As you might already know, buying a yacht from abroad is a very different operation and involves several additional steps than buying a yacht locally. Some of these differences include dealing with a series of export and import regulations and with the custom’s paperwork required by all the involved countries, all of which can be extremely cumbersome and time consuming processes.
Another additional step that you should take into consideration, and which is just as important, is the actual shipping/transportation process of the yacht in question. This process includes the proper wrapping and careful loading of the yacht onto the cargo vessel for transport, and the choosing of the transport method as well.
Now, two transport methods considered quite opposite in nature are the direct and the transshipment yacht transport methods, and each of them has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, which we explain below briefly.
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Direct Transport: As its name states, the direct yacht transport method involves transporting the yacht in question directly to the customer and thus, involves the least amount of stops and transfers from ship to ship. Obviously the most convenient aspect of this yacht transport method is the speed with which the yacht arrives to its final destination but, due to the very same promptness with which the yacht is delivered, this method also involves a higher cost for the customer.
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Transshipment Yacht Transport: Transshipment can be an ambiguous concept and it will vary heavily depending on the port at which it occurs, but it generally involves the offloading, temporary storage and later loading of the yacht for it to resume its journey towards the country of destination. This method generally involves a lot of extra waiting time for the customer, who can end up waiting for up to entire months. Also, another aspect that many fail to consider is that due to the more handling suffered by the ship caused by the increased loading and offloading procedures that it undergoes, the possibility that yachts might suffer some kind of damage greatly increases. But of course, the most appealing advantage of this method, is that it can cost less for the customer.
As we have seen above, each of these different yacht shipping methods has their own set of pros and cons. And, while it is safe to always recommend the direct yacht shipping method, the only way to make a really good decision (one that optimizes between cost and the safe arrival of the ship) is to consider the particular factors of each shipping scenario, but always listening to the advice from companies that have more experience in the matter.