Where boats move in Massachusetts
The North Shore — Marblehead, Salem, Beverly, Gloucester — has the deepest yard capacity in the state and easy access from Route 128. Boston and the South Shore run from Charlestown down through Hingham, Scituate and Plymouth, all reachable off Route 3 and 3A. Buzzards Bay is the other cluster: New Bedford, Mattapoisett, Marion and Fairhaven, with big commercial travel lifts and no shortage of experience loading boats onto trucks.
Cape Cod concentrates around Falmouth, Hyannis, Chatham and Orleans, and everything crossing to it funnels over the Bourne or Sagamore Bridge. Both are narrow, both are under long-term rehabilitation, and both restrict oversize loads to specific hours. Plan Cape moves days ahead, not the morning of.
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket need the Steamship Authority. A boat travels as freight on a reserved sailing, which has to be booked separately from the truck and sells out for summer weeks well in advance. Inland, the Berkshire and central Massachusetts lakes — Quabbin area, Webster, Onota — are straightforward trailer work.
Get a quote for your boat
Powerboats and cruisers
Center consoles, sportfish and cabin cruisers. Under 8’6” of beam it travels on ordinary plates; over that we pull the permits and plan the route around the bridges.
Quote a powerboat
Sailboats
Mast unstepped at the yard, keel cradled, air draft planned before the truck books. Tell us your rigger’s date and we schedule around it.
Quote a sailboat
Small craft and PWC
Jet skis, skiffs, tenders and anything already on its own trailer. The quickest to schedule and the cheapest per mile.
Quote small craftMoving in or out of Massachusetts
Fall southbound is the heavy season: Buzzards Bay and the Cape emptying toward Florida and the Chesapeake in October and November, coming back in April and May. Short runs to Rhode Island and Connecticut are cheap and quick. MassDOT permits are per-trip; the Ted Williams and Sumner Tunnels are out for anything tall, so Boston-area moves route over the Tobin or around on I-95.
If a boat has been sitting on a mooring or a stand for several seasons and the transport quote is approaching its market value, that math rarely works. Selling locally or donating is usually the better exit.
Where a hull is not worth the cost of the haul, donate a boat to charity is a cleaner exit than trucking it somewhere to sit again.
When trucking is not worth it
Boats coming out of long storage are the ones worth pricing carefully. If a hull has sat for six seasons and the quote to move it is climbing past what it would sell for, donating the boat is a cleaner exit than trucking it somewhere to sit again.
Still working out the details? The marine transport guide covers permits, prep and pricing end to end, and the FAQ handles the short questions.
Ready when you are
Tell us the boat, the two addresses and the week you have in mind. The quote comes back with the permit and access notes already accounted for.
