Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 30

Thread: Guadalupe Island Race - a few questions to the PSSA team ?

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    The Dreadful Impoundment Fiasco In Mexico Endures

    January 17, 2014 – Selected Marinas in Mexico

    Despite the fervent wishes of almost everyone, most of the 338 foreign owned boats impounded in eight Mexican marinas as a result of AGACE actions in late November are still impounded. The sad fact is that most of these boats have been absolutely legal all along.

    A couple of days ago, an insider in the marine industry in Mexico told us that our catamaran Profligate, which is on the list of impounded boats, was all good and didn't have any problems with AGACE. So when the AGACE agents came to our marina yesterday, Dona de Mallorca asked them about the boat's status. The pleasant AGACE agent looked into the files and said, "There are no problems with your boat."

    "Great," said de Mallorca, "she's free to go?"

    "No," replied the AGACE agent, "she's still impounded." He refused to say why or when she'll be released. It's our understanding that there are 47 other fully compliant boats in our marina in the same preposterous situation.

    This is not good, Mexico. Not good at all.

    Last night a boat owner with a boat impounded in a Baja marina called our office and asked what we thought of her and her husband leaving in the middle of the night on their boat and trying to flee back to freedom in the United States. She said that the impoundment of their boat had destroyed their cruising dream. They just wanted to get back to the States and sell their boat. She said there was another boat impounded in the same marina whose owner was also done with cruising before he started because of the ruthless actions of AGACE.

    Our advice was to hang tight. Some impounded boats have been released, and it appears that many more will be soon. If someone gets caught trying to escape back to the United States — and we're told that some have already been successful — you could find yourself in big trouble in a country where you don't speak the language and the law is slow and murky. And if they did flee, they should probably be very hesitant to ever return to Mexico by boat — although it's unlikely either of these owners will ever want to do that again.

    As infuriating as this horrible episode has been, we'd also encourage these owners not to give up their cruising dreams just yet. The impounding of boats in Mexico has been the biggest national nautical brain fart that we can recall — and we've been publishing Latitude for 36 years. The self-destructive stupidity of the process is simply unprecedented.

    It's worth noting that three of the owner/mangers of the largest marinas in Mexico, two of whose marinas have been hit by AGACE, and one whose marina has not, said they believe it's extremely unlikely there will be any similar raids until AGACE's policies and procedures have been completely revamped. They all cite the same reason: the terrible damage to Mexico's international reputation, particularly in the nautical tourism sector.

    Just so everyone's clear, we have no problem whatsoever with Mexico making sure that all boats have the necessary papers, that nobody is cheating on taxes, and that none of the boats are stolen. But currently there are severe impediments. One is that the laws are very unclear. For example, we asked the manager of one of the biggest port-of-entry marinas in Mexico whether zarpes from the US are required. He said he didn't know that part of Mexican law. If he didn't, how is a first-time visitor to Mexico supposed to know? And we bet 99% of people — including port captains — don't know the law either. According to Neil Shroyer of Marina de La Paz, who tends to be an expert on such things, you either need a zarpe from the US — or a notarized letter stating, under penalty of perjury, that you came from the US. Not that we've ever been asked for either in all the years we've come to Mexico.

    As much as we support Mexico's goals of collecting taxes owed and apprehending stolen boats, the fact remains that these goals could have been quickly and easily achieved without the need for armed marines, the threats to marine businesses, boats being impounded, boat owners feeling compelled to flee the country, and tens of millions of dollars worth of negative publicity being rained down on Mexico. All it would have taken is for AGACE to announce that they were going to be at such and such a marina on such and such a day to make sure all boats were compliant by producing documents A through H, and that either the owner or his authorized representative needed to be on site to facilitate the process. And that when found to be in compliance, each boat would be given a sticker. It could have been so easy instead of so draconian.

    One thing that's become clear from our conversations with marina managers and owners, is that AGACE procedures and policies were different depending on where the AGACE agents came from and what marinas they were visiting. The marinas in Ensenada were visited by agents from Tijuana; the marinas at Los Cabos and San Carlos were visited by agents from Mexico City; the marinas in the Vallarta area were visited by agents from Zupopan/Guadalajara. In some places, agents never even bothered looking at or going on boats, they just wanted to check the paperwork. In other places, if you weren't on your boat when they visited to show them around, your boat was as good as impounded.

    It doesn't help that Mexican law is so vague and so few people know or understand it. For example, a small but vocal group out of the Vallarta YC have made the claim that each boat owner is responsible for making sure that the office of the marina he's in has a copy of all his paperwork. Leaving aside the question of how a boat owner can possibly be held responsible for the doings of the marina office, the manager of one of the biggest and glossiest marinas in Mexico emphatically insisted that his marina is under no legal obligation to have anyone's documents. Mind you, he's had very little problem with AGACE.

    There has also been the question of whether not having a TIP is like a fix-it ticket in the United States. The owner of one marina says you have up to 10 days to get one after being found without one, and there is no fine. The manager of another marina says he can't find that in law. But as a practical matter, the manager of yet a third marina said that boats that didn't have TIPs in his marina were able to get them within 10 days, and they didn't even end up on the impound list!

    Mexican also has a nagging problem with requiring things that are impossible to do. For example, in the early days of getting a TIP online, the software program prompted the TIP applicant to identify what kind of boat they had. But the program only listed the names of a few powerboats. So applicants were left to either select the name of a boat they didn't own, or not get a TIP. Such problems are rife throughout the Mexican bureaucracy. Here's another example: We recently bought a car in Arizona and legally imported it into Mexico. The final two steps in the process are going to Tepic to get a document transferred from Nogales so we could pick up the license plates in Mezcales. Mexican law says we have seven days from the time we crossed the border to the time we put the plates on the car. Well, it's been about three weeks now, and Nogales still hasn't gotten the papers to Tepic — about 200 miles from where we are — so we can take them to Mezcales to get the plates. Whose fault is it that we are illegal and have to go around with 200 pesos notes in our pockets in case we're stopped for 'driving while gringo'?

    Want more? Tax laws were dramatically changed in Mexico as of the first of the year, so the Mexican IRS has been holding meetings all over the country to explain them. Those who have been to the meetings say people left with more questions than they had before the meeting. The one thing they did come away with is that everybody who has any kind of business, or rents any rooms in their residence, has to have a Mexican IRS identity number and keep records of all debits and credits. The identity number can only be obtained on the Mexican IRS website. Alas, the website doesn't work.

