What the cheapest way to have a set of sails & battens shipped from Canada to California?
UPS won't take anything over 108" and a Tornado main w. battens is over 120".
Are you sure about that. My Tornado main, in the bag, is about 94 inchs long(I am building a car top sail tube). According to the class rules, the max lenght from the clew to the luff is 2355mm or about 7.7 ft. I am pretty sure that with a 10 ft sail, the boom would extend past the stern of the boat
Carl Bohannon
First, the obvious: shipping to and from Canada is expensive and a pain. With that said, I have shipped sails with boom and battens all over the US. I found that if you take the battens out of the pockets, it rolls smaller and you can save a few inches on the length, too. I also have a friend who works at a boat top place and has a ton of textile bags lying around. They are big enough to put any sail in, but it takes 2 bags to cover the entire length. They are made of thick plastic and offer great protection, but I hope you are selling a sail bag with your sails--so you can add a little more protection to them. FedEx ground and UPS won't mail something that long, but FedEx Express will. You can chose a 3-day Saver option and it really is reasonable. You can also schedule a pick-up so you won't have to figure out how to get it to a FedEx drop-off. I have had some drivers refuse large packages, but a call to the terminal fixed that.
I have also shipped Mylar sails and they are a little more tricky. I chased-down a building contractor because I saw a really long box on the rack on his truck. It held vinyl siding and he let me have the box. He got a pretty good laugh out of it because I was driving a convertible and had to lash it to a bike rack and the top of the windshield to get it home. You may also want to look into the tubes that new carpet comes rolled on. They might not be wide enough to hold a Mylar sail, though. I have, however, managed to get a Hobie 14 and a set of Hobie 16 sails with boom and battens in one.
Hope this helps
This won't really help you but I couldn't resist telling it.
The battens were in Canada. My home is in Orlando. So, the Canadians attended a regatta in Ft. Walton Beach, Fl last November and handed them to a mutual friend who lives in Gainesville. Said friend will bring them to Lake Eustis north of Orlando in a couple of weeks where I will pick them up. Long trip but it was free shipping.