Recommendations for boat work done in Mexico

Looking at heading south this spring and wondering about having some of the needed yard work done their as opposed to here in California. Anyone have any experience in that area and recommendations ?

These will be cosmetic repairs, noting required to make it a safe run down the coast. I've price a bottom job at Baja Navel and it is about 1/2 the cost on in the Bay Area. Also looking at a big stainless steel project to build a solar fame over my current bimini . Recent estimate here is about $10,000 for the stainless frame alone, seems pretty high.

Again just interest in anyone has had any work none south of the border on the Baja with either any luck or a horror story.

Thanks,

Mark

Mark all I can offer is a second hand anecdote but a friend of mine had his 43' Nautiline houseboat trucked down to the Sea of Cortez from Stockton 10 years ago. I ran into him about 4-5 years ago at a party and he told me besides being happy as a lark with his new surroundings, boat maintenance was far less than half California prices and the quality of work was top notch. He had heard horror stories before relocating but said he had never experienced nor seen any. Getting in with the locals seemed to be key for him as he is fluent in Spanish.

Good luck with your trip

When I checked on boat paint pricing, I found that Baja Naval was comparable to LA, LB, NB pricing -- not sure how that compares to SFB pricing. I was surprised that there wasn't a discount and the yard manager said the real benefit of having them do it, as compared to a So. Cal. yard is they can use "the good stuff" that is environmentally prohibited here.

We spent 4 plus years in MX with significant time in Cabo, La Paz, PV and the Mazatlan areas. Workmanship and cost could vary year to year sometimes job to job or month to month from the same yard. How diligent are you to over see the work? That is a must. Do you speak any Spanish which is a big help because a lot of the workers don't speak English or well enough to understand a frustrated gringo. Also, if you do have work done south of the border, get ready for the "manana" factor. It's part of the culture.

One more important point -- if you get into a fee dispute you will not be permitted to take your boat out of the country until that dispute is resolved. I am told you can't even "bond" over the dispute -- your boat stays as collateral. And if it is in their yard at the time, it stays in their yard. If someone gets injured working on your boat, you may owe them money. Boat not released until you pay.

Thx for the comments but many of them apply equally on this side of the border as well. I have learned to deal with the "manana factor" ever since I bought my first boat, and needed to have ANYTHING fixed.

Visited our "friendly neighbors" to the south 41 years ago by car. Got stopped by a cop, paid the "mordita" and never went back. I can see Mexico from my slip but if they want to rob me again, they're gonna have to come here.

Really sad to hear so many folks have had bad experiences in Mexico. We just came back from 5 days in Puerto Vallarta and had a fabulous time, meeting many of the nicest folks you could meet and do business with. From staff around the marina, to cab drivers, shops we visited and wherever we ate. Maybe I just saw them during the right week. But there are 100's of cruisers done there all the time, so they must be doing something right. The BaHaHa has over a hundred sailboats heading down there beginning this week.

We are going to try our luck next fall, we'll keep you posted..

Mark you might try asking at CruiserForum, there's quite a few folks there that have made the trip and have had very positive experiences. Attitude is everything when it comes to foreign travel and some folks just aren't cut out for it.

We had a speaker from the Mexican Tourist board come to our yacht club to give a spiel on the wonders of going to Mexico. The fiasco with the boat impoundments has left a bad taste on boaters who would normally go there, and the Mexicans are feeling the effects.

Dswizzler said:

Really sad to hear so many folks have had bad experiences in Mexico. We just came back from 5 days in Puerto Vallarta and had a fabulous time, meeting many of the nicest folks you could meet and do business with. From staff around the marina, to cab drivers, shops we visited and wherever we ate. Maybe I just saw them during the right week. But there are 100's of cruisers done there all the time, so they must be doing something right. The BaHaHa has over a hundred sailboats heading down there beginning this week.

We are going to try our luck next fall, we'll keep you posted..

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I hope you didn't take my previous post as negative or as having a bad experience. We love Mexico! Of the 46 different countries Lena and I have been to by boat, Mexico is still one of our favorites. What I have observed though is a very large number of North American's who go there, aren't prepared for the culture or their expectations aren't met and then it goes bad from there. If you like the weather, food, culture and warm water, life will be good.

Absolutely agree attitude is a Huge part of life in general and especially traveling in new ports of call. I will look at Cruiserforum for information as well. thx again

Greetings,
Mr. CP. "... Attitude is everything when it comes to foreign travel..." Exactly correct! I'm better than you type arrogance doesn't sit very well with ANY "different" culture whether at home or abroad. Nor does "Why doesn't everyone speak English here?".
I have found 100% of the time, an attempt, even a poor attempt at a foreign language goes a LONG way to making friends. Please and thank you are pretty easy words to learn and remember.
Haven't been to Mexico yet.
"The fiasco with the boat impoundments..." Read as above: Arrogance doesn't sit well with the locals nor does NOT paying necessary fees and following the rules. I suspect Mexico is quite happy to keep "those" types of boaters out of the country.

Dswizzler said:

Absolutely agree attitude is a Huge part of life in general and especially traveling in new ports of call. I will look at Cruiserforum for information as well. thx again

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Also take a look/join the Southbound Group on Yahoo.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/southbound_group/info

Club Cruceros which is based in La Paz provides information and assistance for the boating community.

Club Cruceros de La Paz - Cruisers Club of La Paz, BCS, Mexico

The Gringo Gazette.

Gringo Gazette :: No Bad News

And one last source is Latitude 38's First Timers Guide to Mexico.

http://www.latitude38.com/eBooks/2014/MexFTG-2014.pdf

If you and Cindy do not know Spanish already my sons highly recommend the Rosetta Stone programs. One is stationed in Europe and the other in South East Asia and both insist these language learning programs have vastly increased their enjoyment.

RT Firefly said:

"The fiasco with the boat impoundments..." Read as above: Arrogance doesn't sit well with the locals nor does NOT paying necessary fees and following the rules. I suspect Mexico is quite happy to keep "those" types of boaters out of the country.

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Except that is not what happened. My boat was fine, but several on my dock were impounded for paperwork flaws not of their making. In one case, the HIN on the TIP did not match the HIN on the boat. But it did match. Then it turned out that the authorities concluded it didn't match because they couldn't find it. But it was right where it should be. All ended well, except it took more than two months and thousands in legal fees to straighten out.

But, I still enjoy going to Mexico and keeping my boat there. It is just really important to understand, and try to avoid, the potential problems.