On Fri, 1 Feb 2008 14:16:54 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

On Feb 1, 8:45 am, Wayne.B wrote:
...[the] distance is around 12,000 miles. A
delivery crew is likey to cost at least $300 per day plus expenses
which will be considerable. And then there is the issue of wear and
tear on the boat, engine, rigging and sails which will also be
significant. Even if shipping costs are $30K it will still be cheaper
than on water delivery, and a lot less risky. ...

$2/mile plus expenses is a decent rule of thumb for long deliveries.
I suspect $30k isn't far off the mark. You'd really have to be in
love to pay that. However, I've run across a couple of families who
were doing deliveries in return for being allowed to take the time to
cruise along the route. I know that there were some disputes. Timing
and particularly how time spent doing repairs would be treated were
sore points in both cases. Also the routes involved were less
challenging and more attractive than Singapore - East Coast would
be... Nevertheless, just the right family might be out there to do
it, and the dollar price should be more reasonable.

-- Tom.

A friend here in Thailand was trying to sell his Bristol channel
Cutter some years ago and was communicating with a potential buyer who
asked whether the boat could be delivered to the west coast of the
U.S. I got involved in researching delivery possibilities.

The shortest route for delivery by sailing was from Thailand to
Singapore, north from Singapore to Taiwan/Japan and turn east straight
across the Pacific to California.

Shipping involved building a cradle and shipping either as deck cargo
or on a container ship. This turned out to be the cheapest method,
although a bit complex as the logistics of placing the boat in the
cradle and loading aboard the ship involved travel lifts in one
location and cranes at another plus hauling over public roads.

I did contact a company in Singapore that supposedly "specialized in
shipping boats" through a Singapore Chinese friend. He advised me that
the company appeared to have the capability but when it came to
getting an estimated cost the shipping company had basically asked
"how much will the client pay".

The upshot was that for a 10 year old Bristol Channel Cutter, in good
nick, with a survey stating that the boat was in satisfactory
condition and the only discrepancies noted were considered as fair
wear and tear, the all in cost of delivery to the U.S. was a deal
breaker as it nearly doubled the total cost to the buyer.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)