Should you truck her, or hire a captain to run her down?
Two ways to get a boat from the Northeast to Florida, and they are not close substitutes. Beam usually decides which one is even on the table.
Trucking puts the boat on a trailer and drives her down in about three days. Hiring a delivery captain puts a licensed skipper aboard and runs her south on her own bottom, offshore or down the Intracoastal, over days to a couple of weeks. One is a road move with permits; the other is a passage with weather. Owners often assume it is a price question. It is really a boat question first.
What actually decides it
The first filter is beam. A boat inside the trucking envelope can go either way, and then it is down to time, cost and taste. A wide boat, the kind that pulls heavy oversize permits and escorts, often gets run down instead, because past a certain width the road move stops being the cheaper or simpler one. The second filter is what you want out of it: trucking is hours off the water, a captain is hours put on the engine and the hull, a shakedown some owners want and others would rather avoid.
What each one really involves
- About three days on the road each way in the fall, fast and weather-proof
- No sea miles, no engine hours, no offshore risk
- But: oversize permits in every state, escorts where the beam needs them, a fixed route
- Haul-out and launch at both ends, and a yard slot booked at each
- Best for boats inside the road envelope and owners who want zero wear added
- A licensed captain takes her south on her own bottom, offshore or down the ICW
- No permits, no haul-out, no trailer, she goes the way she was built to
- But: days to a couple of weeks, weather windows, fuel, dockage and crew
- Engine hours and sea time added, a real shakedown, for better or worse
- Often the answer for a wide hull, or an owner who wants her run and checked over
How a delivery captain charges
There is no sticker price, because a delivery is a day-rate job with a tail of expenses, not a flat fare. A captain quotes a rate for their days aboard, then the passage costs sit on top: fuel, dockage or a mooring on the overnights, crew if the boat needs a second hand, provisions, and the flights home at the end. Weather days count, a captain sitting out a blow is still a day of the delivery.
That is why two honest quotes can look far apart: one may be all-in and one may be the day rate alone. Ask each captain to price it the same way, days aboard, plus a fair estimate of the passage costs, and the comparison gets real. The cost planner lets you lay a road move and a run down next to each other on your own numbers.
Every line in a delivery, with typical ranges and the two that owners forget until the invoice, is worked through in what a delivery captain costs.
What to check on a captain
- The licence, and the tonnage on it. A delivery skipper holds a current Coast Guard credential, a Master or OUPV ticket, and it is rated for a tonnage and a range. Make sure the ticket covers your boat and the water the passage crosses.
- Route experience, not just sea time. Offshore from the Northeast to Florida and threading the Intracoastal are different jobs. Ask how many times they have run your route, the way you mean to send her.
- Insurance, both theirs and yours. Confirm the captain carries their own cover, and call your underwriter: a hired skipper and an offshore passage can both touch your policy’s navigational and hurricane limits. Settle it before she leaves the dock.
- References you can actually call. A captain who runs deliveries has owners who will vouch for them. Ring two.
On this site a captain’s ticket is the one thing checked by hand and marked on the card. Everything else on their listing is their own word until you confirm it, so confirm it.
See who runs boats down
Licensed captains working the Northeast to Florida corridor this season, filtered by where they are and which window they work. See the captains.
Price both ways
Lay a road move and a run down side by side on your own route and dates. Open the cost planner.
When to book either one
Both runs cluster into a few weeks, and the spring trip has a hard deadline. Read the timing guide.