Every June, the phones tell the same story
The first named storm shows up on the forecast maps and suddenly everybody with a boat on a trailer, in a yard, or at a marina wants it somewhere else. After 28 years on the Space Coast we can just about set a calendar by it. The calls stack up, the good storage spots fill, and people who had all spring to move a boat are trying to do it in a 48-hour window with the wind already picking up.
This post is the version of the conversation we would rather have with you in April: how overland boat transport actually works, what makes it different from towing a car, and why doing it on your own schedule beats doing it on a hurricane’s.
A boat on a trailer is not just another tow
A car carries its weight on four corners that were engineered for exactly that. A boat carries its weight on a hull that was engineered for water, resting on bunks or rollers that have to be positioned right or the hull flexes where it should not. Add a prop hanging off the stern, an outboard that has to be trimmed and secured, and a beam that may push past legal width, and you have a job with more ways to go wrong than most people expect.
Before we pull a boat a single mile, we check the things that decide how the trip goes:
- Hull support. Bunks under the strakes, weight settled where the hull is strongest, nothing point-loading a section of fiberglass that will crack a season later.
- Prop and lower unit clearance. Trimmed, supported, and clear of the pavement for every driveway transition on the route.
- Tie-down and tongue weight. A boat that shifts on its trailer at highway speed is a problem you often discover too late.
- Width and route. Wide-beam boats may need routing around narrow causeway shoulders and low branches. We plan that before we leave, not at the first obstacle.
The runs we make most
Ramp to house after an engine quits on the river. Marina to boatyard for repair work. Yard to inland storage ahead of a storm, and back again after. Dealer to driveway for a new purchase. Between Brevard’s coastline, the Indian River, and the canals of Palm Bay and Merritt Island, this county probably has more boats per household than almost anywhere in Florida, and most of them eventually need to move over land.
Why the storm-week scramble costs more than it should
When a storm is inside five days, everything compresses. Storage yards fill, haulers book out, and boats get moved in a hurry by whoever is available, which is exactly when hulls get cracked and trailers get overloaded. The boat owners who do this calmly are the ones who set it up early: they know where the boat goes, they know who moves it, and when the cone shows up on the forecast they make one phone call instead of twenty.
If you want Imperial to be that phone call, we should talk before you need us. We are family-run, we have moved boats across this county for close to three decades, and we answer at (321) 499-4610 around the clock. Tell us what you have and where it sits, and we will give you a straight price and a plan. You can also reach us online, and see our rigs at work in the gallery.