    The truth is that Mexico is going to have to get its laws and bureaucracy together before it can emerge from the Third World. And until it gets those acts together, it is in its own best interest to refrain from coming down so hard on so many innocent people — particularly we nautical tourists, who are typically among the country's best ambassadors. Mexico needs to release all compliant boats immediately, and then start the long road back to making amends with foreign boat owners and investors.

    - latitude / richard

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    Making A Hard Bimini Out Of An Impoundment

    January 20, 2014 – La Cruz Ship Yard, La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

    The Wanderer and Dona de Mallorca are heeding the advice 'if you've got lemons, make lemonade.' In our case, Latitude 38's 63-ft catamaran Profligate remains impounded by AGACE, so we're using the going-on-six-weeks-now impoundment to have a hard bimini made for the cockpit. Peter Vargas and his Sea Tek crew at the La Cruz Ship Yard, who did a huge refit on Profligate last summer, are doing the work.

    Even we were shocked at how big the bimini — which won't even cover the settee seats on each side of the cockpit — is going to be. According to our measuring tape, it's 12 feet by 16 feet! A picture describes the project better than 1,000 words could. As you can see, Dona de Mallorca is lying on the mold for the bimini, while Vargas and some of his crew hold up one of the honeycomb sheets that will be used to make the top.

    With de Mallorca overseeing, the hard-working guys at La Cruz Ship Yard are creating some much-needed shade for Profligate's cockpit.
    Photo Latitude / Richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    The big bet is which will happened first: Will Vargas and crew finish and install the bimini, or will AGACE release Profligate from impoundment and let her leave the dock? Vargas says he can finish the job in two weeks. As for AGACE, we just don't know. Late last week one of the AGACE auditors told Dona de Mallorca that there were no problems with Profligate's paperwork, yet inexplicably she was still impounded. They gave no indication when she might be released. To the best of our knowledge more than 300 foreign-owned boats, most of them in compliance with Mexican law, remain impounded.

    To clarify something that's often misunderstood, after doing the impoundments, AGACE tried to force marinas to be depositarias for the impounded boats. Some agreed, in some cases under great pressure. If your boat is in a marina that agreed to be a depositaria, your boat can leave the dock if the marina gives permission. They are sort of like your bail bondsman. If, on the other hand, your marina refused to cave in to AGACE, then that agency is the depositaria for your boat. And to our knowledge, they haven't told anyone they can leave the dock. It's our understanding that a number of impounded boats have been going out for daysails and whale watching, but since Latitude has been the biggest messenger of the disaster that's been afflicting the nautical tourism in Mexico, no way are we going to risk leaving the dock. But it makes us wonder if our boat isn't a pawn in some game between AGACE and marinas that refused to buckle.

    Despite the fact that you just want to weep over what AGACE has been, and is, doing to Mexico's reputation and Mexico's nautical tourism industry, it's still sooooooo much fun down here. The sailing on Banderas Bay is pure pleasure sailing, there are whales everywhere, the air and ocean temps are great, the skies are blue, the SUPing is world class, the surf is supposed to be up tomorrow, the other cruisers and locals are terrific, medical care is good and inexpensive, and the cost of living can be ridiculously low. Plus, no matter what your uninformed neighbors in the States might tell you, everybody feels as safe or safer down here than they do in big cities in the States.

    The nice thing about Mexico is life is so much more relaxed down here and there is so much more laughter. In fact, there was a lot of levity in the La Cruz Ship Yard the other day when Dona de Mallorca was checking on the materials for the new bimini. De Mallorca has always been a bit of a mystery to the workers, because Mexico is a very class-based society, and to a large extent there are laborers and there are manager/owners. Managers and owners do not do physical labor. They just don't. De Mallorca doesn't fit this mold, because the boat yard guys know her as one of the hardest working, dirtiest-getting boat captains ever. They are mystified, for example, by the fact that she's the one who changes the oil in Profligate's engines and transmissions, does the watermaker maintenance, and lots of other nasty stuff. (The Wanderer's responsibilities are limited to sailing systems.)

    Well, you can imagine the workers' shock when they learned that de Mallorca is a famous Hollywood actress. That's right, as she was walking around the boat yard, the workers were showing her more than their normal deference, and were shyly mumbling words like "actress," "cinema," "movie star" and such. It finally dawned on Mallorca, who is most certainly not a Hollywood actress, that somehow a hoax posting we'd put on our Facebook page about a month ago had made it's way to the Ship Yard. What follows is the posting:

    "Dona de Mallorca has always wanted to be a rock 'n' roll star, but the vagaries of life have always conspired against her. Now, in a curious twist of fate, she's been tapped to become an actress in a major movie production. She was 'discovered' at LAX by director Brian de Palma, who was searching for a woman to portray Leona 'Only Little People Pay Taxes' Helmsley in the biography of the notably imperious and sometimes abrasive hotelier. 'It made no difference to me that Ms. de Mallorca has had no prior acting experience,' de Palma told Entertainment Weekly. 'If you've seen the way she gives orders, you'd know she's a natural for the role.' The accompanying photo was taken in Leona's old apartment at the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park West (or South or East or something) during recent filming. Seeking to get into her character, de Mallorca asked one of the bell hops if Ms. Helmsley was still around. 'No,' the bell hop replied, 'Leona's in hell.' Ms. de Mallorca's co-star in the film, which is to be released by Weinstein United on April 1, is Mick Jagger, who plays Harry, Leona's genteel and much-loved, older husband. 'Initially I wanted Keith Richards for the role,' de Mallorca told TMZ, 'but I realized it would be a little too much of a stretch for him. And Mick's not that bad.'"

    Ms. de Mallorca does her best Leona Helmsly impression, with Central Park in the distance
    Photo Latitude / Richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    By the way, as soon as we learned a lot of people were going for the hoax, we retracted it as follows:

    "I want to apologize to everyone, as I thought the April 1 release date was a big enough hint that the post was a hoax. It's a real photo though, taken during the Wanderer's 60th birthday trip to New York City. And it is true that Leona once lived on the floor above. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea, the Wanderer and de Mallorca normally don't like to pay more than $49/night for a room. Just ask the guys at the Comfort Inn on Rosecrans in San Diego across from the donut shop where we are longtime regulars. For if you go to work early and don't come home until late, why waste money on a nice room? But once again, our apologies."

    All this is a very, very long way of saying that except for just one thing, life in Mexico remains pretty grand.

    - latitude / richard

    Bookmark and Share
    AGACE Puts Yet Another Bullet In Mexico's Foot

    January 20, 2014 – Mexico

    This just in. The owners of one boat impounded in Ensenada tells us that Mexican IRS (AGACE) has accepted at least one boat owner's application to have their boat released. The AGACE agent told them it will take two weeks to get the official release letter.

