Trailering a 31 between Portland and Puget Sound?

[Camasonian]

My wife and I live in the Portland area and are looking to get back into boating after a hiatus. Our last boat was a 27’ SeaSport that we owned in Juneau AK and used to explore much of northern SE Alaska between Juneau and Sitka.

The available choices seem to be buy a larger tug and moor it somewhere in Puget Sound or get something reasonably trailerable to keep in Portland then haul it back and forth to Puget Sound once or twice a year. Our current house in Camas WA has no boat parking so we’d need to keep her moored on the Columbia and pay to store a trailer someplace and then just rent a truck or hire someone to haul between Portland and say Anacortes or wherever.

The Ranger 31 seems the largest boat that could reasonably be hauled back and forth between Portland and Puget Sound. We want something larger than the old SeaSport. My wife would REALLY like an onboard shower and I’d like the largest displacement boat available for less than ideal sea conditions when we venture back towards Alaska.

I don’t want to buy a large tow vehicle just to haul a couple times a year between Portland and Puget Sound so renting a truck or just hiring to have it done seems the best option. Are there others who do this? I suspect so. If so, what advice might you have? Where do you store your trailer? Or are there companies that move boats who provide their own trailers for the purpose eliminating the need to buy your own?

 

[scross]

If you took the boat out at the Kalama boat ramp and put in at Swantown Marina in Olympia it would only be about 80 miles or so. Not sure if the ramp at Kalama is big enough to easily launch/retrieve a RT 31 but you are close enough to check it out!

 

[Camasonian]

If you took the boat out at the Kalama boat ramp and put in at Swantown Marina in Olympia it would only be about 80 miles or so. Not sure if the ramp at Kalama is big enough to easily launch/retrieve a RT 31 but you are close enough to check it out!

Ideally would want to moor it at one of the marinas in Camas or Vancouver on the WA side of the river where we live. I suspect a bunch of Vancouverites keep their boats across the river in OR for tax reasons. But I’m not sure I really want to play that game. Plus be nice to have the boat 5 min away and not 30 min with traffic.

It is more a question of how easy and cheap would it be to have the boat shipped to Puget Sound once or twice a year. If we are going to do that would seem to make sense to ship it all the way to Anacortes or some place further north.

 

[scross]

If you use a commercial hauler with a semi and flatbed you are probably looking at least $2.50 a mile plus extra for wide loads. It's my understanding that those guys need a travel lift in and out of the water. A new trailer is going to run $16,500 plus tax and license so you could pay for a lot of moves before breaking even on that cost....
Having towed Our Journey through Seattle and Portland metro traffic a dozen times or so, it's not something you want to do if you can avoid it. With a big boat I'd want to keep the trailering distances to a minimum and move the boat on the water as much of the trip as possible.

 

[Camasonian]

We are probably 5 years away from being able to spend more time in Puget Sound so it would make most sense for us to buy something to keep on the Columbia and then schedule annual excursions up to Puget Sound. I spent a decade of my life working offshore on fishing boats in Alaska so I’m comfortable going offshore but I’d really rather not spend the time and money running down the Columbia, across the bar, up the coast, and around. I expect just the fuel and wear and tear on the boat would far exceed even the most expensive hauling service.

Long term we are seriously contemplating moving up but right now we have two kids in school and my wife is pretty vested in her medical career so Vancouver/Camas is going to be our home base. When the kids are out of school and my wife can dial back the work schedule and maybe do telemedicine we can contemplate spending a lot more time further north and maybe buy a bigger boat that would just stay up there.

Looks to me like the Ranger 31 is about the biggest boat we can reasonably dock in Portland and have hauled to Anacortes on an annual basis. Or perhaps Port Townsend going up the other side of the sound. Anacortes is 250 miles from home, Port Townsend is about 200 so that would be between $500-650 each way. We could afford a LOT of commercial hauls for the price of a trailer and F350 pickup truck. And I have no place to store a big boat trailer anyway. Even at $1000 each way it would be decades until the cost of hauling started to exceed the cost of DIY towing.

I just saw what looks to be a Ranger 31 here in Juneau today. Green one called the Leprechaun. Looks like a very sweet boat tied up next to the larger Nordic Tugs.

 

[Toucan]

You can rent a heavy duty pick up truck from Enterprise locations in Portland or Seattle. Last year, we got a diesel one-ton non-dually pick up truck from Del's Truck Rentals in Woodinville, WA to haul our R27 TOUCAN from Anacortes to southern California. The down side is that there are no one-way rentals. For our tow, it was 3 long days to tow down, 3 long days to return the truck and 3 more long days to drive our own vehicle back home. At our age, life is too short to do that again for future long tows, so we subsequently bought a 3/4 ton diesel pickup. To go from the Portland area to Puget Sound is a relatively short trip and you could do the double or triple trip in one day.

Barry Thompson

 

[Camasonian]

You can rent a heavy duty pick up truck from Enterprise locations in Portland or Seattle. Last year, we got a diesel one-ton non-dually pick up truck from Del's Truck Rentals in Woodinville, WA to haul our R27 TOUCAN from Anacortes to southern California. The down side is that there are no one-way rentals. For our tow, it was 3 long days to tow down, 3 long days to return the truck and 3 more long days to drive our own vehicle back home. At our age, life is too short to do that again for future long tows, so we subsequently bought a 3/4 ton diesel pickup. To go from the Portland area to Puget Sound is a relatively short trip and you could do the double or triple trip in one day.

Barry Thompson

That makes a lot of sense. Anacortes would be a 4 hour drive without traffic. Would just need to find a place to store a boat trailer as I have no place to store one at the house. I might have a work colleague who lives in the country who might have space. Our daughter is currently looking at colleges in Tacoma, Seattle, and Bellingham so that would make things even more sensible and would make leaving a boat up there more practical.

 

[Toucan]

We stored the trailer for our R27 at Mt. Vernon Self Storage between Anacortes, WA and Interstate 5. It was by far the cheapest place we could find near Anacortes. It cost $67.50 a month last year.

Barry Thompson

 

[Toucan]

Another thought re: towing. While we needed a heavy duty pick up truck to tow the boat, we could easily move our empty trailer around between a boatyard and our storage spot with our medium sized SUV.

Barry Thompson

 

[scross]

We store our 31’ trailer with or without boat during the summer at a farm on Cook Road north of Burlington for $45 a month. It’s not a secure lot but the storage area is on hard gravel behind a barn which is behind the occupied farm houses. The family that manages the farm are boaters too. PM me for contact info if interested in details.