Definition of "boatload"
boatload
noun
plural boatloads
Cargo or passengers that fill a boat.
Quotations
Just then two boats[-]load of natives appeared, and our owner having agreed with them to tow us into harbour, they tried to do so, assisted by our own boat, but could make no way. […] Those who live on the coast have plenty of fish; but when inland, as we are here, they only go to the sea occasionally, and then bring home cockles and other shell-fish by the boatload.
1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-utan, and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature., volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., pages 173 and 229
Quotations
What's a fair price to pay for video perfection, or even something that looks a lot like it? In the case of high-definition movie discs, the answer may not just be "a boatload of money," but having to keep two incompatible players under the TV set.
2006 December 10, Rob Pegoraro, “Waiting for the Winner of a High-Definition High Noon”, in The Washington Post