    Last Friday the boat owners were told that the agency's office was ready to receive applications for boat owners to have their boats released, and that the documents required for release were: The Temporary Import marina, a copy of the boat's insurance policy, the boat's document, owners' passports, and a letter from the marina the boat is located in, quoting the case number and requesting release. The letter has to be in Spanish.

    Mind you, this boat hasn't been able to leave the Ensenada marina since early December. And they are being asked to wait two more weeks, when the owners only came to Mexico for a few days and wanted to leave five weeks ago. Given the speed with which the Mexican bureaucracy moves, it would not surprise us if the release letter didn't arrive for a month or more.

    It's unclear if the Guadalajara and Mexico City offices of AGACE are ready to receive applications for release.

    What is clear is that AGACE continues to handle this mess in just about the worst possible way they can.

    - latitude / richard

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    The Latest Update on Impounded Boats

    January 22, 2014 – Mexico

    We realize that many of you are sick and tired of reading about this issue, but it is critically important to many North Americans whose boats are in Mexico. So we'll share this detailed update as a preview of what will appear in the February edition of Latitude 38.

    As of January 22, over 300 foreign-owned boats, most of them from the United States, remained impounded in eight Mexican marinas after more than 45 days. It's one of the most incomprehensible, self-destructive government actions we can recall for two reasons:

    1) The overwhelming number of impounded boats have been found to be in compliance with Mexican law — yet are still being held. And, 2) making life miserable for and/or scaring the bejesus out of owners of foreign boats is diametrically opposed to Mexico's natural and stated best interests. After all, nautical tourists stay for months if not years, spend lots of money, and become Mexico's best word-of-mouth goodwill ambassadors.

    The Mexican government's unfortunate actions have been described as "ridiculous" by Jorge Gamboa, Director of Mexico Tourism in Los Angeles, who vowed to fight to the end on behalf of boat owners. Enrique Fernandez, harbormaster at Puerto Los Cabos Marina wrote, "It was a stupid idea by AGACE that created this stupid chaos." Mild-mannered Neil Shroyer of Marina de La Paz, whose marina was not raided, said the appointing of uninformed people to positions of authority is "what's keeping Mexico a Third World country." "We're all scared," said Geronimo Cevallos, harbormaster at El Cid Marina in Mazatlan and another on Isla Mujeres, speaking for all harbormasters. Neither of his marinas has been raided.

    The near-tragic series of events started in late November, when AGACE, a newly created sub-agency of Hacienda, the Mexican IRS, conducted audit/raids on eight marinas in various parts of Mexico: Opequimar, Nuevo Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit in the Vallarta area, Marina Coral and CruisePort Marina in Ensenada, Marina Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Los Cabos in the Los Cabos area, Marina San Carlos in San Carlos, as well as a facility in Acapulco, and a sister facility to Marina Cabo San Lucas in Cancun. These represent about one-quarter of the marinas in Mexico.

    A little more than 1,600 boats were inspected by auditors from AGACE, who inexplicably were accompanied by teams of marines armed with machine guns. Some teams even brought prison buses. Boat owners who were on the scenes said they thought they were about to observe a major narco bust. In a number of marinas the inspections continued through the night until dawn. Creepy.

    That 338 of the boats inspected — 21% of the total — supposedly had to be impounded should have been a wake-up call to AGACE that the problem was with their methods rather than the boat owners. But they blindly charged ahead, oblivious to the damage they were doing to the nautical tourism industry and Mexico's already shaky reputation.

    According to AGACE, there were two goals of the raids. The first was to search for stolen boats, and was thus being done for the "safety" of nautical tourists. There is nothing wrong with checking for stolen boats, which could have quickly and easily been done using a Coast Guard database. But no, the bureaucratic ways of AGACE meant the process for each boat would have to involve: 1) The US Embassy; 2) The US Consulate, and 3) The US Coast Guard. AGACE said the process shouldn't take much more than a month, during which time the boats were impounded.

    AGACE's second stated reason was to make sure that all foreign boats complied with Mexican tax law, which required that they all have a $70 TIP (Temporary Import Permit.) As Mexico is awash in unregistered cars, stolen cars, cars with fraudulent papers and plates, our belief is that the appointed AGACE official behind the raids thought he was going to catch countless "tax cheats" and thus become a national hero.

    As noble as AGACE's goals might have been, their execution was a disaster. In the first place, the auditors — who were either from Tijuana, Mexico City or Guadalajara — didn't know the first thing about boats. For example, they carried simple diagrams to show them the difference from the bow and the stern and other parts of the boats. They didn't know the difference between the brand names of boats and the names of marine components, such as Garmin and Volvo.

    The raids were carried out differently depending on where they were conducted. For example, when agents raided Puerto Los Cabos and Marina San Carlos, they didn't even go on boats. Yet in places like Ensenada, if agents couldn't find the HIN (hull identification number), the boat was put in impound. And at Riviera Nayarit, inspectors told some boat owners they didn't need to see HIN numbers at all. Gross inconsistency has long been a hallmark of law enforcement in Mexico.

    At Marina Riviera Nayarit, where Latitude keeps Profligate, a major factor in a boat ending up impounded seemed to be whether or not the owner was aboard when the agents made their unannounced visits. In the case of Profligate, we've been using the exact same paperwork — and TIP — for 17 years, and had used professional ship's agents to check in and out of Mexico three times in the previous two months — with no difficulty. Yet now our boat was impounded. We're convinced that had we been aboard when the AGACE came around, our boat would not have been impounded. How could she have been, for as AGACE would later verify, everything was in order.

    Having examined the AGACE's paperwork for Marina Riviera Nayarit, we noticed that agents wrote "not visible" in many of the boxes that needing checking on their inspection sheets. Unless the agents came aboard, how were they going to verify the boat's TIP, boat document, engine serial numbers, HIN number, and insurance policy? Much of Mexican law is based on the 'guilty until proven innocent' concept of Napoleonic law. So if you weren't aboard to show the inspectors some document, they couldn't verify that you had it, and thus your boat was impounded for having been assumed to not to be compliance with Mexican law.

    It got even more ridiculous. After being surprised to learned their multimillion boat had been impounded in Ensenada, one couple's lawyer was told it was because their boat didn't have a HIN number on the transom. Yet the boat clearly did have a HIN number. Ironically, before agents had left the boat, they had assured the captain and crew that everything was fine.

    In the case of Profligate, even now, 45+ days after our boat was impounded, we have absolutely no idea why. Like the hundreds of other owners of impounded boats, AGACE hasn't ever made contact with us! Last week Dona de Mallorca had a chance to speak with a pleasant AGACE agent in person.

