The aptly named ‘Double Trouble’ is a 32′ Carver aft cabin cruiser that we brought up to Hastings, Minnesota from Key West, Florida last spring.  Since that time, the owner has done some adhoc web development for me, and other than pushing me off the top of his boat while re-installing the flybridge we have become friends.  ‘ Double Trouble’  has held true to her name, with more than a few mechanical maladies to overcome - but it sounds as if my friend is starting to master the beast…

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Last Saturday, September 26th, Ben and I went to the marina to fix the shower pump switch in the forward head.  We accomplished that in short order and, with a beautiful afternoon looming, decided to have ourselves a little adventure.  We took the big Carver down the Mississippi to about mile marker 802.0 and just had ourselves a wonderful time together then turned and went back.  The weather was wonderful the boat behaved admirably it was a really nice time.

Then on Sunday Amy, after hearing how fine Saturday had been, thought it’d be a nice idea to anchor out by Prescott for the afternoon.  I checked WCCO.com weather and it promised sunny and warmer than Saturday.  Off we all go, Andrew, Ben and I in the boat and Amy drove so we dinghy’d her in (she had an appointment and had to leave at 2:15 and would be leaving early).  The weather was cloudy until 2:15 when Amy had to leave.  Typical.  So, the boys and I, determined to soak up the newly arrived sun, went fishing.  We didn’t catch anything and went back for a snack and noticed it was getting kinda windy.  About 5:00 we weighed anchor and went back up to the marina only to discover 40mph winds.  I tried to dock into my slip with no luck.  Feeling this wind was beyond my skill level I decided the wisest course of action would be to wait it out.  I figured it’d settle down around dark and I’d rather wait than risk damaging the boat.

So we went back to Prescott and anchored and played board games.  Still windy.  Played some more.  Still windy.  Decided to wait until 9:30, for sure it’d calm down by then.  At 9:00 we still had incredible winds and it was no better at 9:30.  I called Amy and told her we’d probably have to stay the night.  We might be a little hungry but there were some snacks aboard and we’d be fine.  About 10:00 I hatched a new idea, I thought I could dock her at the marina but  just not in my slip.  I figured I could just move her parallel to the outermost dock and simply ride the wind in, I’ve done that a lot and knew it’d work.  And then I could go home and later, when the wind died down, move the boat to my proper slip.

I prepared by starting the engines and turning on the lights.  Ben manned the anchor but it was too windy and the windlass clutch just slipped and wouldn’t bring in the anchor so we gave up.

Then, after thinking about it for a while, we tried again.  I got everything going on the bridge then put Ben in the captains chair and I went out to get the anchor up.  It took some manual persuasion and forward motion of the boat but I managed to get it up.  Now all I had to do was drive the short three miles to Hubs and drift into the dock.  I knew this would be a piece of cake, the hard part was now behind me.

It was really blowing but I found I could control us just fine.  We found the buoys for the Prescott no-wake-zone and proceeded in under the first bridge and when we got just in front of the second bridge, the train bridge, the engine alarm sounded. A loud annoying buzz.  This is a somewhat unusual occurrence but not unheard of.  Sometimes at low idle an engine will kill.  So I scanned the tachometers first, odd, both tachs showed the engines running.  This is where my age is became significant detriment.  You see the gauges are nice black-faced Teleflex’s with white needles that are really easy to read.  But that’s during the day, at night they’re a real neat looking red glow that turns those easy to read white needles a red that, to my 48 year-old eyes, blends right in and I can’t see anything.  I don’t want to ruin an engine and, so, decide to err on the side of, what I believe at that moment, caution and shut down both engines.

This is the part where the stark terror begins.  I take quick stock of my redicament.  It’s 10:30 at night.  Very dark.  I’m on a really big boat in 40+mph inds.  Under a bridge.  I just shut off both my engines and am now being blown into he bridge trestle and towards dangerously shallow water.  I need to do something — really fast too.  I’m not sure if I have one good engine or no good engines.  I can’t read the gauges so I pick one, the port engine, (because I’m left-handed and t’s easier).  I turn the key, nothing happens, oh yeah I’m still in gear, put her in neutral and turn the key.  She fires up but the engine alarm sounds so I turn it off.  Now I’m closing to about 20 feet of that trestle.  Reach for the starboard key (this engine always starts right away) and it does so now and without an engine alarm!  I goose the throttle a bit and get us out of there and into deeper water.

Ben asked “Can we get to Hubs on one engine dad?”.  “Sure”, I confidently replied, eeling ever so full of myself for having extracted us from the bridge calamity.  So, very slowly, on one engine, we creep up the Mississippi through the Prescott no-wake-zone.  Man did it start to really howl once we turned off the St. Croix and headed directly into the wind.  We got to about 50 ft of the no-wake-buoy at the end of the no-wake-zone and the wind caught the bow and turned us sideways.  With only the starboard engine the boat pushes naturally to port and I countered by moving the rudder to starboard.  This limited my maneuverability significantly.  I tried to steer back up river but couldn’t so I shifted to reverse and eventually got us moving forward again.  Then, when we got close to the buoy again, the same thing happened only we were blown sideways in the other direction.  Arghh.  I tried again and again, same thing.  Hmmm, this isn’t going to work.

