Yacht transport is the shipping of a yacht to a destination instead of sailing or motoring it. Yacht transport is an alternative to the traditional passaging (sailing or motoring) to reach desired destinations around the globe. Transport when compared to passaging is cost-effective, safer and improves availability.
For many dedicated sailors, passaging or an ocean crossing is a rite of passage, but it comes with many risks and expenses. For many serious cruisers, financial, business and family considerations argue against the long-term full-time dedication that ocean crossings require. Yacht transport becomes an alternative when the destination and cruising (maritime) is more important than the passaging.
Yacht transport generally eliminates costly, time-consuming, and dangerous difficult ocean crossings, opening up cruising to more people. Container cruising, one approach to yacht transport, is significantly less expensive and has greater flexibility with respect to timing and destinations. The drawback to container cruising is that there are a limited number of yachts that have the necessary 7.5 ft maximum beam (2.29 m) to fit in the 8-foot-wide (2.44 m) standard container.