It finally happened. Inertia was finally picked up and shipped to her new owner in Wisconsin. It took all day to pack her up - removing the boom and vang, getting all her equipment down and packed, and finally loading on the trailer took another day.There are any
number of boat shippers, and all of them will promise the world. Delivery, however, seems to be a problem. Joe, Inertia's new owner, had to cancel a contract with one shipper and get another because the first was a no-show. So, she shipped out a couple of weeks late.One of the really, really, important things about shipping a boat is you or your agent should be there when the boat is dismantled (mast taken apart, tall things removed, etc.) and when it's loaded on the trailer.
I dismantled and packed Inertia. Normally, the former owner won't do that so it may end up being you, the yard, or your agent. If you are capable of doing the work, make every effort to be there to supervise or do it. Expect it to take at the very least one full day for dismantling the rigging and packing the boat and another for putting on the trailer to ship.
The hardest part is dismantling the mast. Our yard charges $350.00 to do it. They remove all the rigging and label it. You can also wrap the 
mast with bubble wrap, lay the rigging against that, and wrap again. I pulled all the halyards all the way up to the masthead and coiled them at the bottom of the mast. I also removed the spreaders and wrapped them, placing them in the quarter berth.
On shipping day, everyone was unsure if the truck would make it, but it did, albeit an hour late. Stan, the driver, was great! Full of sailing stories, very helpful and knowledgeable. Working with him made the day go quickly. My friend Leigh helped as well because, foolishly, I left my tools at home so had to give him an emergency call because I needed to remove the sissybars in front of the mast. Apparently, there is a 13' 6" height limit for non-permitted over-the-road travel. Inertia without the sissybar came out to 13' 4". Good as gold!
Getting her ready was bittersweet, as I'm sure you can imagine. She looked as good as any of the new boats coming in on trailers. Well, I think Joe and Kathy and their children will enjoy her for a lot of years to come.
On the upside, however, last Friday was the sea trial and survey for Pelicano, the 424 I'm looking to buy. As lovely a boat as she is, there are hundreds of projects that I need to do to make her mine.
