Dinghies Should Be on TIP Too, Says Harbormaster

Beyond preparing your boat for ocean voyaging, tying up the loose ends of your shoreside life, finding the right weather window and showing up in San Diego on time for the start, one of the main hurdles of doing the Baja Ha-Ha seems to bureaucratic in nature: getting your Temporary Import Permit, or TIP.

We’ll let the Grand Poobah give you the major TIP tips, but a thread has recently surfaced about registering dinghies. Neil Shroyer, the harbormaster at Marina de La Paz, said he’s been noticing that some boaters don’t enter any information on their TIP regarding their dinghy. “At least in La Paz, customs is requiring that ownership of the dinghy can be shown and that [it] be registered on the TIP,” Shroyer said.

“Dinghies are considered mobile accessories, and the information regarding them either gets entered online when they fill out the TIP request or at the Banjército window when they are filing for the form in person,” Shroyer continued. “I would like to suggest that people bring documentation for their dinghy, and if at all possible, include the dinghy in the Temporary Import Permit if they have not gone about getting one yet. They can also add it on once they get to Mexico. They would need current registration, and an invoice or a notarized bill of sale for the dinghy in the name of the person that owns the vessel.”

Shroyer said that people should be able to make adjustments to their TIP at any port with a Banjército office. The new TIP is good for another 10 years.