Need to move a catalina 30 sailboat

TECHNICALLY you could sail across Erie to Detroit, up Lake Huron to Mackinaw, then down the east coast of Lake Michigan to Benton Harbor, MI. At that point you'd enter the St Joesph River that goes down to South Bend then across to Elkhart.

Rough math it's 1,000 miles of sailing, or two weeks with good weather, probably 3 weeks. That's assuming the mast doesn't need to come down. At $400 a day for a bargin basement crew to sail it, any rate under $10 a mile is cheaper.

And that assumes the whole St Joesph River is navigable to a masted boat.

 

You have to take it down anyway. All it takes is one crewman to handle motoring a boat through canals/rivers. Just need steering and motor with fenders out at all times for docking/locks. It's going to be oversize on the road anyway. Just something to consider.

 

Should be ok with a regular lowboy since you have your own cradle

The boat movers have lowboys with extra bracing arms but on a 30' boat you shouldn't need much. Most of the weight is in the keel so make sure that's blocked/supported and strapped down. You could pull the keel but that adds a bunch of work on either end of the trip. Check and double check the height, even if you're ok I would take the cabin top winches off. I've heard of those getting sheared off more than once

 

I ended up taking my own advice with my own Catalina 30. Sailed it from Newburyport, Massachusetts to Lake Champlain over the course of 2 weeks. Lots of fun. I wonder how this guy's boat is doing.

 

Last summer though. Tacking up the Hudson river.

 

The problem with a boat sitting is if it gets water in the deck core or any wooden components they'll start to rot. There's also water ingress points through the mast even if it's covered. Has anybody actually been to it or in it? I saw a beautiful Pearson Flyer 30 somebody bought during covid and it had a foot of water in it.
Okay maybe not quite that much but a pond that was making the interior a toxic zone.

 

Okie dokie.