    "Is all the paperwork and everything else with Profligate in order?" she asked.

    "Yes, it is," said the agent after looking through the files.

    "Great, then she's no longer impounded?"

    "No, the boat is still impounded," the agent said pleasantly. He added that he didn't know how much longer Profligate would remain impounded.

    To summarize, AGACE impounded boats even though there was nothing wrong with boats or their paperwork. Then, five weeks later, after verifying everything was in order, still wouldn't released the boats. It's unbelievable but true. And it's true for most of the 338 boats that were impounded.

    It is correct that a small minority of boats didn't have a TIP or their TIP had expired. There was then some back and forth about whether not having a TIP was like a fix-it ticket in the States. Marina Owner's Association lawyer Maria Elena Carrillo argued that it was a 'fix-it' situation without any fine. She said she knew, because she helped write the law when she worked for Hacienda. In any event, AGACE did allow boats in some marinas to retroactively get TIPs, and didn't even put them on their impound list.

    There has been confusion about what 'impoundment' means. AGACE uses the term 'precautionary embargo,' an embargo being defined as when a vessel is not allowed to enter or leave a port.

    After 'impounding' all the boats, AGACE put great pressure on the marinas with impounded boats to become depositarias, which meant they would become financially responsible if the boat owner fled the country with the boat or otherwise made the boat unavailable for future judicial proceedings. It was sort of like AGACE wanted the marinas — and later the port captains — to be the bail bondsmen for the boats. Some marinas agreed, some agreed only under the threat of their business being shut down, and about half the marinas flat out refused.

    In the case of marinas that agreed to be depositarias, the marina operators could decide if boats could leave the dock and go for daysails — although they usually wouldn't be allowed to leave the port captain's jurisdiction, and surely not the country. Profligate, however, was in Marina Riviera Nayarit, one of the marinas that steadfastly refused to become a depositaria. As a result, AGACE itself was the default depositaria. Since violating an embargo is a federal offense, and AGACE didn't contact us, let alone give us permission to leave the dock, Profligate hasn't left the dock.

    To clarify things further, there are two kinds of embargoes in Mexico. The lesser one is where the owners are still allowed to go on their boats, and if the depositarias agree, take them out. The greater one is where boats are circled in yellow tape and sometimes chained to the dock, nobody is allowed to go aboard, and the boat is not permitted to leave the dock. To our knowledge, none of the boats in this episode have been subject to the greater embargo.

    Unfortunately, Mexico has a long history of seizing foreign-owned assets, be it real estate, airplanes, motorhomes, boats and the like, and often without cause. There are two letters in this month's Letters from boat owners who had it happen to them. But until November, it hadn't happened on a large scale since 1996.

    After the fiasco of 1996, when the boats were released after 140 days, the Fox administration, after much work with Tere Grossman, President of the Mexican Marina Owner's Association, came up with the TIPs. This was an important step forward, as previously boats had always been attached to the owner's tourist visa. Under Mexican law, the boat couldn't stay in Mexico for more than six months without being taken back to the States, and even worse, the owner of the boat couldn't return to the States for even a day without taking his/her boat along. This part of the law had been widely ignored, but the TIPs finally made it legal.

    (Despite the recent episode, Mexico has consistently been making cruising easier for foreign boat owners, which is why the recent action is so baffling.)

    There are two schools of thought about the recent inspection/raid/impoundings. One of them is that it's part of the PRI political party of new President Pena Nieto returning to their bad old ways, which was 70 years of massive corruption, if not rigged elections, before they were voted out in 2000. "The impoundings are a money grab," say some.

    More optimistic people, ourselves included, think the whole mess is a result of bureaucratic incompetence, and one hand of Mexican government not knowing what the other hand is doing. For while Pena Nieto comes from an admittedly once — and perhaps still — corrupt political party, he's actually been doing a lot of seemingly good things.

    For example, he got rid of teacher union president Elba Esther Gordillo, a king-maker of politicians who had embezzled $120 million from the union to start a real estate empire in the United States. Control of the school system was also taken back from the union by the government.

    Pena Nieto has taken on some of the biggest monopolies in Mexico, many of which were either created or greatly assisted by the Russian-style privatization process under President Salinas between 1988 and 1994. Among the biggest beneficiaries of Mexican monopolies was Carlos Slim — Nieto's godfather! Slim became the world's richest man through a ridiculous privatization deal of Mexico's phone system, and by charging among the highest telecommunication prices in a country with one of the poorest populations. To put it in context, minimum wage in Mexico, after a 4% raise last year, is about $5.10 day! A family of four with a monthly income of $800 is considered to be 'middle class.'

    Nieto has also been instrumental in breaking the 75-year monopoly of the notoriously corrupt state-owned Pemex oil company. According to a Bloomberg Sustain report, the reforms are going to result in, "North America being flooded with oil." Pena Nieto has also taken on the powerful television, cement, and brewery monopolies. Further, he's called corruption "the albatross around Mexico's neck."

    Perhaps most important, Nieto has also been attacking Mexico's extremely low taxation rates, and even lower levels of compliance. Mexico's mostly ridiculously low tax rates generally favor the rich over the poor. Not paying taxes in Mexico is common.

    As of January 1, many tax laws had changed, with a new 16% tax on junk food, sugary drinks, pet food and many other things. In addition, there are no longer any pequeno businesses which just paid 3% of their gross. Now all businesses, even front-room taco stands, are supposed to have computers to record all expenses and income, and then report them every few weeks to Hacienda. How this is supposed to happen in a country where a large percentage of the population doesn't have electricity is unclear.

    All this sounds great, and conceptually we're all in favor. But it won't be easy to accomplish. And many wonder if all the new money collected won't be kept by corrupt PRI members.

    One big problem is the Mexican bureaucracy, which can move very slowly, such as AGACE, and which can't see or understand the big picture, such as AGACE. Blindly following laws it doesn't completely understand has been a disaster for Mexico. Furthermore, Mexico has a long history of passing laws that people and the bureaucracy can't possibly comply with. Just one small example: When boat owners attempted to get TIPs online in November, the program asked them to identify what brand boat they had. Alas, it only listed a few names, all of which were powerboats. The program later asked for follow-up documents to be sent to an email address. The email address then shut down. Everybody in Mexico has countless similar stories.

    Let's get practical. Because AGACE's action has been so destructive to the nautical tourism industry and to Mexico's reputation, it's our expectation that most of the impounded boats will be released before long. Indeed, a few owners — in full compliance — have already been told they can apply for release, a procedure expected to take two weeks. Talk about adding insult to injury!

