Obligations towards crew etc who wish to disembark or are no longer welcome

[rxcsailnet]

The trip was back in 2008, when we moved to the EU. The skipper fees that we were quoted, from individuals, and from aggregators who supplied skippers, were all in the range of $10K + repatriation costs + supplies (fuel, food, etc) +all other incidental costs. The contracts were all similar, and all the proposed masters had 100 ton licenses and good resumes. I believe that the total cost ended up being around $13K, plus $7K for the repairs to the mast step from all the pounding. Part of this is due to a design flaw from the manufacturer which is common for my boat, so I don't entirely blame it on the skipper. In 2013, it cost about $10K to have the boat shipped back. I don't know what it would cost now.

It was a terrible crossing, and almost impossible to sleep during the storms, as the boat came off of the waves and pounded. The boat was indeed able to take it, and I am very thankful for that. After calling Herb for the 3rd time, and reporting that we had not followed his advice to stay south, I was embarrassed and stopped calling, and just listened to what he was telling everyone else. It is not a good thing when you are the owner, on board, and don't agree with the hired master.

If I had insisted on sailing the boat differently, I would have effectively have relieved him of the command and assumed it myself. That would have left me in the middle of the Atlantic with two very unhappy people. So, we just sucked it up till we got to the Azores. I had talked to the master about this sort of thing before we left, and made it clear to him that I was happy to have lots of adventure, but no excitement that could be avoided. The steering failure south of Bermuda was enough excitement for the entire trip, when the boat fell on its side in Force 7 conditions - the steering quadrant failed. It was probably the time we lost waiting for parts for this event that drove the master to take more risks than I would have preferred.

My comments about delivery skippers comes from comments that I have received from other people who had delivery captains, listening to the one I hired, and seeing how delivery captains do their jobs along the ICW - everything is done at full speed. I appreciate the difficulties they encounter, and they serve a useful purpose. I don't anticipate ever needing one again, and am thankful that I won't have to pick one again.

[boatman61]

It's down to whether you pick a delivery skipper who does it to pay for his mortgage or.. one who does it for a hobby with benefits.
One does it to live, the other for an occasional sail..
Who shipped your boat from EU to USA for $10K, I'm sure many here would love to know.

[rxcsailnet]

I went and looked at the documents. It was 16,000 euros, in Sept 2013, with Peters and May as the shipper, from La Rochelle France to Ft. Lauderdale. The boat (Jeanneau 43DS) was sent on deck of a heavy lift ship, in a cradle that the shipper supplied, along with about 10 other sailboats, all with the masts up. Down below there were a bunch of power boats, which did not need the clearance. We sailed to La Rochelle and the boat was picked up on September 17, 2013 and dropped off in Ft. Lauderdale on October 9. They used a dock crane to pick the boat up out of the water at La Rochelle and place it on the cradle. Then the ship used its own crane to lift the cradle and boat and bring it on board. Peters and May did the rigging and securing on deck. No damage.

I mis-remembered the return price. I think that I had received one other offer, from Southampton to Florida, which was lower, but La Rochelle was very close to where the boat was berthed, and the timing was perfect, so it was a no brainer.

I had a helper and the ship picked up the boat from the cradle in Ft. Lauderdale, lowered it to the level of an open gangway on the side of the ship. We crossed over from the ship and rode the boat down into the water. Checked for leaks and problems, none found, the engine started up right away, and we headed north.

The original trip, with repatriation fees, was $8753, plus provisioning, entry fees, and fuel, all of which I paid for. That included repatriation fees from France. I estimate that those fees were about $2500. I paid for the master and the cook, and one additional crewmember came along for no charge. He wanted the experience.

Peters and May were fantastic. They did all the paperwork with customs and I did not have to do anything in the US. I would dearly like to go back to Scotland for a season, and would seriously consider shipping the boat with them, over and back. It is too hard to find appropriate crew for a trip like this, compared to shipping the boat.

I will also give you one other pricing point. We shipped two 40 ft containers to the EU with all our household goods, including a Ford Ranger pickup truck. Total weight was about 40,000 pounds. The total cost of that shipment from Baltimore to the EU was $4000. We also transported four (4) Maine coon cats across the Atlantic at the same time. They weighed, in total, about 40 pounds. We had to buy four (4) round trip tickets from Florida to the EU to transport the cats. One person per cat, in the cabin, not in a cage in the hold. That cost $4000. So, $4000 for 40,000 pounds of household goods, or for 40 pounds of cats. It was an expensive year.