Hello Brian,

I shipped my kayak when I moved to the Virgin Islands. It was stripped but not yet finished, so it was still on the strongback. I had them load it on top of all my furniture and household goods, which went into a 53 foot trailer. I wrapped it in plastic to protect it since it was not yet 'glassed. It arrived without a scratch. Of course I had the whole container to myself and I got to watch them load it. (Also I bought them pizza as a goodwill gesture... a little pizza goes a long way to ensuring your stuff gets loaded right.) I cannot tell you how much it cost because it was moved along with all my household goods and vehicles.

I can tell you that it's not as bad as you might think. The problem is they are going to charge you a dimensional weight. For instance, your kayak weighs around 50 lbs, but it's taking up a lot of space, so they are going to charge you a dimensional weight equal to length x width x height at the largest points, and then divide that by a factor (usually 190 for dimensions in inches) to get the dimensional weight. This will charge you an average weight for the volume you are shipping.

Tropical Shipping is a good place to start. You can also do an internet search for freight forwarders and see what you come up with. I work for an express air delivery company, but your kayak would be too large to ship at a reasonable rate. Boat is the best way.

I can, however, give you some pointers on what to watch out for:

1.) Customs can be a nightmare. If your kayak is wood, for instance, there may be special requirements for things made of wood, i.e. either more forms to fill out, or a certification that it does not contain bugs. Also there will be duties and taxes to consider. If you shipped a vehicle to Santo Domingo, for example, the tax is 200% of the value of the vehicle!!! Yep, that's why they all ride motorcycles. The country you ship to may have special tarrifs on boats, personal watercraft, etc. Any good freight forwarder should be able to give you the info up front, BUT.. there is never any telling what customs will charge until the boat is delivered and all duties are assessed.

2.) Security. I won't mention any countries by name, but some countries' customs has been known to take items. Now I doubt they would cart off a kayak, but you never know. It could get stolen from the shipping dock or from the boat itself. One of the crew may be a kayaker and say "hey, I think I'll take this." It is common in shipping vehicles to have them arrive smelling of cigarette smoke and the battery dead and your CD's missing. Why? Because your car was being used as the break room on its way to its destination, and your CD player supplied the entertainment... and the CD's of course were kept.

3.) Shipping it BACK to the US could pose more problems. US Customs has a form called an AGR3311 (American Goods Return.) This form states that you are shipping something out of the US for a short period of time that will be shipped back to the US unmodified. In other words, it's not an unfinished good that you are shipping out to be completed or upgraded in another country. The AGR has to be stamped by customs before leaving, and will accompany the goods when being cleared for return to the US.

4.) There will, of course, need to be a shipping address, or perhaps you can get the freight forwarder to hold it for you, but you still will need to ensure that they are not going to charge you each day they hold it, which is common in the freight industry.

5.) Definately don't put your gear in the kayak. It would be easy to steal the gear out of it. Make sure you insure the kayak for what it is worth, and get an appraisal before you ship it as proof of value. They will charge extra for the insurance, but it's not a whole lot.

6.) Try to hand deliver the kayak to the freight forwarder and ask that you can see it being loaded on the container. You can ask that they load it on the very top of all the other stuff that will be in the container. A container is 48 to 53 feet long, so they are not going to just put your kayak in it alone. You can rent an entire container, but even then don't be so sure that they are not going to try to cram something else in with it. They make money the more they can ship. You would be best to build a crate for your kayak from 2x4's and plywood, but make it where customs can easily open it to inspect it. That will save a lot of trouble. The more trouble customs has to go through to inspect it, the more scrutinizing they will be once they get in. Don't lock any deck hatches or anything. They may just cut the lock, or worse damage the kayak to get them open.

7.) Once you get it to Point B, make sure you have a way to pick it up. Can you rent a car there? For instance, in Bermuda you cannot rent a car, only a moped. There are very strict laws governing vehicles, and only one vehicle is allowed per household, and renting vehicles is not allowed by law. Of course the good news in Bermuda would be that you could paddle from the shipping dock to wherever you were going, but I'm just making an example here. Many of the Caribbean islands have restrictions like this due to the size of the island and its limit to how many vehicles it can accomodate. You may be required to register your vessell, such as in the British Virgin Islands, and will be limited to the ammount of time you can stay with it in the country. If you exceed that time in the BVI they confiscate your vessel and hit you with a $10,000 fine. (I live 20 min from Tortola, but I have to register every time I go there.)

8.) Well, that was all the bad, now the good news is that a good freight forwarder should be able to take care of all the paperwork for you and will offer you insurance. You can also work a deal with them if they can cram it in with other items going the same way. Your cheapest bet is to transport it to a shipping dock like NY, Norfolk, Boston, Miami, or other major port. It will save money, and save your boat from getting bounced from ship to ship. I don't know for sure, but don't be surprised if you can ship it for a few hundred bucks, or even less, which to me would be worth it to paddle my own wood kayak rather than a plastic rental... yuck.

Hope this helps. Just watch out for that Loch Ness monster!

-Malcolm