Now that things were moving forward, the focus shifted towards getting the boat home.  I would need to winterize the boat within a few week’s time, so I had to figure something out.  My options seemed to be . . .

1. ★Boat transporters
   

2. ★Get a Truck and Trailer
   

3. ★Bring the boat by sea and then use local haulers to bring it to my house.
   

The boat transporters all seemed to be booked up and were quoting outrageous rates  . . . something like $17 per mile.

I thought about getting a truck and trailer (a large trailer that is . . .)  If I had a trailer, it might be easier to get a transporter to do the towing.  In the future, I also wanted to be able to take the boat out of the water when needed, which I was not able to do with the previous boat given that I had no trailer then.  Lining up the local boat hauler often seemed to be a challenge. 

Trailers also were in high demand, as they usually are.  Used ones were a rarity and the new ones were out about 8 weeks for delivery.  Through a referral from the broker, I was able to order a nice triple axle 15,600 lb. capacity trailer with about 3 weeks lead time.  This was workable, now just a matter of figuring out the towing part.

The final solution was to sell one of my cars and in its place buy a used truck.  Of course trucks rated to tow the anticipated load (14,000 +/- lbs.) were the higher end F-250/350 models with dual rear wheels (dually). Since I was doing local towing I was less concerned about fully covering the capacity, rather come as close as I could.

The search for a truck provided a quick education on diesel engines and all the terminology that goes with them.  All said and done, I opted for an F-150 with 3.5 EcoBoost (aka Twin Turbo).  The truck had off-road tires and 4WD LO/HI transmission.   Tow rating around 11K lbs.   I figured that is would do the trick for local towing and getting the boat up the ramp as needed.  It also kept me in a gasoline engine instead of a diesel.

I had the truck situation all sorted out by early November (2021) and the trailer arrived a few days later.

Here are some pictures of truck and trailer.

Given that the truck was a little light duty for the towing weight, I decided not to transport the boat myself, and opted for a captain’s service to bring the boat by sea to my home harbor.  At that point, I would then retrieve the boat with my new-2-me truck/trailer and bring the boat the short distance to the summer house for its winter layup.

I hired a captain’s service out of Long Island to bring the boat the 180 miles by water.   November 17, 2021 the boat made its journey in calm seas and relatively mild weather.  180 miles, 6 hours, including a 120 gallon re-fueling stop along the way. 

Here are a few pictures of the boat arriving at my home port.

Bringing the boat by sea and transporting the boat locally proved to be the best overall option.  It also benefited by using up all of the old fuel, and then some. 

The boat was tied up at the dock for the night as the tide cycle would not be suitable for retrieving until morning.

Bright and early the next morning I retrieved the boat and brought it to the summer house.  Trailering the boat took some getting used to, as it had been quite a few years since I had a boat & trailer combination.

Anyway, the boat was now back at the house without incident.  The truck pulled the boat out no problem . . . not even breathing hard.

TRUCK & TRAILER

HAPPIEST DAY OF OWNERSHIP . . .

Now that the boat was home, it was time to start thinking about various projects