Log XV - Artemis 1 (Shipping - Part 2)

After 6 weeks of waiting, Artemis 1 finally checked in to Singapore PSA Terminal.

There were many preparation work to be done during this period of waiting so that the process of importing the boat will be as smooth as possible.

1) Look for a berthing place for your boat. There are a few marinas in Singapore and most of them have very limited or no berthing lots left. Here is a list of marinas in Singapore:

North
- Punggol Marina
- Sembawang SAF Yacht Club.

South
- Keppel Marina
- One Degree 15

East
- Changi SAF Yacht Club

West
- Raffles Marina
- Republic of Singapore Yacht Club

Please let me know if I have missed out any marinas in Singapore. A berthing lot confirmation letter from the marina is necessary for the registration of your boat.

Alternative you can purchase a property at Sentosa Cove with a personalized berth at your back yard. This is the most ideal arrangement and if you have a property like this, please do invite me to sail to your back yard for a visit.

2) Find a local transporter to transfer your boat from PSA terminal to your marina or back yard. Take note that not all marinas have the facilities to unload your boat onto the water.

Please check with your marina whether they are able to handle the size of your boat. If not, you may have to transport your boat to a marina that has such facilities such as Raffles Marina, to unload the boat onto the water and then sail the boat to your marina.

The allowable cargo height to be transported on Singapore roads is 4.5m. The trailer's height is about 1m, so that leaves maximum 3.5m for your boat height. If your boat has a height more than 3.5m, you may have to transport your boat by sea through engaging a tow boat to tow your boat directly from the PSA Terminal to your marina. This procedure is more expensive and is not covered in this post because luckily my boat is only 3.4m high. Phew...

Though my boat is within the height and length limit, the width of 3.8m puts her in the over sized category which requires police escort, which also means more damage to my wallet.

3) If you are sailing your boat back from another marina, please standby an engine mechanic on that sailing day so that he will be able to do a sea trial with you before you begin your maiden journey.

Be prepared that if the engines are not operating well, your boat may have to extend her stay at the temporary yard. I actually skipped this step when my boat arrived.

And so the worse case scenario always happen. My port side engine broke down halfway while I was leaving Raffles Marina and I had to rely on the starboard engine to crawl slowly to my destination. The journey took me 2.5 hours instead of 40 minutes. And because this was unexpected, the petrol tank was a few drops to empty when I arrived. My first and most stressful voyage on board Artemis 1.

4) Buy marine insurance for your boat. This is required prior to your boat registration too.

5) Find out where you can buy safety equipment i.e. flares, life jackets, fire extinguisher, etc., to prepare yourself for the boat safety inspection.

Certain items are cheaper if you order from overseas so you can start your online shopping in advance.

6) Familiarized yourself with the registration procedures at MPA One Stop Document Centre (OSDC). For example, your transporter has to declare that they have received the cargo before you can register your boat, so make sure the transporter has done that before you make your trip down to Tanjong Pagar Complex.

7) Importing cargo procedures are usually done by your transporter.

Make sure you have all the necessary documents i.e. bill of lading and packing list, ready for your transporter to clear your cargo from the port. These documents are from your overseas transporter, so if you do not have and want to retrieve the documents last minute from the overseas transporter, you may not be able to get them in time fro your port clearance.

8) Install AIS. This is a mandatory requirement by MPA which is also one of the boat registration essentials. The MPA officer will issue your boat registration number to you for you to register for a MMSI number to program into your AIS. You will have to email the MMSI registration certificate to OSDC to complete your boat registration.

Lastly after you got your boat registration number, look for a Singapore Pools outlet, place your bet and hope that your boat purchase can be partially or fully subsidized.

Log XIV - Artemis 1 (Shipping - Part 1)

The length of my boat is 33ft but with the addition of the bow pulpit and transom swimming platform, the total length adds up to 38ft. She has a width and height of around 13ft each and therefore cannot be fitted into a standard 40ft container. She had to be transported using a flat rack.

Photo of another boat on a flat rack

A flat rack is simply a metal deck with a wooden cradle on top for the boat to sit on. The boat will be secured by using straps tying down onto the flat rack. This method of shipping will cost much more than using a container as there is no space efficiency on a container ship due to the unusable stacking space on top of the rack.

Since the re-conditioning work took 3 months to complete, I had ample time to look for a reliable and cheap shipping agent. I had requested for quotations from both US agents and local Singapore agents and my conclusion is - engage an US agent for the interstates and international shipping and local agent for shipping within Singapore. This will be the most cost effective but you will have to do some coordination work yourself when the boat arrives.

Please try to get as many quotations as possible especially on the international shipping. You will be surprised that the costs can vary by tens of thousands. As a reference, the highest quote I had gotten was $40k and the lowest was $15k. But please do not be too happy if you get a very cheap quote because some of them may not be reliable and worst case scenario, they may be scams. I had approached a few shipping companies and somehow my information was shared to other shipping agents which I did not request quotation from. I received calls at night from unknown shipping companies asking for my boat information and offering their services. These are the companies that gave me the lowest quotes.

I felt insecure using the cheapest shipping company and so I did a background check. I was shock that this company with the cheapest quote was not even listed in the US list of approved shipping agents. I could not imagine what will happen if I engage them. Perhaps I can still get my boat in the end but I better not leave the fate of such a big investment to chance. In the end I engaged a shipping company with a proven track record and the costs was around $20k. This price was way off my budget by the way because I made the mistake of extrapolating the costs based on normal container shipping rates when I was planning the purchase.

Contacts were given to the shipyard and the shipping agent so that they could coordinate the loading out.

The boat was transported over 600km on road across the states from Gulfport in Mississippi to Savannah in Georgia. And after a 2 weeks delay at Savannah port due to some labour shortage issue, my boat was finally ready to begin her voyage across the oceans to this little red dot.

Oops did I forget to shrink wrapped the boat before shipping? Sadly yes, I really had forgotten to ask the shipping agent to do it. She would be collecting dust from half the globe for 6 weeks as a welcome gift to her new owner.