I had to turn back, no trouble doing that with the wind blowing that way.  I was going to go back and anchor at Prescott when Ben said “Can we just go to the Prescott dock?”.  That was a flash of absolute brilliance!  The dock is at least 100 feet long with no boat there now and the wind blowing perfectly to get us there easily.  All I had to do was get a few feet off the dock and keep the boat parallel anywhere in that 100 feet of glorious space and the wind would push us gently right into the dock.  So I maneuvered us up close and it worked exactly like that, Ben stepped off and tied us off.  Finally safe.  We called Amy who angrily hopped in the family minivan and rescued her three cold wet boys.

Before Amy arrived I peeked into the engine bay and quickly saw the problem, the raw water intake hose broke and needed to be replaced.  Next day I took a little time off work and fixed the hose, found the output hose got a hole too and replaced it, plus the impeller was mush but I had a spare and installed it.  Only $45 in total damage and boy could that have been worse!  That engine alarm saved me thousands.

I’m proud to say that even though I was terrified I never quit, I never came unglued, never tried anything beyond my limits.  Saved the vessel and saved the crew.  My captaining ability is improving.  The trouble in “Double Trouble” is losing it’s power.

 Hello!

This is my favorite time of year - the northern lakes have finally thawed, and the boats are starting to make their way from winter storage back onto the water.

Even though we are all facing a difficult economy, it seems that people are still excited to return to the water and enjoy their favorite summer pasttime of boating.   Lower fuel prices are certainly a helpful factor, compared to summer 2008!  Used boat prices are at all time lows - making it a great time to get into boating, or to trade up to that next size cruiser. 

MREBoatTransport is ready to help you get that new purchase back to your home port, safely and economically.

My blogging hasn’t been good since redesigning this site last summer…it might appear that we aren’t moving many boats at all.   However, we have moved at least 20 cruisers nationwide, and countless short hauls around the Twin Cities and Great Lakes area since my last entry.   Our late fall and winter season were reasonably busy considering the bleak economy, including three roundtrips from Minnesota to Florida, with two side return trips over to the Texas gulf coast. 

To start out 2009 right- we compiled winter requests into a massive six boat, 10K mile roundtrip that criss-crossed the US starting out from Hastings, Minnesota to Port Huron, Michigan, then down to Chicago, Illinois to deliver to Ventura, California, then reloaded Dana Point, CA crossing the entire US, delivering at scenic Coultons Point, Maryland.  From there we dropped down to North Carolina and made a delivery to the Atlantic side of Florida, and wrapped up the trip after some diving in Key Largo with a boat back to the Mississippi River at our starting point - good old Hastings, Minnesota.

I’ll do my best this summer to get more pictures up, quicker, keeping things fresh and current here.  So many boats…so many miles…so little time.

Sincerely  -

Mark Rinker, Owner MREBoatTransport.com

Say you just bought your first motorcycle on Ebay, its 500 miles away, and your only other vehicle is a small sedan.  Buy a plane ticket and fly to your new bike?  Borrow a friends truck and roadtrip?  How about listing your shipment on UShip and let small independent haulers compete for your business?    This scenario has been played out with great success for shippers in recent years - everything from household goods to pianos, horses to Corvettes have found their way from Point A to Point B - thanks to Uship. 

Enter the complex world of transporting overdimensional boats - boats wider and taller than the US DOT allows on public highways without special routing, escort cars, permits, and licensed, properly insured boat transporters.   Not your average 18′ to 21′ runabout or ski boat rolling on its own trailer, but a 28′ to 48′ (or bigger) cruiser or sailboat, anywhere from 9′ to 14′ feet wide (legal max width is 8′6″), sometimes nearly 15′ tall (legal max height is 13′6″), and weighing 12,000# to 24,000# - looking for a lowboy semi to get safely and legally from Florida to Vancouver, BC Canada - crossing 11 US states, for example.

The most difficult aspect of using UShip in cases like this is the inability for shippers and haulers to communicate directly during the estimation and bidding process, or easily and quickly exchange detailed information about the boat to be hauled.  Haulers may post questions, shippers can answer them, and vice versa, but these exchanges can take place over days instead of minutes.  No phone contact, email or direct information exchanges outside the UShip Q&A may happen before the Shipper actually accepts a Hauler’s bid.   To further complicate matters, the hauler’s bid must be ‘all inclusive’ per UShip rules - described on their site as a “fixed, binding estimate” before the boat is even loaded and measured on the hauler’s equipment, before the DOT has issued and has charged for permits, before escort cars and their drivers have been hired. 

The myriad details of big boat preparation, marina schedule coordination, trip route planning, permit applications involved are very difficult to accomplish thoroughly in the simplistic Q&A forum UShip offers.  Combine this with the distraction of reverse-auction style bidding from unscreened, often times unlicensed haulers coming at new shippers to the venue, and Its a formula for missed communications, missed expectations, and soon to be broken deals.

