knew he was going to have to put it back together so he made sure he did a good job of disassembling everything.







Your flybridge might be able to be shipped on the front of the boat once the boat is lifted onto the trailer. Mine couldn't because the total load was too long, so they had to make a cradle for the bridge and it came on its own trailer pulled by a second truck.


When you communicate with the actual trucker (not the load broker) make sure he knows when to arrive at the yard where it's being picked up from. There is a hefty charge for any day of standby time. My trucker's standby charge was $300/day.

When talking with your load broker, make sure he knows the actual weight of the boat being shipped, not the dry weight. I had given mine the dry weight but found out later the actual weight was several thousands pounds heavier. That put the load from one weight category to a higher category and required additional permits and more cost.

Make it clear to the trucker and the load broker that you will not tolerate any additional "surprise" charges when the boat arrives at its destination. They tried to hook me for over $10K in additional charges but I refused and refused to allow them to unload the boat (making the trucker just sit in Portland) until everyone agreed there were to be no additional charges. Additional charges are a fairly common practice in that industry because they figure the boat buyer is anxious to get the boat in the water and will pay whatever it takes.

Also make sure your insurance coverage starts the minute the papers are signed. You don't want any questions to come up about who pays for damage to the boat while it's being transported.

If you can arrange to do it, be there at the shipping yard when the boat is hauled out of the water and while it's being loaded on the trailer. You may need to make last minute decisions about things that come up and it's faster if you're there to do that.

All things considered the whole process went fairly smoothly, but it took a lot more of my time than I figured. I spent about an hour a day on the phone for about 3 weeks prior to the transport, then another couple of hours at the end over the additional charges they were going to try to collect.

If you have any specific questions, fire away.

Have you given any thought to contacting a boat transportation company, regarding the height of your particle boat model, as in the Detroit pic?

Have you given any thought to shipping it from Philadelphia, Pa to Pittsburgh, Pa?

Perhaps this link will help get you started.

PA Boat Mover Affordable Boat Hauler Pennsylvania

Don't forget to let Google be your friend.

I recently shipped a 3608 carver from Wisconsin to Canada. Found it was far cheaper and considerably less headache to ship it oversize. It requires a route survey plus pilot and pole vehicles but in the long run is was far cheaper than full disassembly of the fly bridge and reassembly at my home harbour. Certainly worth investigating. Also I can recommend a great trucking company. Send me a private note and I can pass on the info

I have helped clients truck boats cross country many times and all have been accomplished successfully. I agree with all of the suggestions offered so far. One additional is to make sure you get the boat shrink wrapped.

Judy

I don't recall the cost, but it included his wages, airfare, a modest priced hotel, rental car and meals.

Whatever the cost came out to be, I figured I'd spend it on the front end by paying him to do the job and that would be cheaper than paying him on the back end for his time trying to figure out what wire connected to what wire if the selling brokerage had just gone in and cut wires without marking them.

The boat was in a large boathouse so he was able to do the tear down work inside, out of the weather. Here's a shot of his access to the area beneath the 'eyebrow'....


and a shot looking one direction from where the boat was inside the boathouse...


The 'eyebrow' beneath the flybridge/helm area was large enough for him to crawl into and move around while he worked. He had enough space under there that he could almost sit up while working on marking and cutting wires.

I was going through all of that with my boat a few years ago and I'm very happy to have that all behind me. Best wishes for the best possible outcome. Very anxious times I'm sure.