Given the number of people on here who have sailed internationally I thought it might be the place to ask....

Does anyone know what it would cost to put a 14 foot boat in a container and ship it to Australia?  If you were wondering, I think I am considering one of the 1000ish quid boats on the for sale list that will never be competitive at home but will be far nicer than any of the outdated crap that gets sailed here....  Thoughts please?

You need a class active in both places. Try asking on an OK Dinghy Forum; Aus/NZ contingents are strong and containers of OK's get shipped whenever the Worlds are in S hemisphere.

Hi Jon

I think it cost a bit under about £1K/boat to ship I think 10 OKs to Australia & back.
We did our unloading and loading so the rate may be a bit more including that and for a bespoke delivery

Hope that helps
Nick

Thanks both,

Believe it or not, Nick's suggestion has led me to discover that RS200s are now being raced over here which is a great result because there are no decent double handed non-trapeze boats over here.  I may pop down to Black Rock on the weekend and see how many are there and maybe start the campaign to get my other half over the line.  Hurrah, sailing :)

Not that I know anything about them other than that they don't have a spinnaker but what's wrong with the NS14?  Looks like it has developed like a 14 foot National 12???

Hi Jon,

If you are going down to Blackrock see if you can find Graham (TOM) Pearce. He emigrated a few years back and shipped his boats and car out. I think he also has connections with RS and does some stuff for them. Tom is an X- N12 and Merlin man and is bound to have some good information and advice. Say hi from me if you see him.
Dave C

It depends on how you ship it & who you work with. You might check a1autotransport.com, if only to get an idea of what they charge. They tell you the price up front and, at the very least, you can use that to get an idea of the range and compare it to others. (They're based out of the U.S., but I've used them before with not complaints locally). 

 The B14s are at Garda in June may have room in Aus container to ship a boat back at a good price if you can get it to Italy?
Try their forum at B14.org
 

 Jon, further to Piers post, the Aussie contingent are bringing 1 x 40 ft and 1 x 20 ft containers from Australia. Loading etc was carried out in Tasmania. However, as bringing out 15 boats to Garda, believe the 2 are full. We have a Skype conference tonight and can ask, but believe I already know the answer
 
Probably the best option would be the 505s as they have their Worlds in Weymouth in July and boats are of a similar size and believe they would only get 6 per 40 ft. container. That would be my first choice and they probably will be loading not far from Black Rock
 
The Carnet (Customs duty document) may be an issue, but you can sort that with time prior to shipping 
 

 Jon,
 
 Adding to Barnsie's point about the Carnet, I recall (from the wife watching the program on Aussie Customs too many times) that there could be an issue for you with a wooden boat and the import regulations on them, due to disease control, so I would check that out as well beforehand.