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Boat Transport Tips for Riders Accompanying Their Vessel

Many people choose to accompany their vessels onboard our Dockwise Yacht Transport carriers, and oftentimes there are questions that arise regarding trip details. As a convenience to our fantastic customers, we have compiled information received from Chief Engineer Dan McKenna regarding his boat transport experience.

The information below reflects Mr. McKenna’s personal experience, and we invite you to draw on his observations as you prepare to accompany your vessel onboard one of our exceptional yacht transport carriers.

What to Expect Onboard a Dockwise Yacht Transport Carrier

Water

• Fresh water is provided during boat transport, but restrictions could be enforced depending on consumption and tank levels.

Hoses and Hook-ups

• Get hooked up early! As soon as the deck is dry, set up a ladder and start getting your supply and discharge hoses together. Please note: you are only allowed to board your yacht via ladder when the vessel’s crew has secured and approved arrangement.
• Yachts are responsible for supplying their own hoses. The connections on board are 1½”, 2” or 2 ½”.
• Bring lots of gray nylon hose fittings, especially 1.5” and 2” (will vary with yacht transport carrier size & type). Sometimes you can thread a fitting into a discharge (using duct tape like Teflon tape) and sometimes you pound a hose barb in. They have a variety of hose sizes but length is sometimes a problem so joining 2 or 3 together may be required.
• Lots of clamps come in handy too. Larger is better. No cam locks or other quick disconnects are available.
• Open a sea chest if possible so flooding the boat with a broken hose or connection cannot occur. This happens occasionally to some.

Power

• There are no plug-in connections so you must remove your cord ends. They cut your cord to fit, so a pigtail connection with bare ends would come in handy.

Keeping it Clean

• Riders are responsible for washing the yacht they are on. DYT provides a pressure washer on a first-come, first-served basis.
• The main engine exhausts are all the way aft while the gens are on top of the house. We did not see the soot often reported during boat transport, but there is some smoky residue that collected on the smaller boats with no crew to wash down. Vessel’s crew washes boats without riders on a regular basis.
• Be prepared to separate your trash.

Time Changes

• The time advances every other day by one hour. This causes some sleep problems as well as the missing of meal times. It’s best to set the clock to keep up with local time and live by it. Otherwise you end up at the end of the trip with jet lag. Tylenol PMs would sure help.

Dining, Drinking, and Entertainment

• Breakfast was at 7:30; lunch at 12:30 and dinner at 6. The meals were good, there was hot food, and lunch seemed to be the best to me.
• There is a bar on the ship and up to 4 beers a day are complementary. On my trip in mostly San Miguel and occasionally Becks were offered. No wine or hard liquor that I saw, so bring your own.
• They had a big BBQ about halfway across and everyone attended. There was a great variety of food, drinks, music and dancing.
• They set up a homemade swimming pool on deck for our trip, and the riders and ship’s crew used it a lot.
• They offer engine room tours of the ship; usually in a group.

Dress for the Weather

• We left for Palma from FLL on June 1, and it was hot and humid in Florida. By the time we got to the other side the nights on board had gotten quite cool (60’s). A sweatshirt or a jacket can come in handy.

Miscellaneous Tips

• They do have a satellite phone on the bridge available during the yacht transport for $1.70 per min. This fee is collected in cash before the ship docks. Get a receipt.
• Nothing is allowed to be discharged on the deck of the yacht transport carrier.
• The weather was great for the crossing and seas were calm. One to three feet was about the worst we saw with a long swell at times. However, the boat still got salty, so be prepared to wash down every other day.

The information, observations and opinions provided above are from Dan McKenna’s personal experience only. Dockwise Yacht Transport encourages each rider to carefully follow the Rider Guidelines, as well as attend the riders’ orientation meeting on board the vessel prior to departure, to familiarize themselves with procedures on board during the trip.

Dockwise Yacht Transport works hard to make your boat transport experience as enjoyable and stress-free as possible. We look forward to serving you! If you have any questions or require further assistance, please feel free to contact one of our helpful representatives today.