I have also just bought a boat and need some advice on getting it from it's current berth in Scarborough (Qld) to Gladstone.

Ideally I am looking for someone who could sail it with me on board for some of the way. My time is limited to weekends and I am not confident enough to sail her myself. I realise that wind direction is potentially severely limiting but I would like to try to avoid motoring if at all possible. That said I want to get her here by 22 December.

She is a 27 foot Junk Rigged displacement cat boat: http://m.yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/shannon-pocket-cruiser/120289

Have you got a quote for road transport?

Nice one mate! That's a lot of boat for the money, would make you weep if you were the one that built it. Steel hull, real wood cabinetry, lots of fruit (solar panels, etc).

I'm guessing putting it on a truck would be a bit of a mission as you'd have to drop the mast and looking at the pics I dare say it's not an easy thing to do.

I had a 23' Cole trailer sailer that I sailed from Brisbane to Cairns. Brilliant time, easy sailing as it's all down hill with the prevailing South Easterlies, only difference being, I quit my job to do it, so didn't really have any time constraints. If the weather was wrong I'd just stop in whichever pretty little cove or the lee of whichever little island I happened to be anchored at and waste another week or two of my life...

Just a thought but why don't you do up a flyer (seeking a skipper for the trip) and email it to the various yacht clubs in Brisbane/Gold Coast asking them if they can pin it up on their notice boards (RQYC, Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club, Sandgate, etc) . No doubt there's dozens of retired or just lazy, indolent, itinerants (like myself) lying about wondering what to do with themselves, that would jump at the idea.

Enjoy.

Oh, incidentally. I've had it in the back of my mind to - at some time in the future - buy a similar priced boat and take it over to New Caledonia. The place is magic for sailing, protected marine life, fringing reef, you can get on a free mooring just out of Noumea and kite surf day in and day out without a care in the world. Ce'st magnifique!!

Maybe www.findacrew.net/ ?

Good luck, I'm quietly jealous....

Thanks for the advice guys. Lachlan will give you a ring. Road transport is out, too much of a mission to take the mast down.

I was astounded at finding her. Had even gone as far as buying a set of plans to build one, not something I ever want to do. Ever since reading Annie Hill's Voyaging On A Low Income I have wanted a boat similar to her Badger and here she is!

And the great thing is that she is costing me a lot less than I budgeted for.

New Caledonia is definitely in my plans