Another Boat on the Rocks

The failure of a shackle pin is being described as the cause of the Pearson 30 Gran Wazoo’s going up on the rocks just to the east of Marina Riviera Nayarit on Banderas Bay. An attempt was made to pull her off and tow her to the nearby shipyard, but the hole in her old-school-thick hull was letting too much water in. The port captain called off the salvage to prevent the boat from sinking.

Gran Wazoo is owned by Joe Pilar of Canada, who is said to only rarely come to his boat. She was being watched by Eddie Sanchez. During a telephone conversation this morning with Latitude 38, Sanchez told us that he’d re-anchored the boat on Saturday. He said he’d had a diver make sure the shackle pin on the shackle connecting the anchor to the rode was wired so it wouldn’t come loose. But somehow the pin came out, allowing the boat to go onto the beach.

Depending on whom we talked to, the wind was described as "light" or "normal." The latter means a gentle offshore breeze in the middle of the night, which creates a lee shore for boats anchored out.

Gran Wazoo had broken loose in the anchorage earlier this year and had been taken into the marina for several months.

This is the time of year when many owners are leaving their boats for the season in Mexico. If you plan to do so, you have to make sure your boat is prepared — particularly if she’s going to be left in the water.