I received an email last Friday morning from Alan at B&B. He said the kit was ready to ship and would be delivered sometime the following week.

The delivery process was fairly painless. The biggest decision to make was whether or not to have the kit delivered to my house (residential delivery + lift gate service) or pick it up at the shipping center. I opted for home delivery. I felt the extra cost (~$200) was worth it, knowing I’d have to rent a trailer and have help unloading it if I decided to pick the kit up instead.

When the shipping company called to schedule deliver, they asked if it was easy to get to my property. I explained that it was, but that I had a long driveway and I was hoping to entice the driver to put the kit in my garage. Due to this, they said they would put everything on one of their smaller trucks.

I received another phone call from the shipping company on the day of delivery. They indicated that the kit crate was too large to fit on the lift gate and were wondering how we could solve the problem. We agreed that our only viable option was to unpack the crate on the truck and offload the contents by hand.

When the driver showed up, he had other plans. He felt he could get the kit onto the lift gate and save everyone hassle and time. In hindsight, I should have pushed back on this idea. The driver was successful in unloading the kit, but it got very dicey for a few minutes when the feet of the crate slipped off of the lift gate and it started tipping over. Luckily, the center of gravity was still over the gate, but the driver had put himself in a situation where he had no choice but to continue with his plan.

In the end he was successful. At its worst, the kit overhung the lift gate on one side and the electric pallet jack overhung slightly on the other. Once the kit was safely on the ground, the driver happily moved everything into the garage for me. I made sure to tip him well. Although he likely took too much risk with unloading the kit, it all worked out in the end.

I spent the next few days unpacking the contents to ensure everything was in order. The folks at B&B did a great job packing the kit and I have not found anything missing or damaged.

My next step will be to acquire a few items that are still needed (screws and epoxy thickener) to build the frames.

Current Cost and Time Estimates

Cost: $11,660.49

• Kit: $4,800
• Timber Package: $1,250
• White oak strong timbers: $1,000
• Rudder and daggers: $800
• Epoxy: $1,533
• Fiberglass package: $850
• Portlights: $175
• Shipping: $1,202.49
• Tipping the driver: $50

Time: 2 hours

• Assisting delivery: 30 minutes
• Unpacking and examining contents: 90 minutes