Pick your travel date to see which sailings are sold out for RVs, trailers and boats. Watch one and we text you, free, if space opens.
This is a boat route as much as an RV route. Desolation Sound is one of the best-known cruising grounds on the coast and a great deal of what reaches it comes across this crossing on a trailer, alongside the campers and motorhomes working their way around the Sunshine Coast Circle Route.
The figures below are oversized availability only, a separate and smaller pool than the standard vehicle space on the same sailing.
Why oversized space goes first
Desolation Sound season concentrates the demand
Boat trailers heading north in early summer and back in late summer are a steady claim on the over-height allocation, weighted to weekends but present through the whole season. Circle Route campers land on the same sailings.
Reservation pressure here has genuinely grown
BC Ferries runs both a sailing alert and a waitlist product on this corridor, the only route FerryHawk watches where it does both. That is a first-party signal about demand, and the oversized pool has not been exempt from it.
Is your vehicle oversized?
The standard threshold applies: over 7' / 2.13 m tall or over 20' / 6.10 m long books as oversized, measured to the highest fixed point and across the full vehicle-plus-trailer length.
A truck with a boat behind it is over the 20' line more often than owners expect, and this is the route where that mistake is most common. Measure the combination before assuming standard space covers you.
The full rules, and what they mean for fares and loading, are in the BC Ferries oversized vehicle guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is oversized space on Comox-Powell River hard to get in summer?
It can be, particularly on summer weekends when Desolation Sound boat traffic and Sunshine Coast Circle Route campers want the same sailings.
I am towing a boat to Desolation Sound. Does it need an oversized reservation?
If the vehicle and trailer together are over 20' / 6.10 m, yes. Check before assuming standard space covers a boat trailer, because most combinations clear that line.
How long is the crossing with a trailer?
About 1 hour 30 minutes, the same as any vehicle. It is a direct sailing with no intermediate stops, unlike the Gulf Islands routes.
Can I drive up with an RV or trailer without booking?
Drive-up space is held on every sailing, but reservation demand on this route has grown sharply, so treat it as a fallback rather than a plan on a summer weekend.
Does FerryHawk track oversized space on this route?
Yes, separately from standard vehicles and in both directions.