So why do boat sellers and buyers continue to flock there?  We suspect it is the lure of ‘Cheap’ that is promised at every turn.   Some of the online advertisement even hints that the service is ‘free’ ***  As we all have learned, we usually get what we pay for in business.

Over the last three years, MREMarine has participated actively on UShip hauling boats both big and small, moving ~50 boats while receiving a 100% positive feedback experience rating from our UShip matched customers.   We are being contacted with more frequent regularity by unhappy UShip shippers suffering from ‘mismatches’, caused most often when oversize boat transports are bid and accepted by uninsured, inexperienced, or underequipped haulers - many deals matched at thousands under market price for these services.

This summer alone, we have hauled two overdimensional boats for former Uship shippers that have had their shipments delayed after accepting low bids from a  ’Cheap Hauler’ promised by UShip’s pervasive online ad campaign.   One of these two recent customers lost his entire $3000 deposit to a fraudulent UShip hauler, never to see or hear from them again.   The customer then contracted directly with MREMarine, we later picked up the boat on his schedule in Michigan and delivered it to his Seattle destination without further incident.  Even though our price for shipping was nearly 30% higher than the matched price at UShip, the customer was happy to have the boat delivered in a professional manner - and on his schedule.

*** - Shippers are actually charged an 12% ’deposit’  matched with a hauler by accepting their bid.  This ‘match fee’ (as it is referred to by UShip in hauler communications) is deducted from the amount paid from the shipper to the hauler.  UShip refers to it only vaguely a ‘deposit’ to shippers (implying that it will be paid to the hauler, or refunded to someone, eventually) and is so protective of this fee that even mentioning it as a shipper in the Q&A forums is grounds for suspension from the site. 

At the root of this growing problem is the unwillingness by UShip to restrict bidding on specialized overized loads to only authorized (i.e. US DOT legal and insured) transporters.  This allows literally anyone to bid on transporting any boat, of any size or dimension,  without proof of cargo insurance, previous overdimensional experience, and in some rare cases - a deliberate plan to defraud unsuspecting and trusting shippers.   This unwillingness to screen haulers is based in the belief that UShip must remain a ‘neutral venue’ between Shippers and Haulers.   In their capacity as a freight matching service, UShip walks a narrow line from the definition of a freight broker, who are licensed and regulated by the US DOT, and must screen all haulers for their required authority to haul goods for hire, maintain record of their cargo insurance, etc. before they can accept commissions for brokering freight.

At MREMarine, we see both sides of the coin.  There is little reason to belabor a one-time transaction resulting from a private party sale of a legal dimension boat with the overhead of a commercial transportation contract.  If a third party wants to hook the boat to his pickup and haul it for hire, so be it.   The equipment and necessary experience are reasonable for the task.   However, when that same guy in the previous example buys a truck and trailer with the intent of going into business, and begins to bid on oversize loads - without the requisite cargo insurance or US DOT authority, this is clearly a problem waiting to happen, and not to the benefit of the boat owner.

Request by MREMarine and other companies for UShip to segregate boats into ‘legal’ and ‘overdimensional’ catagories have not been acted upon.   In the mean time, the number of problems continues to rise with the increased popularity of the site.

Our goal at MREMarine is to help educate the new ‘big boat’ owner here, and on UShip Q&A forums to help them select the right hauler for their needs.  We refer shipments to UShip every week, and believe in the value of the venue, especially for boat/trailer combinations less than 24′ LOA and 8′6″ or less in width (beam).   For overdimensional cruisers 26′ and greater, and beams 9′ and over - there is no substitue for a licensed, properly insured professional boat transporter.

Pick up the phone and call us at 612.578.6355.  Our advice is person to person, unrestricted - and its truly free!

The boat’s owner is a doctor from Chicago who recently purchased a second home in Sarasota.   This boat will now reside permanently in Florida as he plans to buy another boat for use at his home port of Riverdale, IL.  The receiving marina was first rate - boasting the largest indoor drystack facility I had ever seen - three levels high and able to accomodate boats up to 35′ in length.  In the Florida sun and salt water, dry stacking makes alot of sense for preserving your boat, especially if your plan is to visit only occasionally.

From this delivery, we headed to Ponce Inlet (Daytona Beach area) to pick up a center console fishing boat bound for Seabrook, Texas.   Soon we would hear about a storm on its way towards Texas, called “Hurricane Ike”…

Thanks to those of you that have been stopping by the new site, and giving us valuable feedback during the design process!   Our goal is to have the new site up later this week, and start to share more information in the form of this ‘Company Journal & Job Log’ to all boaters planning a boat transport, big or small.

We have taken lots of pictures along the way, and plan to publish the best of them with stories on unique origins and destinations encountered by MREMarine.  Our 2006 Alaskan trip will most certainly be one of them - along with the classic wooden 1957 Chris Craft Commander, transported from Southern Cali to Macatawa Bay Boat Works in Michigan for some final restoration - before becoming a museum peice in Louisiana.

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to bookmark this site and subscribe to RSS feeds for more updates to come!

Sincerely -

Mark Rinker, Owner MREMarine

SeaRay 300 en route from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA