PRIME WATERFRONT REAL ESTATE – For Your Boat!
LETTERS ments emailed to them. Prior to the start of the Ha-Ha, we will be providing everyone with what we believe is a definitive list of required documents as well as those that are merely suggested by marina owners. ⇑⇓CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC My husband Josh and I did our first Baja Ha-Ha in October, and we absolutely loved it! We've been looking for a cruising sailboat for a couple of years, and after our great Ha-Ha experience the stars aligned and we are now under contract to buy a Voyager 500 catamaran. It's so exciting! We need to sail the cat out of Florida. As we live in San Diego, we hoped to berth her in Ensenada until October, then start our cruising life with the 2014 Ha-Ha. Yet we are very concerned about the impounding issues in Mexico. What are your thoughts on the safety of keeping our boat in Ensenada, and more importantly, on being able to take her out of Mexico when we want to? The information you've provided on what has happened in Mexico has been amazing, and we are grateful for it. We will need to leave Florida ASAP if we are to go to Ensenada. If we don't make a window to get up there, we will leave our cat back east and cruise the eastern seaboard this summer. Suzee & Josh Lippitt San Diego
Have you visited Fortman Marina lately? • Protected • Quiet • Great Value • Great Neighbors
Let us show you around – you’ll be pleasantly surprised! 1535 Buena Vista Ave., Alameda, California
(510) 522-9080
For directions and rates go to:
www.fortman.com
Page 50 •
Latitude 38
• May, 2014
Suzee and Josh — Congratulations on what is likely to be your new cat, and thank you for the kind words. Our gut feeling is that Mexico realizes that the AGACE audits were a monumental blunder, but refuses to apologize for it because they don't want to lose face. In this regard, they are like the United States government — and all other governments. But given the tremendously self-destructive fiasco, we're cautiously confident they won't do it again, at least in such a screwed-up way. As we've said before, it's incumbent upon the Mexican government to clarify the rules and regulations, and reassure owners of foreign boats that there will be no problems if they follow those rules. They have not done a good job of this to date. ⇑⇓SLIPPING THROUGH THE CRACKS Before we left on our last cruise, which started with the 2011 Ha-Ha, I built a very cool 18-ft carbon and fiberglass sportboat. Think Viper, Open 5.70, J/70, etc. It was a pretty straightforward build, which got me to thinking that it would be a great project for high school kids. They could spend a year building the boat with their mates, then race against the other boats in the spring. Students would learn composites fabrication, woodworking, hydro and aeronautical engineering, sailing, fundraising and business management, social media, teambuilding and community spirit — and have a great time doing it. This project would ideally involve approximately 10 students, and require no more than one school year to complete. The build takes approximately 800 man hours. It would also require the support of one faculty/staff point person from each campus to coordinate and oversee the project on site. Each school could decide if they wanted to offer this as a regular class or an after-school project. The project would also require an indoor shop space of no less than 20 x 30 feet and a collection of basic hand and power tools. The boats can be built for under $10,000. I spent $6,000 using some second-hand components, such as rig and sails.