Boat Shipping

How to Measure Your Boat for Transport?

Manufacturer specifications are a starting point, not an answer. They typically give hull dimensions, and what a carrier needs is the dimensions of the whole load as it will sit on the road.

Measure with the boat on the trailer it will travel on. Then:

1. Overall length. Bow to stern, including anything that sticks out — swim platform, bow pulpit, outboard motors tilted up, the trailer tongue. This is the number that surprises people; a 24-foot boat is regularly a 30-foot load.
2. Beam. The widest point across the hull, including rub rails and any flare. If the boat is on a trailer with fenders wider than the hull, measure to the outside of those instead.
3. Height. From the ground to the highest fixed point, with the boat on the trailer. Include hardtops, arches, towers and antennas that cannot be removed or folded. If something folds, note both the folded and unfolded height.
4. Weight. Boat plus engine plus trailer plus anything left aboard. Fuel and water are heavier than people expect — roughly six pounds per gallon of gasoline and just over eight per gallon of water.
5. Draft, if it has a fixed keel. Relevant for sailboats, where the keel determines what trailer can be used and how high the boat sits.

Write all five down and send them with your quote request. Accurate numbers get you an accurate price. Optimistic numbers get you a re-quote.

Boat Shipping Methods

On your own trailer

The most common and most affordable method for trailerable boats. The carrier hitches your trailer and tows it. It requires the trailer to be genuinely roadworthy — see the next section, because this is where most avoidable problems come from.

On the carrier’s trailer

If you have no trailer, or yours is not fit for a long haul, the boat travels on the carrier’s equipment. A step deck or lowboy gives more height clearance than a flatbed, which matters for tall boats close to the 13’6″ limit.

Flatbed with a cradle — boats without trailers

Marina boats often have no trailer at all. In that case the boat is lifted — usually by travel lift at a boatyard, sometimes by crane — and set onto a custom cradle or blocking on the carrier’s deck, then strapped down.

This adds two things to the job: the lift at each end, which is arranged and billed by the yard rather than the carrier, and the cradle itself. Ask early whether a cradle exists for your hull or needs to be built, because that is a real cost and a real lead time.

By water, and by sea

For some coastal and inland routes a delivery captain can simply run the boat to its destination on its own bottom. That is a genuine alternative worth pricing for larger vessels, and it avoids the whole oversize question. It carries its own risks — weather, engine hours, fuel — and it is not something we arrange.

For international moves, boats travel by roll-on/roll-off, in a container if small enough, or on a flat rack if not. Different service, different documentation, and outside what this page covers.

How Much Does It Cost to Ship a Boat?

Published market rates vary more here than in any other kind of vehicle transport, and the variation is real rather than sloppy — it reflects genuinely different jobs.

Across independent industry sources, overland boat transport is commonly quoted in the range of roughly $1.50 to $3.50 per mile for standard legal-width vessels, with short hauls running higher per mile and long hauls lower. One marketplace publishing data from thousands of actual shipments reports an average near $1.47 per mile, with short moves under 500 miles at $3 to $5 and long-distance moves over 1,000 miles at $1.00 to $1.50. Sailboats and wide-beam cruisers sit above those figures; houseboats and large yachts sit far above them.

Those figures are published market context from third-party sources, not our rates. Your quote depends on your dimensions and route.

What the per-mile rate does not include

This is the part that catches people out, and it is why a per-mile rate alone tells you very little about an oversize move:

• Oversize permits, charged per state on the route
• Pilot car or escort vehicles, commonly billed per mile per vehicle
• Travel lift or crane fees at the origin and destination yards
• Cradle construction or blocking, where no cradle exists
• Yard lay days and storage while the shipment is arranged
• Route survey work on very wide or tall loads
• Fuel surcharges, which move with diesel

On a large boat those items can rival the mileage cost. Ask for a quote that itemizes them rather than a single per-mile figure.

What changes the price

How to lower the cost

• Get your trailer roadworthy. Towing your own trailer is almost always the cheapest route. New bearings and tires cost far less than carrier equipment plus two lifts.
• Remove anything removable. Towers, arches, antennas, biminis and canvas that fold or come off can bring a load back under a height threshold. That change alone can move you out of oversize territory.
• Ship outside the peaks. Late spring and early fall are the busiest windows in most of the country.
• Give a wider pickup window. Permits and escorts need scheduling, and flexibility is worth more here than on a car shipment.
• Empty the tanks. Fuel and water are weight you are paying to move.
• Measure accurately the first time. Not a discount, but the reliable way to avoid a re-quote.

