Every year thousands of Australian boats change state. Owners retire north, brokers sell a vessel to a buyer in another capital, charter fleets reposition for the season, and yards send vessels interstate for a refit that cannot be done locally. There are only three ways to do it — under her own power with a delivery crew, on a truck, or as deck cargo on a ship — and the right answer changes with the vessel, the distance, the season and the owner's appetite for risk. This is the comparison we run for clients, including the cost drivers that never appear in a headline quote and the two pieces of paperwork that decide who pays if the vessel arrives damaged.
Option one: on her own bottom with a delivery skipper
A delivery passage puts a ticketed skipper and, depending on the leg, one to three crew aboard and takes the vessel to her destination by sea. It is the natural choice for a vessel that is already in commission, holds current safety gear, and is making a coastal run: Sydney to the Gold Coast, Brisbane to the Whitsundays, Melbourne to Sydney, Perth to Geraldton.
The cost is built from crew day rates for every person aboard, from the day they travel to the day they get home; fuel at the vessel's actual passage burn, not the brochure figure; victualling; marina and fuel wharf fees along the route; delivery insurance or an endorsement on the owner's policy; and crew flights and accommodation at both ends. Weather stand-by is the wildcard. A skipper sitting in Coffs Harbour waiting three days for a southerly to blow through is still on pay, and any operator who tells you otherwise has hidden it somewhere else.
- Best for vessels in survey or in current commission, on coastal legs, when the owner wants sea hours and systems tested.
- Adds genuine value: a good delivery skipper hands back a written list of every fault the passage exposed. That list is worth money.
- Main risks: weather delay, fatigue management on long legs, and hull policies that exclude paid delivery crew.
Option two: road haulage
Road is the default for trailerable boats and for anything that is not passage-ready. Above roughly 4.5 metres of beam or 4.6 metres of overall height on the trailer, the load becomes oversize and the job changes character: route surveys, pilot and escort vehicles, state permits, curfews on some corridors, and in some cases police escort. That is where the price steps up, and it steps up per state crossed.
The cost is built from the haulier's kilometre rate, the lift in and lift out at each end (travel lift, crane or slipway), cradle hire or fabrication, mast unstepping and re-stepping for sailing vessels, oversize permits and escorts, and any yard storage while the vessel waits for the truck. Two lifts and a cradle can easily equal a third of the total on a short interstate move, which is why a Sydney to Brisbane road job is often no cheaper than sending her by sea, while a Sydney to Perth job is dramatically cheaper by road.
- Best for vessels out of commission, undergoing sale, or crossing the Bight, and for anything the owner does not want putting sea miles on.
- Check the haulier carries marine transit cover, not just general goods in transit. The two are not the same and the difference is the hull.
- Book the lifts before the truck. Travel lift availability, not road freight, is what usually sets the date.
Option three: coastal shipping and deck cargo
For very large vessels, or for runs to Tasmania, Darwin and the north-west, deck cargo on a coastal service or a dedicated yacht transport ship is the sensible option. It is priced by cubic metre or lift weight, runs to a fixed schedule with limited sailings, and requires the vessel to be prepared to the carrier's specification — masts down, cradles engineered and certified, tanks at nominated levels, loose gear removed.
It is the most expensive per kilometre and the least flexible, and for the right vessel it is still the cheapest total cost because it eliminates crew, fuel, weather risk and sea miles in one stroke.
The insurance clause that catches owners out
Most Australian pleasure craft hull policies are written on the assumption that the owner or a named skipper is aboard, in defined cruising waters, in defined seasons. The moment you put a paid delivery crew aboard, or move outside the navigational limits, or transit during a nominated cyclone period, cover can fall away entirely. Owners discover this after an incident, which is the worst possible time.
Before any movement, get three things in writing from the insurer or broker: that a paid delivery crew is covered, that the intended route and dates sit inside the navigational limits and any seasonal exclusion, and what the deductible is for a transit claim. If the answer to any of them is uncomfortable, buy a specific delivery policy for the passage. It costs a fraction of what the argument costs.
Handover paperwork: how to make a dispute impossible
Nearly every boat transport dispute in this country comes down to one question that nobody can answer: was that damage there before? Two documents settle it permanently, and both take under an hour.
- A condition report at pickup — dated, photographed inside and out, hull, topsides, running gear, electronics, tender, gear inventory, fuel and water levels, engine hours, and every existing mark noted. Signed by whoever hands over and whoever receives.
- A matching condition report at delivery, taken in the same order, with the same photographs, and signed the same way.
- In between: a written passage plan or route plan, daily position or location reports, and a fault log. If you cannot see where the vessel is, you are not managing the movement, you are hoping.
Which one should you choose?
Short version: if the vessel is in commission and the leg is coastal and under a few hundred miles, put a skipper aboard and get the sea trial for free. If she is out of survey, laid up, mid-sale or heading across the country, put her on a truck and pay proper attention to the lifts and the cradle. If she is very large or heading somewhere with no practical road, ship her.
Whichever you choose, engage one party who owns the whole movement. The expensive failures in boat transport are almost never the passage or the drive — they are the seams between the yard, the haulier, the crane and the marina, where everybody assumed somebody else had it.
Send us the vessel details, where she is and where she needs to be. We will price the passage, the road option and the lifts side by side so you can see the real numbers before you commit.
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