I moved my boat from Seattle, WA to Yorktown, VA. I had some serious lessons I learned the hard way. First of all and most importantly, take nothing for granted from the trucking company. Before you let them touch your boat, get their insurance company's name and verify they have insurance and what is covered. Second, get your own insurance before the boat is moved and verify they cover the boat in transit. The trucking company used my boat to clean the underside of a bridge! (Yes, accidents happen, but what happened afterwards was purely criminal). The trucking company has not and probably never will pay for the damages ($5200 damage) because they simply played the "promise the world then never return calls" game. I had luckily gotten my boat insured before it was moved and they covered the damages minus $600 deductible. The trucking company wouldn't give me their insurance claims number because they claimed it was too low of a cost to warrant submitting the claim (ie they would pay directly which they never did). This is why you must get this information and verify before they touch your boat. Verify that the company you contract with will actually be the company moving your boat. I had contacted one trucking company (who I had been told was highly recommended on the west coast); however, they gave the job to another company because they had a truck heading east on a return trip. Bottom line is when the damage was done, the original company wouldn't help me recover damages from the company that damaged my boat. Enough said in those departments. As far as preparing your boat, since you're not passing through a winter wasteland like my boat did, you don't need to winterize the water system; however, I would check all of your hose fittings for oil and water. When my boat arrived, my bilge was full of engine oil and antifreeze (due to loose hoses and a loose dipstick pipe). Some people recommend getting the boat shrink wrapped but I was advized against it by the company that shrink wraps in Seattle. He claimed that if a rock or bird or any road debris strike the wrap and tears it, it will shred and literally beat the gel coat off of the hull. I didn't wrap mine and yes the boat got filthy, but at least my gel coat is fine. I went to Sam's club and bought a pack of the bungee cords and tie down straps. I secured all of my cabinet doors/drawers with either bungees, straps or tie wraps. (you don't want them banging around if they swing open from a bump in the road. I also removed anything off topside that could blow off (truckers fly down the road with or without your boat as a load) so expect 70+ mph at times. Lock your boat! I was told of people hitching a ride on your boat when the truck stops. I gave a key to the trucker in case he needed to get onboard (the trucker was a nice guy, I talked with him for a while to see if I felt comfortable with giving him a key....I'll leave that decision to you). Make sure they tow your boat with the bow to the front of the truck. My boat (and its front windows) are slanted and take wind better than the flat back ones and I have heard of windows being blown out due to the high pressures excerted by the highway wind velocity. If your boat has a flybridge, verify it is not too tall for bridges (like mine was). The truck driver claimed that he mis-measured the height of my boat (supposedly that's why he hit the bridge...). Bottom line here is make sure you're insured. Well, this is all I can think of now, but if I think of something else, I'll email you later. Good luck... By the way, I did find talking with the driver to be very helpful and informative. He took a look and basically told me what had to be removed and what could be strapped down. He also removed some stanchions for me because I had to catch a plane, but that's not to be expected normally. Joseph PS Get as many estimates as you can, I found prices to vary by the thousands between companies. Most of the time the cheapest price will be from a company that has a truck nearby getting ready to head home empty anyway. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com