There are various options for taking a 40 foot trawler from Maine to our inland home in Kentucky. Our initial plan was to cruise her there by traveling down the east coast to catch the Hudson River at the foot of Manhattan island. From there we would simply be taking the northern half of the Great Loop as we worked our way around to meet the Ohio River, which is considered to be a Great Loop “side trip”… Read More
Date: November, 2016
Well as nice as that sounded, it turned out not to be doable that late in the season. Further investigation showed us that we’d be pretty much on our own while traveling the coast with marinas being winterized and temperatures dropping fast. So another option was considered which would be to pull HIPPOKAMPOS for the winter and and put her in covered storage on the hard in Portland, Maine. After pricing that out (ouch!) we briefly thought we could just make a reverse of the course we did in the spring from Portsmouth, New Hampshire and put her back in the boat barn where she hibernated for many of the northern winters. Again, the changing weather had us cancel that option, so we decided to go for broke (hopefully not literally) and have her trucked overland 1,100 miles.
To prepare for the journey, and as quotes were coming in, we had to go an extra length to winterize HIPPOKAMPOS for the season. This meant that, besides the usual systems preparations, we had to make her road-worthy so she could meet the bridge clearance requirements. Everything above the boat deck and pilothouse top had to be removed, including all stanchions, railings, nav lights, antennas, etc. along with the signal mast and dinghy. The only items left were the stanchion mounts screwed into the cabin roof. We loaded the dinghy on the roof of our car and everything else fit inside the cabin.
After all was done, HIPPOKAMPOS measured 12.6 ft from the tip-top of the pilothouse to the base of the keel below it. The keel was deeper aft but, assuming the keel rested flush to the trailer with bow down, we assumed this to be the max height dimension. It actually turned out to be about a foot less than what was quoted, which was 13.6 ft. Even then, the driver had to take numerous off-on ramps to avoid a couple of underpasses in New England. Except for the unexpected $945 fee paid to the Connecticut state troopers for the privilege of being escorted across their state the road trip went well. Our driver with Seven Seas Transport kept us very informed by sending text messages and photos of his progress. HIPPOKAMPOS was home.