New Member

Just bought a 2005 Marlin 300 (Yamaha 250's and diesel Panda) and trailer from Beacon Light Marina in Baltimore, MD. They have a wonderful bunch of folks there who are customer oriented and they make buying a Grady from them a pleasure. What makes this unusual is we travelled from Vancouver Island to Baltimore (5800 mile round trip) to check the boat out and ultimately buy it. We expect it to be shrink wrapped and shipped to Vancouver Island around the end of June. Why would we do this? Well there are very few Marlin 300's for sale on the west coast.

Beacon Light crew moving boat for survey haul out:



On the hard for bottom painting prior to shipping:



This will be somewhat of a downsizing from our current SeaRay 480 Sedan Bridge, but it should be fun.

No Bail said:

Last Chance, I think that is the boat I called about, had just sold. I'm another West Coaster that found a Marlin, I ended getting a 2007 and it should arrive by Saturday. Perhaps I'll see you in the years ahead as I travel up the Island Coast, after crossing from Port Angeles.

Randy
2007 Marlin 300 w/twin 250's, "Meanwhile"

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Beacon Light has another Marlin just coming on the market; a 2004 300 with virtually new Yamaha 300's. I heard it will list for about $120K.

We will be heading to Desolation Sound likely mid July. Maybe see you up there.

Angler Management said:

Congrats! I just bought my Marlin in early May from Ballast Point Yacht sales in San Diego. Andrew there has a nice little business shipping boats out from the East Coast to fill the West Coast need. I ended up driving I-5 to go get it due to a delay in finding inexpensive transport that could deliver by Memorial Day. I wanted it bad!

Can't wait to run into you guys out and about this summer to swap notes. I'll be leaving Port Hardy for a ten day trip to Hakai and Rivers Inlet on July 31, then to Bamfield Aug 20-24.

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Look forward to it. In Desolation in August. Sent you a pm regarding you watermaker.

John

From Coast to Coast

To get our boat home from Baltimore to Vancouver Island, we used UShip and secured a bid from a shipper. I must say the UShip process is a little daunting for a first time user, in that you are trusting someone you don't know to grab your $100K boat and trailer, hoping it will arrive (at all) and in good shape. While the process is driven by price, a lot of your decision to commit is based on the references provided for your potential shipper. Well, our guy did not disappoint. He picked the boat up in Baltimore Monday morning and we met him near Bellingham WA at 8:00 am Friday morning at a rest stop on I-5. The boat arrived in excellent condition and the shrink wrap had a lot to do with it. We would take the rig from Bellingham, cross the border into British Columbia for taxes and catch the ferry to Vancouver Island. Here are a few pics:

Exchange at the I-5 rest stop:



Ferry lineup:



Home at last:



Driveway virtually taken over:



The rig was 59 feet:



Unwrapped:



I can't say enough about Chris Pine and his crew at Beacon Light Marina in the way they prepped the boat & trailer for shipping. I also would not hesitate to recommend Sean C. Becker to haul a boat from coast to coast.

Now the fun begins, prepping the boat for holidays.

Angler Management said:

Congrats!!! Looks great!

Nice Duramax too. Perfect.

A few questions since I know you'll be checking this thread less and less as the boat gets used. I'm trailering up island from Bellingham in August.

Which border crossing did you choose? Truck crossing? Boat fit fine through the lane?

I've been told I can't get a wide load permit until two weeks before the trip. Was that your experience?

Any problem with the ferry? We have a reservation. How long was the load?

Again congratulations! Mine is getting the last few kinks worked out and then it's play play play! See you on the water!

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Used the Pacific truck crossing, using the lane next to the big rigs (commercial) lane. No problem with clearances, although they parked us in an area for customs which we later had to back out of (they stopped traffic for us).

I got a 3 day WA state wide load permit ($10) about a week in advance. Also got a BC 2 month overwidth term permit ($30/mo). Both permits done online. We took the Tsawwassen to Duke Point (Nanaimo) ferry with no reservation. I wasn't interested in travelling through Victoria and the Malahat. Rig was 59 feet, about $300 with driver & 1 passenger.

Angler Management said:

Sounds a bought right.

Why did they pull you over at customs? New boat/transfer of ownership questions? Did they tear the boat apart?

Many crossings with a boat, knock on wood never asked to pull over.

Congrats! See you around. 30 days till I make the same trip!

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Border stop for two reasons:

Sales taxes to be paid on imported boat & trailer (12%)
RIV (registrar of imported vehicles), a lot of paperwork to get approval on "imported" trailer, same process a importing a car. Safety recall check and a $200 inspection. Our tax dollars at work.

They never even looked at the boat.