
Issue #: 181
Published: January / February 2022
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Transporting yachts by cargo ship is something that’s grown considerably over the last ten years. The desire to deliver brand new multihulls to their owners all over the world has encouraged builders to transport their boats by ship. We were keen to find out a bit more about this form of yacht delivery, so set up a meeting back in October at the commercial port of La Pallice in La Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast.
As far as the sky and temperature are concerned, it looked like winter was already on its way. But on the docks, there looked to be no slackening of activity. We were welcomed on the deck of the MV Spuigracht. This imposing cargo ship flying the Dutch flag is 565 feet (172 meters) long and 84 feet (25.49 meters) in the beam. She is part of the Sevenstar Yacht Transport fleet. A few hours later, the ship was to set sail for Palm Beach, Florida. From there, some of the boats would be transhipped onto another cargo ship, bound for Australia and New Caledonia... But for the time being, Elodie Le Blevenec and Matthieu Le Bihan, managers of Sevenstar Yacht Transport France, were busy on the deck of the cargo ship, supervising an army of dockers, pilots, divers, technicians and other loading specialists. The latter had some 15 sailing boats (mostly catamarans) to precisely position and chock on the deck, along with a few motorboats, in the shortest possible time. A meeting in the heat of the action gave us an excellent way to discover the world of yacht shipping, an ever-evolving activity.
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