    If your boat is already in Mexico, do you have to worry that she might be inspected and impounded? While there can be no guarantees, both Tere Grossman, Neil Shroyer and other marina owners tell us given the horrible publicity to date, it's very, very unlikely.

    If your boat is in California, should you risk coming south? As with boats already in Mexico, the terrible publicity generated by previous raids makes it highly unlikely AGACE will strike again, at least until it radically changes its policies and procedures. After all, one of the reasons cited for canceling of the Cabo Race was "events in Mexico" and potential participants in March's Puerto Vallarta Race and MEXORC have been seeking reassurances. If you do head to Ensenada, we highly recommend that you check with Fito at Coral Marina or Jonathan at Cruiseport Marina on the current situation and learn exactly what officials are asking for now. As everyone has seen, it can change from day to day and without warning.

    Having your boat seized after complying with Mexico law is no fun at all, so we understand those who say they are leaving Mexico as soon as their boat is free, and never, ever coming back.

    We're taking a longer view, in part because we do lots of sailing anyway, we've already been most everywhere in Mexico, and thus have primarily been inconvenienced. Our view is that all this has been a colossal mistake on the part of one sub-agency, and once they save face, they won't repeat it.

    As we said in the beginning, Mexico is a fabulous place to cruise for so many reasons. Check out Changes in Latitudes in the January edition of Latitude 38 and you'll see that the folks aboard Starship liked it better than any country in the South Pacific. And after a circumnavigation, the Milskis on Sea Level said Mexico had as good cruising as anywhere they'd been.

    Absent a complete additional screw up by AGACE, we anticipate that there will be a 21st Baja Ha-Ha in the fall, that Profligate will be back in Mexico next winter — and best of all, this whole disastrous incident will lead to Mexico doing a much better job of making nautical tourists feel welcome and secure than before. Sort a revisiting of what happened in 1996.

    - latitude / richard

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    Richard Spindler
    about an hour ago ·
    IS THE END NEAR IN MEXICO?
    Fito Espinoza, Harbormaster Marina Coral in Ensenada, one of the marinas most affected by AGACE's impounding of more than 338 foreign owned boats, reports that there will be a meeting tonight in San Diego of SAT (Mexican IRS) officials and the mangers of at least seven Mexican marinas. The meeting will take place at 7 pm tonight at the pagoda of Sunroad Marina following the San Diego Boat Show. All interested parties are invited to attend. It's expected that there will be some kind of announcement regarding the impounding of boats in Mexico.
    We sure hope there will be an announcement, as AGACE's 'auditing' policies have been a disaster for nautical tourism and Mexico, and it's been very unpleasant experience for all those whose boats have been impounded — particularly the vast majority who followed all the rules in the first place, but whose boats are still impounded.
    If all goes well, SAT will make some kind of face-saving statement, and then along with the marina managers will announce that for the first time pertinent regulations for foreign boat owners will be made clear in English as well as Spanish, both in the form of posters at appropriate locations in Southern California, Mexican ports of entry, and also in booklets — which we at Latitude would be more than happy to publish and distribute for free.
    Among the issues that need to be covered at requirements for clearing into Mexico, checking out of Mexico, clearing out and checking in at different domestic port captain districts, the need and requirement for Temporary Import Permits, the need and requirements for captain's licenses, the need and requirements for sanitation certificates, the need and requirements for exit zarpes from the United States, and everything else that port captains, Customs or SAT wants to require of foreign boat owners.
    The truth of the matter is that the relationship between foreign boat owners and Mexico should be a marriage made in heaven, as both have what the other needs and wants. It could be so sweet and easy. The other truth is that except in the most extreme cases, foreign boat owners want nothing more than to comply with whatever Mexican officialdom wants. We do not have stolen boats and we are not "tax cheats". Up until November at least, it had all been simple, easy and inexpensive.
    We've been getting a lot of emails from boat owners and captains asking if it's now safe for foreign boat owners to take their boats to Mexico. As our boat is one of the over 300 boats that remains impounded, it would be a little bit awkward for us to say, "Sure, no worries, come on down," even though we think that's probably true. So we'll just say that there haven't been any 'raids' since late December, and several well-placed marina owners tells us it is extremely unlikely there will be, given all the terrible publicity the first ones generated.
    If we were a concerned boat owner in the States wanting to sail south, we'd take our cues from what is said — and what is not said — at tonight's meeting and expected announcement from San Diego. Personally, we at Latitude are optimistic.

    - latitude / richard

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    Mexico Puts Lipstick on a Pig

    January 27, 2014 – San Diego Boat Show

    Alas, the pig still looks like a pig.

    Before continuing, we want to remind everyone that Latitude loves Mexico and the people of Mexico, and far more than anyone else for the last 30 years has championed Mexico as one of the top three cruising grounds in the world. Furthermore, Latitude believes that once Mexico learns from the current auditing debacle, it will resume being among the top cruising grounds in the world.

    Mexico
    No matter if your boat has been impounded or not, life in Mexico has otherwise been excellent. The people are friendly beyond belief, much of the countryside is stunning, and the cost of living is low. Plus it's warm and the surf, as has been the case all along the west coast, has been killer. In this photo a sailor/surfer drops in on what will be a 100+ yard steaming ride at the Stinky's break at Punta Mita. He's not wearing a wetsuit because the water is about 80 degrees and the air temp is about 85.
    Photo Latitude / richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    That said, the Mexican government missed what would have been an excellent opportunity to allay the growing fears of foreign boat owners in Mexico and foreign boat owners who are/were planning on taking their boats to Mexico. The opportunity was last weekend's San Diego Boat Show at Sunroad Marina, where Mexican officials and harbormasters from six Mexican marinas were supposedly going to make an announcement regarding the continued impoundment of approximately 300 foreign owned boats in Mexico.

    According to Ralph Lewis of Laelia, who has now abandoned plans to cruise Mexico prior to sailing to the South Pacific, the proposed announcement was botched from the get go: "I showed up at Sunroad Marina at little before 7 pm, the announced time for the announcement about the situation in Mexico. I got there just in time to hear the closing remarks of some gringo in a suit who was reassuring people that the problems foreign boat owners in Mexico were having would be resolved and that we should all be careful to have the correct paperwork. I saw nothing in the handout that gave me a warm feeling that it would be OK for me to take my boat to Mexico. Among other things, it mentioned a second HIN (hull identification number) boats needed to have on the inside of the boat to match the HIN on the outside of the boat. I have been crawling all my 1978 Pearson 365 for the last two years getting her ready to go cruising, and have yet to see a second HIN. If it exists, it's in a really inconspicuous location. [Editor's note: Boats prior to 1986 didn't have a second HIN number on the inside of the boat, something that Mexican auditors, who know nothing about boats, know nothing about.]

