Mexico?
We weren’t having much luck finding a suitable boat for our adventure in Vancouver. There are plenty of helpful brokers, but the boats we looked at were either too small, needed too much work, or were too expensive. With our planned departure in a few short months, the lack of boat started to become a real issue!
Many cruisers we have spoken to about our plans mention that the market for boats is better in cruising destinations than in Vancouver. It is easy to sail south from BC, Washington, or California, but much more difficult to come back north, both physically and psychologically. That, and there are always people who’ve had their cruising plans cut short for whatever reason and looking to sell their boat. So I decided to test this theory of cheap boats in foreign ports by flying to Mexico and touring marina’s to see if it was true. The goal wasn’t necessarily to find a specific boat to buy, but rather, get a better idea if our plan to travel to buy was feasible. We contemplated Florida, the Caribbean, and Mexico. All had their advantages, but Mexico was the most appeal because we could travel there by car, and we wanted to start our voyage on the Pacific Ocean.
Now sailors out there who have shopped for a boat any time in the last 5-10 years will say ‘why didn’t you just research the type of boat you wanted, and find it on yachtworld’. Yachtworld is THE website for boat listings, the world over. Well, like most everything else, the internet is invaluable for researching and often buying anything, used boats included. However, pictures and a rosy description can be misleading, and with a used boat, this is even more the case. Most yachties are both emotionally and financially attached to their vessel; it’s hard to face the fact that your 50,000 boat with 100,000 of equipment is still a 50,000 boat. So when it comes time to sell, often their expectations are unrealistic. We didn’t want to travel across the continent for a particular boat, to discover it was junk. So this is why I decided to make the investment of time and money to actually travel to search for a boat.
On tour
The week before heading to Mexico, I contacted boat brokers the 4 main marina’s serving the Sea of Cortez and Pueto Vallarta. I arrived in PV on Saturday, January 13th. The next 14 days were a blur of boats, buses, hotels, and awesome local food. Nick at Varartta Yachts (www.vallartayachts.net) toured me around the marina is his Zodiac, giving lots of great advice on the layout and logistics of buying in Mexico. I saw 7 or 8 great boats, and had a lot of fun meeting with the cruisers in port and hearing their inspirational stories. Ray at Mazatlan Marine (www.mazmarine.com) tempted me with some amazing 50+ ft boats that I salivated over. Once you’ve seen the space available on that size of boat, it’s hard to imagine cruising with out it. I tried really hard to make the numbers work, but without putting off the departure for another year, we just couldn’t justify the cost.
I left Mazatlan on an overnight bus ride, heading north for San Carlos. While at the station I struck up a conversation with Janice and Tom, a couple who had been cruising the Sea of Cortez on and off for 13 years. They gave me some excellent advice on San Carlos, the boat scene there, and cruising in general. San Carlos is unique in that there are more boats out of the water than in it; it has the largest dry storage boat yard south of Texas. This is a function of its location and the marine services available. Located above the the hurricane belt, it is a safe and convient place to leave boats over the hurricane season, when it is too hot for most people to cruise the Sea of Cortez. Charlie and Marisa of San Carlos Yachts (www.sancarlosyachts.com) were great to me. Charlie spent 2 days driving me to the various marinas and dry storage yards to show boats. We saw some great yachts and I almost made an offer on one right then and there. One big advantage of going through a boat broker over a private sale is you are usually guaranteed you won’t be shown junk; no broker will represent a boat they don’t think they can sell. This was case in San Carlos, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
Taking a break
After looking at over 30 boats in 3 cities over 6 days, I was a bit burnt out. Before going to La Paz, I needed a break. While waiting for a flight from San Carlos to Loretto on the Baja peninsula I met Chuck, a retired restaurateur from Arizon who was living in San Carlos. Chuck was returning to his boat, moored 150 miles north of La Paz, with a repaired alternator and plans to sail to La Paz. He offered to take me along for the ride and help out a bit. It was perfect; a few days on the water was just what I was looking for. The trip took 2 days. The first day was dead calm, so we motored south while listening to the Super-Bowl Semi final game. The second day started calm, but after breakfast a northerly built quickly to 25 knots. Chuck’s 34 ft Catalinia sailboat handled the conditions very well, and even reach 8 knots a few times riding down waves.
La Paz
La Paz is all about boats. As the jumping off point for cruisers exploring the Sea of Cortez, it has many boat services, 5 or 6 marinas, haul out and a dry storage facility. There are also plenty of boats for sale. In the first hour of walking around the dock and talking to cruisers I had three people offer to sell me their boats! Once I had found a quiet hostel to stay and filled up on tacos at a street corner stand, I headed back to the marina to begin the search in ernest. The first thing to do was get on the local radio “net’ and explain my situation. A radio ‘net’ is an organized time when all the local cruisers tune their vhf radios to the same frequency to share information. Things like weather, boats coming and going, and any other useful things are discussed. Virtually all the boats in the harbour tune into the ‘net’ each day. I found a boat willing to let me use their radio during the net, and put a call out for boats. I also I posted ‘wanted’ signs on some bulletin boards, and answered some ‘for sale’ ads.
All these tactics worked well. Two or three people got in touch with me over the radio net with offers of boats, the posters I put up have yielded 6 email offers for boats over the past 2 weeks since I posted them, and we had especially good luck with one boat advertised on a bulliten board.
Found
One particular boat advertised on the marina bulletin board caught my attention. As I read off the spec’s of “Free Run”, it sounded perfect. Pretty much every piece of gear had been updated, a brand new engine installed, and all the necessary safety equipment. Everything! I wandered down the dock to have a look, and when I saw her, it was love at first sight. She has clean, sleek lines, a ‘performance cruiser’ hull, and proper sailing layout. The out-of-town owner arranged for another cruiser at the marina to let me onto the boat for a proper look. Inside the layout was perfect for us, with two separate aft berths and a good sized cabin forward, giving each person a private sleeping area. After filling the memory card on my camera with pictures, making notes, and sending texts back and forth with Ryan, we were pretty certain this was the boat for us. All that was left was to make an offer.
The day after I got back to Vancouver Ryan, Brys and I all went over the pictures and spec’s 1 more time, called up the owner, and agreed on a price! So it all came together. Ryan and I will be going back to La Paz in three weeks for the sea trial and survey. If everything works out, she’ll be ours.
by Hugh