I'm not advocating breaking the rules -- I'm simply passing on some
real-world observations.

We displayed an MC-30 at the Seattle boat show about 18 months ago. That
boat was brought down from Canada (about a 150-mile drive) without any
special permit. The driver, a rep for the MC-30's manufacturer, told me
he's trailer-towed the boat the length of west-coast highways (WA, OR,
CA) without any special permits, but never been stopped.

On a separate but related matter, I was at the Annapolis sail and
powerboat shows the past 2 weeks. While there I was aboard a 27' Larson
powerboat. The spec sheet claimed the beam is 8'10". The salesman told
me no special permit is needed. (I'm not sure if that's actually true or
not.)

Another separate but related matter. We represent a line of
catamaran-hulled houseboats built in TN.  I've had several of them
trucked to the pacific northwest. The 8'-wide models are, of course,
fully highway-ready (width-wise) for trailering. But the professional
truck drivers told me they couldn't remember having ever been stopped by
the highway patrol (to check for appropriate permits), when towing the
10' wide models.

With both the MC-30 and those 10'-wide, cat-hulled houseboats, it has
seemed to me that the observation that if a wide boat does not appear to
be overhanging the width of the trailer, that little or no "official"
investigation about the load's actual width seems to be undertaken.
Again, I'm not advocating this, simply passing on a real-world situation.

Regards,

Rod Gibbons
Cruising Cats USA

Technically, 8' 6" is the legal maximum for US and
Interstate highways without a permit of some sort.
Some states have 8' as a maximum on some roads
without a permit.

D C "Mac" Macdonald
Oklahoma City, OK

----Original Message Follows----
From: Rod Gibbons rodgibbons@mindspring.com
Reply-To: rodgibbons@cruisingcatsusa.com,Power Catamaran List
power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com
To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com
Subject: [PCW] Trailering widths
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 10:06:35 -0700

I'm not advocating breaking the rules -- I'm simply passing on some
real-world observations.

We displayed an MC-30 at the Seattle boat show about 18 months ago. That
boat was brought down from Canada (about a 150-mile drive) without any
special permit. The driver, a rep for the MC-30's manufacturer, told me
he's trailer-towed the boat the length of west-coast highways (WA, OR,
CA) without any special permits, but never been stopped.

On a separate but related matter, I was at the Annapolis sail and
powerboat shows the past 2 weeks. While there I was aboard a 27' Larson
powerboat. The spec sheet claimed the beam is 8'10". The salesman told
me no special permit is needed. (I'm not sure if that's actually true or
not.)

Another separate but related matter. We represent a line of
catamaran-hulled houseboats built in TN.  I've had several of them
trucked to the pacific northwest. The 8'-wide models are, of course,
fully highway-ready (width-wise) for trailering. But the professional
truck drivers told me they couldn't remember having ever been stopped by
the highway patrol (to check for appropriate permits), when towing the
10' wide models.

With both the MC-30 and those 10'-wide, cat-hulled houseboats, it has
seemed to me that the observation that if a wide boat does not appear to
be overhanging the width of the trailer, that little or no "official"
investigation about the load's actual width seems to be undertaken.
Again, I'm not advocating this, simply passing on a real-world situation.

Regards,

Rod Gibbons
Cruising Cats USA

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