    "I am signed up for the Pacific Puddle Jump," Lewis continues, "but was hoping to cruise the Sea of Cortez on the way to Puerto Vallarta and the Pacific Puddle Jump party. I have decided to skip Mexico — as have my boat neighbors who are also doing the Puddle Jump. I understand there are others here in San Diego who are now also planning to skip Mexico, and was wondering if Latitude could have a Pacific Puddle Jump Party in San Diego in addition to the one in Puerto Vallarta." [Editor's note: We are going to poll everyone signed up to do the Puddle Jump, and if there is much interest at all, we will indeed have a Puddle Jump presentation by Andy 'Mr Puddle Jump' Turpin in San Diego.]

    Also disappointed in the presentation was Jerald King of Sunroad Marina.

    "The meeting was a fiasco. I got to the Sunroad pavilion at 6:55 pm, five minutes before the announced start of the presentation, just in time to hear some American tell the crowd to contact the Coast Guard if they wanted to get their HIN number changed. Then, "Thanks for being here." That was three minutes before the meeting was supposed to have started. When I asked a Sunroad Marina official why they decided to start early, he said, "There were so many people here at 6:25 pm that we decided to start early." I have no idea what was said, but I don't believe anybody was trying to hide anything by starting early, as there were so many people there. When I entered the pavilion, the closest I could get was three rows back. But I think the early start was typical of the whole situation in Mexico, as the officials involved are just improvising as they go along. They just don't seem to realize how many people are concerned or affected, and they sure don't realize how upsetting it has been to most of us."

    We think King hit the nail on the head with his last two sentences.

    Capt. Pat Raines of Pt. Loma Publishing tells Latitude that the music had started playing and the wine started flowing, so there was indeed no formal announcement as had been hoped for. But she managed to speak with several individuals, including Mexico's Federal Chief of Tourism Lic. Alejandro Santander Habif. Despite apologizing for what was described as an "inconvenience" to foreign boat owners — Rains reports Santander said that "all branches of the Mexican government are very aware and likewise very upset [with the abrupt manner with which AGACE conducted the audits]" — he did not have much in the way of good or comforting news. Consider the following things he is reported to have said:

    1) He expected that the currently embargoed boats will be "liberated" in the next month. Well that's just wonderful. Close to 300 boats, almost all of them in full compliance with Mexican law, which have been held in embargo through no fault of the owners since late November, may have to wait yet another 30 days to freely move their boats about. Another bullet into Mexico's already nearly shot off foot, as owners of embargoed boats don’t want apologies, they want action.

    2) The audit was performed by SAT (the Mexican IRS) in order to establish a database of foreign boats in Mexico, and to find stolen boats in Mexico, and thus SAT is likely to do this annually. Annual boat audits? There's a thought unlikely to instill confidence in the minds of foreign boat owners thinking about coming to Mexico. But, Santander told Rains, such audits would not be done as "aggressively" or "abruptly" as were the ones in November. Until it's defined how such audits might be conducted in the future, and how the rights of foreign boat owners are to be respected, foreign boat owners are likely to stay away in droves.

    3) That only "a very small number" of boats being held in 'precautionary embargo' "might turn out to be in serious violation of U.S. and Mexican law, and not just missing a HIN number or have an expired TIP (Temporary Import Permit.)

    [By making such a statement, Santander seemed to be implying that there is something wrong with the paperwork of most of the boats that have been held in embargo for nearly two months now, which is one of the two Big Myths of this entire debacle. For what AGACE is finding is that virtually all embargoed boats are indeed in full compliance with U.S. and Mexican law. Yet they inexplicably still haven't "liberated" them. For example, we're told that 48 of the 53 'embargoed' boats at the Riviera Nayarit Marina in La Cruz have no problems with their paperwork. Similar numbers are believed to be true for the other marinas.]

    [The second Big Myth is no matter how many times certain people may want to loudly make claims to the contrary, embargoed boats in marinas that have refused to become depositarias — which is about half of the eight marinas where boats were inspected — CANNOT legally leave the dock. Our source is a member of the AGACE team, who we met a week ago Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Cruz'in Restaurant at Riviera Nayarit Marina. "Yes," the AGACE agent told Dona de Mallorca, "there is nothing wrong with Profligate's paperwork. Unfortunately, your boat [like all the rest of the embargoed boats in the marina] is not yet released from embargo. So I'm sorry, until that happens — hopefully in a few days — she may not leave the dock." This is not to say that boats have not been breaking this law or that anybody in Mexican government has been enforcing this law, but it is a violation of federal law. And given Mexico’s tendency to suddenly enforce laws that were never enforced before, we’re not taking any chances. The thing that we think everybody would agree with — although some seem like they don't want to mention it — is that embargoed boat owners absolutely cannot take their boat from one port captain's district to another port captain's district. For example, that means a boat in La Cruz cannot make a seven-mile trip to Nuevo Vallarta. That requires clearing out with one port captain and checking in with another port captain. As port captains have lists of embargoed boats, such a boat would not be given permission to leave or check in.]

    [The third myth is that apologists for AGACE's actions keep claiming that the boats aren't really 'impounded,' but are merely in 'precautionary embargo.' We think this is a major fallacious quibble over definitions and languages. As far as we're concerned — and we think most boat owners would agree — if you can't legally leave the dock with your boat without the permission of someone else, it makes no difference if you can live on her, she's 'impounded.' Besides, if the boats aren't 'impounded,' why would Mexican officials talk of them eventually being "liberated?" Boats that are free don't required 'liberation,' do they?]

    Here's the announcement that Mexico President Pena Nieto should have had Tourism and SAT officials make at the boat show in San Diego — an announcement that needs to be made as soon as possible to prevent future damage to west coast marine businesses:

    "Dear foreign boat owners. In an attempt to make sure everyone complies with Mexico's tax laws, and to make sure Mexico doesn't become a haven for stolen boats, a division of Mexico's IRS conducted an auditing process at eight of Mexico's 30-plus marinas in late November. Due to poor planning, a poor understanding of what was involved, inadequately trained auditors who were accompanied by marines with machine guns, and a total lack of communication with our valued nautical tourists, the audits proved to be unnecessarily frightening. Even worse, they resulted in 338 boats being held against their owners' wills for more than two months — despite the fact that almost all of these boats complied with all Mexican law. In retrospect, we could have accomplished exactly what we needed to accomplish in a much shorter time by using the same process that we use with foreign owned vehicles and aircraft. We realize that this has been a tremendous inconvenience to our esteemed nautical visitors, and in many cases, not only destroyed plans that had been many years in the making, but caused many to suffer considerable unnecessary expense. Recognizing these facts, and knowing that several important regattas to Mexico are scheduled to start in the next couple of months, I have ordered all embargoed boats to immediately be liberated, except for those very few with obvious paperwork problems. Furthermore, in the next few days we will be releasing a free booklet, in English, making clear all the requirements for bringing a foreign-owned boat to Mexico, as well as all the pertinent procedures that need to be followed. We realize that our not having done this before has caused many unnecessary problems. Once again, our apologies to those hundreds of foreign boat owners, and to the marine businesses in the United States and Mexico who have suffered as a result. You have my promise that Mexico will learn from its mistakes."