Is Your Trailer Actually Roadworthy?

If your boat is travelling on its own trailer, this is the check that matters most — and it is the one owners skip. A trailer that has sat on grass since last October is not automatically ready for two thousand highway miles.

Before pickup day, check:

• Wheel bearings — the commonest failure on boat trailers, and the one that strands a load. If they have not been repacked in a couple of seasons, do it.
• Tires, including the spare — age matters as much as tread on a trailer that sits. Check the date codes and the sidewalls for cracking.
• Lights, and that the connector matches what the carrier will be towing with
• Brakes and breakaway cable, if fitted
• Coupler, safety chains and the tongue jack
• Bunks, rollers and winch strap — the boat has to stay put, not just the trailer
• Current registration and plate, where your state requires it
• Frame and welds, particularly on a trailer that has been in salt water

A driver who arrives and finds an unroadworthy trailer cannot legally tow it. That is a wasted trip for both of you and a charge you would rather not pay. Ten minutes with a grease gun and a tire gauge prevents it.

How Long Does Boat Shipping Take?

Longer than a car over the same distance, and it is worth understanding why before you plan around a date.

Why boats travel slower than cars

A permitted oversize load cannot simply drive. Most states restrict oversize movement to daylight hours, and many prohibit it on weekends and public holidays. A load that is legal to move Monday through Friday in daylight covers far fewer miles per day than a car hauler running under normal hours-of-service rules.

Add the time to issue permits before the trip starts, escort vehicles that have to be scheduled, and routes that avoid low bridges and tight interchanges rather than taking the direct line, and a boat move takes meaningfully longer than the same trip in a car carrier.

You will see boat transit tables online borrowed from car transport — one major site claims a thousand miles in one to two days. For a legal-width boat on its own trailer that is optimistic; for a permitted oversize load it is not achievable. Treat any boat timeline that matches car timelines with suspicion.

The honest answer: a legal-width trailerable boat moves on roughly car-like timelines plus a margin. Anything requiring permits should be planned in weeks, not days, and anything requiring escorts should be planned well ahead of a launch date or a closing.

Marina and Boatyard Pickups

If the boat is in the water or on stands in a yard, the yard is part of the shipment and needs organizing before the truck arrives.

• Confirm the yard can haul the boat out and when. Travel lift slots book up in spring and fall, and the lift is arranged with the yard, not the carrier.
• Ask who pays for the lift and whether it is included in your yard bill or invoiced separately.
• Settle any outstanding balance. Yards will not release a boat against an unpaid account, and lay days keep accruing while you sort it out.
• Check the yard’s hours and whether they accept trucks at those times. Many are weekday-only and close early.
• Confirm there is room for a truck and trailer to get in, turn and get out. Working marinas are often tighter than they look.
• Ask whether a cradle exists for your hull, or whether blocking has to be built.
• Make sure someone is authorized to release the boat and sign the paperwork if you cannot be there.

Tell us at the quote stage that pickup is at a marina or yard. It changes the equipment, the timing and the coordination, and it is much easier to plan than to fix on the day.

How to Prepare Your Boat for Shipping

1. Photograph everything in daylight — hull both sides, transom, bow, deck, interior, engine, gelcoat condition, and the trailer.
2. Remove everything loose, above and below deck. Anything not fixed down will move.
3. Remove electronics, valuables and canvas — GPS, radios, fishfinders, biminis, covers.
4. Remove or fold antennas, outriggers, radar arches and towers where possible. This is a height question as much as a damage question.
5. Close, latch and seal all hatches, windows and ports. Tape them from outside if they are not watertight against highway-speed rain.
6. Secure or remove the drain plug per your carrier’s instruction, so any water that gets in can get out.
7. Disconnect the batteries.
8. Secure the boat properly to the trailer — winch strap plus transom tie-downs, not the winch strap alone.
9. Fix or declare any active fluid leaks.
10. Measure the boat, and write the numbers down.

Should you shrink wrap it?

Usually not, and this catches people out.

Shrink wrap is designed for a boat sitting still in a yard over winter. At highway speed it can lift, tear and flap, and loose wrap can abrade gelcoat over hundreds of miles — doing exactly the damage it was meant to prevent.

