I shipped my kayaks from Los Angeles to Philippines in a shipping container. I also shipped all my other worldly possessions at the same time. There was no crating involved for the boats. I just put them on top of everything else with a little padding here and there. I had lots of room left over and could have taken another dozen kayaks.

Of course you do not want to rent a container to Italy for $2000-3000, but you might want to check places like Craig's List and see if anyone else has a container going to Italy with a little extra room for your kayak.

~Bob

: Hi all,
: Apologies for the cross posting (also on qajaqusa). I'm currently
: building an F1 with Cape Falcon kayaks in Oregon, having come
: over from Italy for the workshop. I didn't think getting it back
: to Naples would be difficult but the frieight companies I've
: contacted are telling me that at 14 ft it's too long to air
: frieight and that they also can't ship by sea anything less than
: 200lbs and that anyway they only ship commercial goods by sea eg
: fedex, dhl. I'm hoping a kayak manufacturer can help out but if
: anyone has any other ideas they'd be much appreciated!
: Thanks in anticipation
: Simon