    So what's it like cruising in Mexico now? It's a bit surreal. For on the one hand, you have 300 foreign boat owners who aren't very happy, as their boats remain impounded after two months. Yet on the other hand, hundreds of others are happily cruising Mexico as they always have, worried to varying degrees that their boats also might soon be audited by people who have no idea what they are doing and may be impounded. The least worried are people who anchor out, as so far AGACE has only audited boats in marinas, although the marinas do seem quite full. Fortunately, most insiders don't expect any more audits until the program has been drastically revamped.

    By the way, a few people have claimed that Latitude's coverage of the situation in Mexico has merely been "whining" on our part because there is something wrong with Profligate's paperwork and we are doing everything we can to get her free. Here's three reasons why that is rubbish: 1) An AGACE official has already confirmed that Profligate's paperwork is in order. If anyone has any doubts, we challenge them to take our 'Kiss Our HIN' challenge, details of which can be found in the February issue of Latitude. 2) Profligate wouldn't be leaving the dock for the next three months anyway, because the Wanderer will be in the Caribbean sailing aboard 'ti Profligate, La Gamelle, and Ppalu. More than anyone we can think of, the embargo has been mostly a mere inconvenience to us. And, 3) It would hardly be ethical for the publishers of the most popular sailing magazine on the west coast to ignore the fate of the owners of 337 others whose boats have been impounded, despite most of them having the correct paperwork.

    We’re confident that this fiasco is going to end before too long. But it's a terrible shame that it ever had to happen, and that it's been allowed to fester for so long.

    - latitude / richard

    Top Canadian Mechanic Said to Have Fled Mexico

    January 27, 2014 – Mazatlan

    Bob Buchanan, the Canadian owner of Total Yacht Works in Mazatlan, is reported to have fled Mexico. If you know anything about the circumstances, we'd like to hear from you.

    Mechanic
    Buchanan was last seen in late December...
    Photo Latitude / richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    Buchanan, who started Total Yacht Works 14 years ago, and became the biggest distributor of Yanmar diesels between the United States and South America, enjoyed a stellar reputation in the cruising community as being among the best, if not the best, diesel mechanic in Mexico. Boat owners would think nothing of traveling hundreds of miles to have him work on their engines. Indeed, the presence of Total Yacht Works at the Fonatur marina and boat yard in Mazatlan is one of the reasons it's been the most successful of the 11 Fonatur marinas.

    We last saw Buchanan in late December, after not seeing him for about 10 years. He was very busy, with customers lined up to see him. The rest of the Fonatur yard was dead. He was going to collaborate with us on an article to be titled "How to Destroy Your Boat's Diesel," the thesis being that most marine diesels die after a mere 4,000 hours because of abuse rather than too much use. At the time, we were making arrangements to have Buchanan do a major service on both Profligate's diesels later in the spring.

    There has been speculation that Buchanan's disappearance is related to the fact that he and his Mexican business partner parted ways just a few months ago. If you know anything about the situation, please email us.
    - latitude / richard

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    'Mexico's New York Times' Blasts Mexico's IRS

    January 28, 2014 – Mexico City, Mexico
    Reforma
    (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)
    "Mexican IRS makes a shipwreck of nautical tourism." Photo Latitude / richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    We're not sure why it took so long, but in the January 27 issue, Reforma, the much respected 'New York Times of Mexico,' took SAT/AGACE, the Mexican IRS, to task over the impounding of 338 foreign-owned boats, almost all of which remain impounded after two months.

    The headline in the Mexico City newspaper roughly translates to "Mexican IRS makes a shipwreck of nautical tourism." Similar articles appeared in El Norte, the most influential newspaper in Monterrey, the business capital of Mexico, and a number of other important state and local newspapers in Mexico. They additionally reported that SAT officials were scaring foreign boat owners over a $50 permit. It actually wasn't over not having a permit, as almost all boats did, but they sure were scaring boat owners, no matter if they had a permit or not.

    "This is probably the knockout blow [to the SAT program]," said one marina official. After all, everybody in Mexico knows that tourism and foreign investment are lifebloods of the Mexican economy.

    SAT reportedly wrote back to Reforma to say they had now released 88 of the 338 boats, more than 40 of them at Riviera Nayarit Marina in La Cruz. This was yet another bullet in their foot, as the marina reported that no such number of boats had been released. Furthermore, they reported that AGACE officials in Guadalajara had just called them to say they would call again on Wednesday to confirm they would be coming down to the marina on Thursday to release all the impounded boats. We're pretty confident that's going to happen, but we'll believe it when we see it.

    We have no news when boats at other marinas in Mexico might be released, but after all the critical front page stories in Mexico, we think it's a matter of days rather than weeks. Then will come the uphill battle of regaining the confidence of foreign boat owners and investors. Mexico needs to engage in a serious outreach program.

    - latitude / richard

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    BREAKING NEWS ON BOATS IMPOUNDED IN MEXICO.

    January 30, 2014 – Riviera Nayarit Marina

    AGACE has begun releasing boats from impoundment.

    AGACE agents not 10 feet from me are signing final documents that will make Riviera Nayarit Marina a Depositaria, which will immediately release the 53 boats that have been impounded here since late November. Apparently the Depositaria designation is merely a legal way for AGACE to get out of the legal mess and PR disaster they created for Mexico. There is no word on the fate of boats impounded in other marinas, but this is a good sign. In other news, a front page story in Reforma, Mexico's New York Times, quotes a SCT — ports and port captains — official as saying there will be no more of the audits and embargoes of foreign boats. Alas, they have no control over AGACE. See tomorrow's 'Lectronic for details.

