When I received the call from Gonzalo last August saying he wanted a wooden kayak delivered to Spain, the first questions I had to myself were: How the heck do a ship a boat to Europe and how much is it going to cost?!?!  I started doing some research on-line and found out I needed to work with a freight consolidator.  When you have a small shipment that is less than a container load, called LCL, you talk with these guys.  They’ll take your package, put it together with other small shipments and get it to your destination.  They also handle much of the paperwork involved.  Let me tell you, there IS paperwork involved, especially for international shipments.  Between US and EU exportThese companies do it every day and take the guesswork out of it.  The price was fair, considering what was involved.  The company I went with also offered door-to-door delivery.  They picked it up at my shop and will deliver it to Gonzalo’s doorstep in Spain.  BTW: shipping by air was about twice the price as compared to going by sea.  Few carriers accept shipments that are as long as a kayak.

Now that I had a way to get it there I needed to make sure it would survive it’s trip across the pond. I talked with a few other people who have shipped kayaks overseas on what they did.  Some just wrapped the boat in bubble-wrap and sent it on it’s merry way.  Other’s built full wooden crates.  I heard horror stories from people where forklifts drove their tines through their kayaks and canoes.  After hearing those stories I went the crate route.  Read on…

Ah, you have to love international shipping.  One thing I quickly found out through my freight consolidator was that the crate had to be made out of approved wood.  Approved wood? What the heck? From the USDA AHPIS website:

Effective March 1, 2005 the European Union required all newly assembled, repaired or recycled unprocessed raw wood packaging materials (hardwood and softwood) entering the EU to be either heat treated or fumigated and officially marked under ISPM15…. Wood packaging materials including dunnage less than 6 mm and processed wood produced from glue, heat, and pressure or a combination thereof (i.e., Oriented Strand Board, plywood, etc) are exempt from treatment and marking.

So all wood for the crate had to either be heat treated, fumigated or be processed.  I couldn’t find any heated treated/fumigated wood locally (at least not in small quantities), so I made the crate completely out of plywood.  I ended up using 5 full sheets of 1/2″ (13mm) CDX and 2 sheets of 3/4″ (19mm) CDX exterior grade plywood.  I glued and screwed it all together making a rigid box beam with the cover on.  I added internal plywood gussets to give it added torsional strength. To lessen the likely-hood of the crate getting damaged while moving it around, I added some rope/PVC tubing handles on the sides and put the crate on lockable casters.  On the interior I cut some wrap-around cradles out of some green builders foam (used to insulate concrete basements).  I used various forms as templates and cut about an 1″ outside the lines to allow for packing material. The crate ended up weighing just under 300 pounds (136 kg)!  The “Nereida” only weighs 43 pounds (19.5 kg)!

Time to put the “Nereida” in the crate.  First the hatches needed to be left open for port inspection.  So I wrapped each hatch lid with bubble wrap and taped them to the deck.  Next I wrapped the entire boat in more 1/2″ thick, large cell, bubble-wrap, taping it every few feet.  At the hatches I cut out the opening and taped the tabs inside.  I did the same for the cockpit.  With the some help I set the “Nereida” into the crate, packed every void with more bubble-wrap and plastic air bags.  We said goodbye, have a safe journey and screwed on the lid of the crate.

With her safely in her crate I glued on the various labels and markings I needed to have on it and waited for the truck to show up that would begin her journey to Spain…