Somebody to move
your boat.
Or a boat to move.
Your boat moves twice a year and so does everyone else’s, inside the same three weeks. This is where boat owners, CDL drivers and licensed captains find each other before the window opens instead of during it.
✓ No account to make ✓ No fee, no commission ✓ Your number stays private until you say yes
Two runs a year and both are short. South in October and November, north again before hurricane season opens on 1 June.
What you can count on
Nothing to sign up for
No account, no password, no card. You get a private link and that link is the whole of it.
Nobody’s number is published
You ask, they decide. Say yes and you each get the other’s email and phone at the same moment. Say no and nothing of yours goes anywhere.
Authority checked, and dated
Where a carrier’s USDOT has been checked against the public federal record the card says so and says when. Where it has not, it says that instead.
A real person reads it
Run by Anthony Congelos, one person, out in the open. No queue, no ticket number.
Three steps, and no account at any of them
Say what you have
A boat, two dates and where she sits. Or a truck and the weeks you are free. About a minute, and you get a private link to change it or take yourself off whenever you like.
Ask, or get asked
Read who is working your window and fill in the short form on their card. The move and your first name is all they see, and all they get.
They answer, and you talk
One click is the whole decision. Yes, and you each get the other’s details at the same moment and settle the rate between you. Nothing moves through us.
Three ways a boat gets south
Find a driver
You hold the permit and the truck and need somebody to make the trip. Read through the drivers working this corridor, ask the one who suits, and agree the rate directly with them.
Find a transporter
No truck, no trailer, no wish to pull permits. A carrier with their own equipment and authority quotes the whole job. Their USDOT is the one thing here that can be verified rather than claimed.
Find a captain
For boats better run down than trucked. Captains list the windows they are free. You settle the insurance between you, most underwriters want the captain named on the owner’s policy.
Not sure which? Beam usually decides it, and the trip planner will price both.
Eight weeks of work, in a row, on one road
The shortage is not a shortage. It is twenty owners in the same few towns ringing the same handful of drivers inside the same fortnight, because the weather and the insurance calendar move everybody at once. They are all looking, and most of them cannot find you.
- Free, and it stays free. No fee, no commission, no cut of the job, and no card at any point. Nothing moves through this site, so there is nothing to take.
- Your number is not published. Owners ask, you decide, one click. Say no and they are told only that you passed.
- You pick the windows. Say which weeks you are free and which beams you can take, and you only hear about moves that fit.
- Runs that line up. Four owners leaving the same water the same week is four jobs and one deadhead home, which is the whole economics of this corridor.
- Carriers: put your USDOT up and it gets checked against the public federal record, with the date on the card. That is worth more here than any pitch.
Day counts are calculated from sunrise and sunset along the corridor, not estimated. Run your own dates.
Both runs are short, and they are the same weeks for everybody
Drivers commit their windows before the run, not during it: the fall by the end of August, the spring by the end of February. After that you are competing with your neighbours for one person’s October.
Most of it you can work out yourself
Free, no account, and nothing you type into any of them is sent anywhere. The route planner does remember the roads you have marked to steer clear of, and that list stays in your own browser and reaches nobody, including us. Worth using whether or not you ever find anybody through this site.
Six things that decide how it goes
None of this is difficult. Every one of them costs money or a week if you find it out late.
Beam sets the price
Measured at the widest thing on her, rubrail and all, not the brochure figure. Over 8 feet 6 inches needs an oversize permit in every state on the route, which is most cruising boats past about twenty-eight feet. Past roughly twelve feet, an escort as well. What permits govern.
Height stops more moves than width
13 feet 6 inches from the road surface to the highest fixed point, measured on the trailer she will travel on. A radar arch, a tower or a tall antenna will put an ordinary boat over it, and those come off in the yard, not on the morning with the truck waiting.
Ring your insurer first
This is the one that catches people. Many boat policies exclude her entirely on a commercial hauler, and several that cover it cap the cover at 200, 300 or 500 miles from your home port. This corridor is over a thousand. And if it is your own truck.
The yard is a separate booking
The driver does not haul her out, block her or strap her down. The travel lift does, at both ends, and the yard’s diary fills in the same fortnight the drivers’ do. Book the lift and the driver together or you will end up holding one without the other.