If your boat is already wrapped for winter storage, ask the carrier before you assume it stays on. If you want covered protection for the trip, purpose-made transport covers or a fully enclosed trailer for a small boat are the better answers.

Fuel, water and batteries

Advice online conflicts on this, so here is the reasoning rather than a rule. Fuel and water are weight, and weight costs money to move — that argues for draining. But a completely empty fuel tank can encourage condensation, and some owners prefer a quarter tank with stabilizer for that reason.

Water tanks and livewells should be fully drained — there is no argument for carrying that weight, and water sloshing in a partly filled tank is a genuine problem on the road. Freshwater systems should be drained in freezing conditions regardless.

Batteries: disconnect them. If the trip is long or the weather cold, taking them out entirely is better still.

Common mistakes

• Quoting hull length instead of overall load length
• Forgetting that height is measured from the ground with the boat on the trailer
• Assuming a trailer that towed fine last summer is ready for a cross-country run
• Leaving shrink wrap on for a highway trip
• Leaving electronics and canvas aboard
• Booking a spring move a week out, when every travel lift in the region is full
• Comparing a per-mile rate against an itemized quote and thinking the first is cheaper
• Not checking whether the destination can actually receive the boat

Insurance on a Boat in Transit

Every shipment we arrange is covered by the assigned carrier’s cargo insurance during transit, backed by Prime Auto Movers LLC’s own contingent cargo insurance — up to $100,000 for open transport and up to $250,000 for enclosed.

For boats specifically, there is a question worth asking before you book that no transport company will ask for you: does your own marine policy cover the vessel while it is being transported overland by a third party?

Many marine policies cover the boat afloat and in storage but treat road transit differently, and some exclude it unless it is on the owner’s own trailer. Others cover it fully. Call your marine insurer, describe the move, and ask specifically about overland transit by a commercial carrier. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between two layers of protection and one.

What no cargo policy covers: pre-existing damage noted at pickup, acts of nature, personal belongings left aboard, mechanical failure, and loose or non-factory equipment. On a boat that last category is broad — electronics, canvas, outriggers and anything you bolted on yourself.

Seasonal Timing

Boat transport is more seasonal than car transport, with two sharp peaks rather than one.

• Spring launch, roughly March through May. Boats coming out of winter storage and moving north. Travel lifts book solid and rates firm up.
• Fall haul-out, roughly September through November. The reverse — boats heading to storage or south for the winter.
• Summer. Steady demand from purchases and relocations, but easier to book than the two peaks.
• Winter. The quietest and usually cheapest window, with the caveat that freezing conditions require proper winterization before a long haul and northern yards may be closed.

If you are moving a boat for a specific date — a launch, a tournament, a closing — book well ahead. Permits and lifts are the constraints, not trucks.

Questions to Ask Before You Book

• Based on my dimensions, is this a legal load or an oversize load?
• Does the quote include permits for every state on the route?
• Will escort vehicles be needed, and are they in the price?
• Is the quote based on my measurements or on the manufacturer’s specifications?
• Who arranges and pays for the travel lift at each end?
• Does a cradle exist for my hull, or does one need to be built?
• Are you a licensed motor carrier, a broker, or both — and what are your MC and DOT numbers?
• What insurance applies, is it primary or contingent, and can I see the certificate?
• Is the quoted price what I pay at delivery, or an estimate that can change?

The second and third questions are the important ones. A quote that excludes permits and escorts is not comparable to one that includes them, and the gap can be substantial.

Why Ship With Prime Auto Movers LLC

Prime Auto Movers LLC is an FMCSA-authorized motor carrier (MC# 1743601, DOT# 4431271), fully compliant with U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) regulations. We provide nationwide car shipping and auto transport services, including door-to-door delivery for cars, motorcycles, boats, and heavy equipment. Every vehicle is handled by qualified, insured carriers and delivered safely and on time. Whether you’re shipping across town or across the country, our nationwide network covers major routes coast to coast — including Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and New York, along with cities throughout Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and beyond. With transparent pricing and clear communication at every step, we make interstate and cross-country car shipping simple and stress-free.

On a boat booking specifically: we ask for your actual measurements rather than working from a model number, we tell you upfront whether your load is legal or oversize, and we will be straight with you about what your shipment needs — including telling you when a specialist heavy-haul operator is the right call.