Moving Far Reach
BRINGING FAR REACH HOME
In January 2009 we arranged for Boats Express to transport Far Reach to our home in North Carolina. I flew to Texas, where she had been in a storage for several years, to make sure the boat was ready to move. She was just as I had left her though covered in grime on the outside despite being enclosed in a shed. Of course there was no travel lift so we hired a crane to lift her out of the shed. After we removed the roof of the shed, the crane operator did a great job lifting her out and onto the transport trailer. Luckily the wind was light! That was the easy part. Getting her into our back yard was the tricky part. We had a drainage ditch in our front yard. In order for the boat transport trailer to get to the back yard it would be necessary to eliminate this major obstacle. Several months before Far Reach was moved, I bought double-walled 15" culvert pipes, rented a backhoe, and installed the culvert. I tamped it with gravel and laid sod.
We had worked with a local crane operator for about three months setting up the required action necessary to get her into our back yard. After committing to Boats Express for the transport, our crane operator got cold feet--deciding his 25 ton crane could not do the job. Two weeks to go and no crane for the offload! Several phone calls, a couple of site visits by crane operators, and finally we found a company that would do the job. However, they brought in a huge crane. 91,000 lbs (including counter-balance weights). We knew it was going to be rough on the yard. However, as bad as it looked when the crane finally left, three months later the scars were pretty light. By mid summer I don't think you will even be able to tell. We plan on using a hydraulic trailer to lift Far Reach out when the restoration is completed. Boats Express did a great job transporting Far Reach.
Below:
1. Loading Far Reach in Texas
2, Maneuvering in the cul-de-sac
3. Backing down the side of the house and over the recently installed culvert pipe and sod. The culvert survived but the sod didn't!.
4. Far Reach takes flight!
5. Final positioning
6. Positioned and ready for the shed