Strip her before the truck comes
Canvas, screens, covers, antennas, radar and flag masts all come off: at highway speed anything that can flap will tear itself and then the boat. Bilge dry and the plug out, batteries disconnected, tanks low. Loose gear below and stowed.
A date is a plan, not a promise
Wide loads move in daylight only, permits are per state and dated, and some states shut to oversize traffic at weekends and around holidays. Agree up front who pays for a day sat out for weather. When to go.
Questions worth asking
I have never moved a boat. What do I decide first?
Two things, and everything else follows from them. Does she go on a truck or on her own bottom? A boat that can make the passage safely and an owner who is not in a hurry often does better with a captain; a boat on a cradle, a boat that would rather not put the hours on, or anything in a real hurry goes on a truck. Then: whose truck? If you already own the rig and the trailer you need a driver. If you do not, you want a transporter who brings their own and pulls the permits, and you never touch the paperwork. The trip planner will tell you what the road version costs you in days before you decide.
How do I measure her, and does it have to be exact?
Widest point across including the rubrail and anything bolted on, and height from the ground to the top of the highest fixed thing with her on the trailer she will travel on. And yes, it has to be right: the permit is written from your figures, and a load that turns out wider or taller than its permit gets stopped at a scale, not waved through. If you are guessing, the yard that hauls her can measure her properly in five minutes. That call is the cheapest part of the whole move.
Does my insurance cover her while she is on a truck?
Do not assume so. A good many boat policies exclude the boat while it is being moved by a commercial hauler, and several that do cover it cap the cover at a radius from your home port, 200, 300 and 500 miles are all common limits, and this corridor is over a thousand. Ask your underwriter in writing whether she is covered on a truck and out to what distance, then ask whoever moves her what their cargo cover pays and what it excludes. Two emails, before you book anybody.
Do I have to be there when she goes?
Somebody does, at both ends, you, the yard, or somebody you trust to sign for her condition. Photograph her all the way round before she is loaded and again when she lands, including the hull sides, the running gear and anything already marked. That is the entire dispute process in this trade, and the people who do it never need it.
What if the weather or a permit moves the date?
It will move, and that is normal rather than a sign something has gone wrong. Wide loads travel in daylight only, permits are dated and per-state, and some states shut to oversize traffic at weekends and around holidays. Build a few days of slack in at your end and agree up front what happens if she is held, who pays for the yard days, and who decides to wait. Agreeing that when everyone is cheerful is much easier than agreeing it on the third wet morning.
Who is insured while my truck is on the road?
Your policy, your truck, your permit, so cover has to come from your side, and whether it extends to a hired driver who is not your employee depends on how the policy is written. Settle that with your agent in writing before anyone drives your rig. Seasonal Run is not a party to it. More on this.
How do I actually reach someone on the list?
You ask, and they decide. Fill in the short form on their card, the move, and your first name. That is all they see. If they say yes, you each get the other’s email and phone at the same moment. If they say no, nothing of yours goes anywhere and nobody is told anything except that they passed. Nobody’s contact details are published on this site, which is the point: a driver’s phone number is not a thing to leave lying about for every scraper on the internet.
Do I have to make an account?
No, and there isn’t one to make. When you ask somebody, you get a private link back, that link is how you see their answer, so keep it. Same for them: they get a link, and one click on it is the whole decision. No password to forget.
Do you handle the money?
No. Rates, deposits and payment are between the owner and whoever they hire. Seasonal Run is where you find each other and work out the trip, nothing moves through us.
My boat is 12 feet on the beam. Is that a problem?
It is over the legal width in every state, which is why the trip needs permits and, on some routes, escorts. It is not unusual and it is not an obstacle. It does mean daylight-only travel, a fixed route, and a trip that takes a day longer in November than in May. More on this.
Can I use the driver I have used before?
Of course. Ask them to put their name up so you can both work the same schedule, or just use the trip planner and carry on as you were.
How far ahead should I book?
Fall run, by the end of August. Spring, by the end of February. That is when the drivers commit their windows, and after that you are competing with your neighbours.
Takes about a minute. You get a private link to change it or take yourself off, whenever you like.