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Getting the boat to Beijing

01/08/2008

How would you get to China? As a rower it is a fairly simple question. You just pack a bag or two, get on the plane and you are there. But how about the boats?

Europe has three boat builders who are authorised for the boat transportation to the Olympic Games in Bejing: Stampfli from Switzerland, Filippi from Italy and Empacher from Germany. For almost nine months all three boat builders have been planning and organising the transportation of this bulky and valuably load.

Stampfli is the only one who is going to transport the boats via plane. “It is just the fastest way”, says Stampfli boss Melchior Burgin. Burgin will fly around 20 boats on a Cargo flight to Beijing. They left Luxemburg 16 July. “We’ll take any boat with us, no matter what brand it is,” says Burgin who will travel with the boats and then stay the whole time in Beijing with a colleague. “It’s the best way to take care of the boats. We won’t lose sight of them,” says Burgin.

The boats on this flight had to be in Zurich, Switzerland by 14 July. Stampfli has built a special set up for the boats and all the equipment which can go on the trailer that then goes on to the plane. “A normal trailer would take up too much space and space is money,” says Burgin. The total cost for the flight will be around 150,000 swiss francs (about USD145,000).

The price of air freight is one reason that Empacher decided to do the transportation by ship. The other main reason is safety. “I am convinced that the container is much safer on a boat than on a plane,” says Helmut Empacher, who runs the company together with his brother Rainer. But, for shipping, you need to be very patient. The shipping to China will take 50 days.

Empacher shipped the first lot of boats directly after the Lucerne Rowing World Cup at the start of June. The arrival date in Beijing was 21 July. Empacher also organised a container for the countries who qualified at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Poznan at the end of June. “If everything goes well this container will be in Beijing on the second of August,” says Helmut.

If those boats don’t arrive in time FISA has already made arrangements for the teams affected to rent Chinese boats.

In total Empacher is organising the transportation to China of around 70 boats for 30 nations. “It is always a bit exciting but this will be my seventh Olympic Games so I am kind of used to it,” says Helmut.

David Filippi, sales director of Filippi boat builders says he was more worried about the 600 kilometre trip with his boat trailer from the Lucerne Rowing World Cup to Donoratico, Italy, than about shipping the boats from Livorno, Italy, to China. On 8 June the ship left Livorno to arrive in China around 13 July. “So the boats should be on the venue by the 22 July,” says Filippi. Filippi ordered four 45 feet containers for the 90 boats that they are shipping.
As BOCOG (the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee) pays just for the transportation of the qualified boats, there are still a lot of costs left for the boat builders. This includes duty and insurance fees. For those being shipped by Filippi, each national rowing federation had to pay, for example, 350 Euros for a single. “For me I am offering a service, not a business,” says Filippi.

Copy thanks to Uta Baumann