After months of vague to detailed discussion, planning, and the owner's eventual purchase of Shields #9 in Mystic, CT, things started to come together and required transporting the boat to my shop in Maine.

With an eventual need to transport the completed boat cross country, to Washington state, the owner was faced with the difficult realities of the cost of transportation.  Even hiring a boat transporter to bring the boat from Connecticut to Maine was going to be costly, never mind the cost of a several thousand mile trip across the land.  With all these factors in mind, he eventually decided to have a new trailer built for the boat; despite the relatively high cost of the trailer, it would probably end up amortizing out effectively against the cost of professional transport--with the added asset of having the trailer afterwards.

I agreed to help with the transport, and once the new trailer was complete, made plans to drive to Western Connecticut to pick up the new trailer at Triad Trailers in New Milford, and then back across the state to Mystic to pick up the boat at the boatyard where she was stored.

In one long day, I completed the journey without incident.  The trailer was ready when I arrived, and the turnaround at Triad was admirably short.  I experienced no significant traffic delays, and the boatyard in Mystic was relatively efficient at loading the boat onto the trailer with their Travelift.  Once the boat was on the trailer, and the mast on deck, I carefully secured the mast and  boat with straps as required, and returned to the shop in Maine.

I neglected to bring my camera on the delivery trip, so these photos show the boat the next morning after arrival at the shop.

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