To Stay or Go To Mexico

Fito Espinoza, Harbormaster at 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. This is according to Captain Pat Rains of Point Loma Publishing. The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. 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 in Mexico, and it’s been a 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 are 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 more than 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 38 are optimistic.