    - latitude / richard

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    Richard Spindler
    This Additional Weirdness Just In: The owners of an impounded boat in Ensenada say that a California Highway Patrol officer has been in touch with them, as he's been given the job, by Mexican officials, of determining whether on not their boat is stolen. The officer was satisfied that their boat wasn't stolen, so the owners hope that, after two months, their boat will soon be released. The California Highway Patrol investigating whether a federally documented boat is stolen . . . nothing will surprise us now. Where is Broderick Crawford when you need him?
    Like · · Share · 31 minutes ago ·

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    Heading in the Right Direction

    January 31, 2014 – Mexico

    As reported in yesterday afternoon’s special ‘Lectronic Latitude, all 53 of the impounded boats at Riviera Nayarit Marina in La Cruz — including Latitude’s 63-ft catamaran Profligate — have been released. Most of the boats are owned by Americans or Canadians, although some were owned, perhaps through American corporations, by Mexican nationals.
    San Carlos Marina
    To best of our knowledge, a number of boats are still impounded at San Carlos Marina. Hopefully they will be liberated soon.
    Photo Latitude / richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    It’s our understanding that all but a very few of the boats that had been impounded for two months had met every legal requirement to be in Mexico all along. Based on our conversations with a number of boat owners, the biggest things they were guilty of is not being on their boats when inspectors arrived unannounced, or having their boats inspected by auditors who didn’t know anything about boats or the law.

    The owner of a Hans Christian 38 said that when auditors came by his boat, there were a bunch of locals working on her. They asked if the owner was aboard. Not knowing that man’s wife, a co-owner of the boat, was aboard, the boat workers said nobody was around. Unable to check for documents, the auditors put the boat on the impound list by default. She wasn’t allowed to leave the dock for two months. We’ve heard countless variations of this, where boats in full compliance with Mexican law were nonetheless prevented from leaving the dock since late November. In many cases these boat owners incurred unwanted marina costs.

    “There’s no snow, so I guess it’s not the worse place to be stuck,” said one boat owner, putting the best spin on everything.

    The release of the boats in La Cruz doesn’t necessarily mean the immediate or long term fiasco is over. For one thing, as far as we can calculate, there are still more than 250 mostly foreign-owned boat impounded in marinas in Ensenada, Los Cabos, Cancun and San Carlos. Yesterday's release of the boats in La Cruz is promising news, but doesn’t mean the other boats are released. We can only wait.

    Equally as troubling are the statements in the Mexican press by Aristóteles Núñez, the head of Sistema de Administración Tributaria (SAT, the Mexican IRS). Noting that Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, the Coordinador General of SCT, which is the agency in charge of ports and marinas, yesterday told the press that there wouldn’t be any similar audits or embargoes of foreign-owned boats in the future, Núñez said the head of SCT was wrong. Núñez said there would be more audits and perhaps embargoes. As he’s in charge of the agency that conducts audits and embargoes, it would seem that his opinion carries the most weight.

    “It’s a ridiculous situation,” Herbey Rolando Chacón told Latitude in a telephone conversation this morning. “SAT is deaf. They don’t want to say they were wrong or sorry. They say they are going to keep doing the audits.” Rolando, a reporter for Reforma, the very influential ‘New York Times of Mexico’, says his interview with the publisher of Latitude 38 will appear in tomorrow’s Reforma.

    We like to think that SAT is putting up a bold front, but that behind the scenes Mexican politicians and officials, aware of the tremendous damage done by the SAT, will stifle their ambitions in this area.

    All this comes at a time when tourism and nautical tourism in Mexico seems to be booming. Airline seats and better accommodations in places like Puerto Vallarta seem difficult to come by, and an employee at Applegate, the biggest realtor in Vallarta, said they had more people looking for real estate than they could handle. While Marina Vallarta has lost some boats because they are redoing many of the docks, all the other marinas on Banderas Bay seem to be operating at record or close to record occupancy. The anchorage at La Cruz has lots of boats, and the anchorage at Punta Mita, which rarely saw more than eight boats a night in years past, has often been home to more than 20 boats a night.

    Assuming that the remaining 250 boats are released quickly, the question becomes how is Mexico going to reassure frightened foreign boat owners, both those currently in Mexico and those who were planning on coming down next year. Latitude is planning on working with the Mexican Marina Owner’s Association, and hopefully Tourism, to create a booklet and posters describing what’s necessary to bring a boat into Mexico, to transit between ports, and to leave Mexico. Hopefully such a booklet can serve as a baseline, so when changes are made, the booklet can be updated.

    What kind of changes, you may ask. Well, when the new navigation rules are published shortly, they will say that it’s mandatory to have a captain’s license to bring a boat into Mexico. While that’s what the new law will say, port captains will be sent a memo instructing them to ignore that part of the new law. We hope they get the memo.

    That’s the latest in Mexico, where, other than the fiasco created by SAT, the cruising has been fantastic. Stay tuned.

    This Additional Weirdness Just In: The owners of an impounded boat in Ensenada say that a California Highway Patrol officer has been in touch with them, as he's been given the job, by Mexican officials, of determining whether or not their boat is stolen. The officer was satisfied that their boat wasn't stolen, so the owners hope that, after two months, their boat will soon be released. The California Highway Patrol investigating whether a federally documented boat is stolen . . . nothing will surprise us now.



    - latitude / richard

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alameda CA
    Posts
    174

    Default

    Thirty More Foreign Yachts "Liberated" in Mexico

    February 3, 2014 – Ensenada, Mexico


    The marina at Coral Hotel and Marina just a few miles north of downtown Ensenada.
    Photo Latitude / Richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    Following the liberation of all 53 impounded boats at Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz last Thursday, we've been told that approximately 30 out of 50 boats impounded at Marina Coral in Ensenada were released a day or so later. It's a four-day Flag Day holiday in Mexico, so the exact numbers of released boats was not available.

    Among the released boats is one that fled Mexico for the States in the middle of the night a while back. "Liberating" a boat that already illegally fled your country . . . that pretty much sums up this fiasco.


    Last Thursday an AGACE official at Marina Riviera Nayarit explained to a boat owner that it would be just a few more minutes before all the boats there would be liberated.
    Photo Latitude / Richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    While more than 100 of the original 338 boats are still impounded after more than two months, the situation remains outrageous, but at least things have been picking up speed in the right direction. But the quicker Mexico can resolve this dreadful public relations blunder and begin the long road of restoring the faith with foreign boat owners, the better.

    If your boat is impounded, please keep us informed, as we don't want you or your boat to be forgotten.


    John and Gilly Foy of the Punta Mita- (formerly Alameda) based Catalina 42 Destiny joined us for Profligate's "Liberation Day" sail across Banderas Bay. It was a spectacularly mellow late afternoon and early evening white sails cruise.
    Photo Latitude / Richard
    © 2014 Latitude 38 Publishing, LLC

    - latitude / richard

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •