Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport | A Season in Mexico Part 2 Marinas

Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport

The Honcho took berths in ten Marinas in Mexico and found them comparable to American marinas in many ways. Each of those marinas is listed below, along with a summary of our experiences there.

Cruiseport (Ensenada)  http://ects.enseit.com/ecpvmarina/
Located just past the Naval Base in the port of Ensenada. The entrance channel is well marked and easy to navigate.This is a modern marina with good facilities and excellent staff. Cruiseport Marina is the ideal place to officially check into Mexico. They will assist you with all the necessary paperwork and drive you to the Port Captains office at no charge. If youre not fluent in Spanish, Jonathan will translate and assist you with all the necessary forms and documents. There are many marine stores, restaurants and tiendas within walking distance, but youll want a cab to get to the local Costco or Walmart. I think this is the best marina in Ensenada because of its central location and low cost. One downside is that there is no fuel dock there, but Jonathan offered to drive me and four jerry jugs to a gas station downtown that sells diesel at no charge. Very friendly and helpful.

Marina Cabo San Lucas (Cabo San Lucas)  http://www.igy-cabosanlucas.com/
This is a very well equipped marina in the heart of the tourist area in Cabo. It is expensive (we paid $125 USD/night in November, 2010 but I think they have lowered their prices somewhat recently). The staff was friendly and the marina offers clean showers and laundry facilities and even a small swimming pool for guests. The central location was nice because nearly everything is within walking distance, but there are at least a dozen nightclubs within shouting distance, so we were serenaded every night until around 0400 by a dozen bands. The music and high prices drove us out of Cabo after only two nights.

Puerto Los Cabos (San Jose del Cabo)  http://www.puertoloscabos.com/about_the_marina.php
This is a new marina and is part of the Puerto Los Cabos Resort. As of June, 2011 the slips were completed but not all had electrical outlets. Prices were much better than at Cabo. We got a slip for $40 USD/night in a slip without electricity, which was fine with us. The same size slip with electricity was quoted to us at $80/night. Restrooms and showers were in trailers but there are plans for more permanent facilities. The harbor at San Jose del Cabo did not show on our Maxsea electronic charts nor on our GPS, but the Navionics app on our I-Pad showed it. Its a moderately long walk to downtown San Jose so youll want a taxi to get to the local (new) Walmart. There is a restaurant and gift shop at the marina. Prices are high, but the burgers were good. This marina is about 16 miles from Cabo San Lucas and is, in my opinion, a better place than Cabo to stay while waiting for a weather window for boats that are headed north along the Pacific coast of Baja.

Marina Palmira (La Paz)  http://www.marinapalmira.com/
Located just outside of downtown La Paz, Marina Palmira is our favorite place to stay in La Paz. While not a new marina, it is well maintained, with electronic gate locks on the gangways and plenty of security. It is affiliated with the Hotel Marina so we had free access to the large hotel pool, a necessity from May through October. There are a couple of good restaurants at the marina, and its a pleasant 3 mile walk to downtown La Paz from there along the beautiful malecon. We provisioned twice in La Paz, visiting the Soriano and Walmart. They are both too far to walk, but taxis are inexpensive in La Paz. Like most of the other marinas we visited, Marina Palmira offers free wifi, and like the others, it was spotty  at best. We always relied on our Telcel 3G cards in Mexico and were seldom disappointed by them.

Marina de La Paz (La Paz)  http://www.marinadelapaz.com/
This is the main marina in downtown La Paz. Older that the others, it has a character of its own that makes it hospitable to many long-time live-aboards. For us, the key attraction of this marina is its location in the heart of downtown La Paz. There are several marine stores as well as hardware stores, shopping mall, immigration office, restaurants and other services all within walking distance of this marina. Being downtown, its noisier and more crowded than Marina Palmira. This marina is also home to Club Cruceros de La Paz. This organization offers all sorts of services and information for cruisers in the Sea of Cortez http://www.clubcruceros.org/. We stayed in this marina in the month of May, and it was quite hot, with little wind during the day and the surrounding buildings and geography blocking much of the cooling Coromuel winds at night. The local year-round liveaboards assured me that you get used to the heat. Im not sure I want to do that myself, but its clear that many American and Canadian expats have found a home here.

Marina Mazatlan (Mazatlan)  http://www.marina-mazatlan.com/
Located about 10 miles north of downtown Mazatlan, most charts dont show this marina very well so I recommend using the Pacific Mexico Cruising Guide by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer for accurate navigational information. The channel entrance is narrow and sea conditions can sometimes make entering or leaving tricky. The channel entrance requires constant dredging to keep it navigable and it is occasionally closed due to ongoing dredging operations. If in doubt, hail the marina on the VHF to check on conditions.
 Mazatlan is an important commercial port and you can find almost anything you need here. There are good restaurants, a shipyard and other conveniences within walking distance of the marina, but its too far to walk downtown, which is where you need to go for provisions. You can take a bus, taxi or pulmonia for a few pesos. The pulmonia is unique to Mazatlan.  It is a small open vehicle with a canvas top. Its cheaper than a regular taxi and in Maazatlans warm climate you dont need doors and windows, so whenever possible we took a pulmonia, which was more fun than a bus or taxi.

There has been some drug related violence in Mazatlan and at the time we were there cruise ships were not calling at the port of Mazatlan, so the town was a bit quieter than normal. We enjoyed the beautiful old city of Mazatlan and could have stayed there longer if wed had time.

Marina Riviera Nayarit (La Cruz de Huanacaxtle)  http://www.marinarivieranayarit.com/
This was our favorite marina in Mexico. Nearly new and very well maintained, Marina Riviera is probably as good as it gets. It is located in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, on the north shore of Banderas Bay. La Cruz is a picturesque town with just the right combination of old Mexico charm, yatistas and an interesting mix of expats from around the world. The marina sports a yacht club with an excellent restaurant and bar, fuel dock, shipyard with 150 ton travelift, convenience store and laundry. There are plenty of good restaurants within walking distance, ranging from high end Italian to funky outdoor places with live music. We especially enjoyed Philos, Ana Bananas and Frascati. If I could visit only one marina in Mexico this would be it.

Paradise Village Marina (Nuevo Vallarta)  http://www.paradisevillagemarina.com/
Located in Nuevo Vallarta, about 10 miles from downtown Puerto Vallarta, Paradise Village marina is built on an estuary, so bring your bug screens. This marina is a bit older than the one in La Cruz, but it is well maintained, with good facilities and friendly help. It is part of the Paradise Village resort, so visitors have access to the hotel pool and beach. This place reminded me of Marina Del Rey in California. So if you like Del Rey, youll like Paradise Village Marina.

Marina Vallarta (Puerto Vallarta)  marvta@prodigy.net.mx
Located in the port of Puerto Vallarta, this marina was once a fine place to stay while you visited the city of PV, but when we visited, it was fairly rundown. Security was so-so, and the noise level was only a few decibels this side of Cabo San Lucas. It does have the benefit of close proximity to downtown PV, which is a wonderful city.

Marina Ixtapa Nautica (Ixtapa)  www.marinaixtapa.com
Like Paridise Village Marina, Marina Ixtapa Nautica is also part of a larger resort. As such it offers good facilities, access to fine restaurants and shops, and a nice beach.  It is located a short bus or taxi ride from the beautiful city of Zihuatanejo, where there an excellent anchorage for when you tire of marina life. Isla Ixtapa is less than five miles away by boat and is a perfect place to anchor for the day and snorkel or lounge on the beach. While anchored there I cleaned the bottom of our boat, which is prohibited in the marina due to the large crocodiles that occasionally swim through.

Do you find information about Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read More..

Boat Plans Canada | Summit 35

Boat Plans Canada

Summit 35
Nice Profile

One of the best things about being in the market for a new boat is checking out the newest designs, going for test sails and pondering cruising to distant places or collecting trophies. When I started looking at the Summit 35, I quickly forgot about the distant coves and palm trees, and instead, thought about racing and collecting pickle dishes.

Mark Mills designed it for Summit Yachts and Edgewater Boats builds it in Florida. The Summit 35 is really a buoy racer with enough accommodations for a couple to spend a week or so cruising, or for longer coastal races. Mills describes the boat as being designed to excel under the IRC. The IRC is a handicapping rule that is in some ways like PHRF and some ways like other measurement rules such as the now defunct IOR rule. I say that because to get a rating you must have your boat measured or have the builder certify the dimensions of the boat. Then you submit all the required information to the Rating Authority, which has a secret formula that they use to calculate the boats handicap rating. The PHRF aspect comes from the fact that the Rating Authority may use subjective judgments as well as the boats measurements to give a boat a final rating. The idea behind the secrecy of the rating formula is that designers and builders aren’t supposed to know what it is and therefore can’t tweak their designs to take advantage of the rule. Some of you may recall the goofy designs that came out of the IOR rule, where speed producing factors were penalized and credit was given for speed reducing factors.

The S-35 has a displacement of 10,930 lb with 5,300 lb of ballast, most of which is in that massive bulb.

Enough of the handicapping jargon…Let’s just evaluate the Summit 35 based on common sense. I should say out front that I haven’t had an opportunity to sail one yet and all the information I have on the boat was taken from Summit-yachts.com and yachtworld.com. I like the overall proportions of this boat. The very slightly raked stem and transom make the hull more visually attractive than if they were vertical, as does the slightly sprung sheer. Below the waterline we see a fairly shallow hull with a narrow waterline beam and lots of flare in the topsides. The keel consists of a vertical fin with a slightly raked leading edge coupled to a massive lead bulb. Notice in the photo that the bulb extends a long way forward from the fin. There doesn’t appear to be a kelp cutter on the keel so that bulb could be a problem in areas with lots of kelp, like southern California. On the other hand, the bulb will keep the boat on its feet in a breeze.

Big cockpit, square corners and German mainsheet system

I like the deck on this boat. It has a beautiful cabin trunk and a nice big cockpit with seats forward and plenty of room for the crew. The options list includes twin wheels instead of the standard tiller. I would choose that option in spite of the extra weight and cost. The wheels are smallish, but allow the helmsperson to sit well outboard, and leave plenty of room for the crew. Notice that the main traveler is located well aft on the cockpit floor, with the sheet led forward along the boom, then down under the deck and back to a pair of winches just aft of the short cockpit coamings. This arrangement is known as a ‘German’ or ‘Admirals Cup’ system. With 2:1 purchase and the ability to trim the main quickly, it can be an excellent arrangement for a racer, and has some benefits for the cruising yachtsman who understands the strengths and weaknesses of this system. On the Summit 35 with tiller steering, the helmsperson sits forward of the main trimmer, on or outboard of the coaming, with the main trimmer sitting aft. It doesn’t look too comfortable for the helmsman. With wheel steering, the helmsman will be aft of the main trimmer, but it’ll be a tight fit for the trimmer. This will be fine on the upwind legs, but could get complicated on the downwind legs jibing in heavy air and at the leeward mark where the main trimmer will be ripping in the mainsheet and the helmsman is busy getting around the mark and avoiding flying elbows and mainsheet tail.  It’s not a big deal, but will take some practice for the helmsman and trimmer to work out how to do their jobs without getting in each other’s way.

In studying the cockpit, notice that everything is pretty well squared off and all the edges and corners have roughly the same radius. There is nothing wrong with this and it is quick to tool straight lines and squared edges, but this very nice looking overall deck design could have been more artfully sculpted. Of course boats have a way of getting prettier if they win a lot of races, and I have no doubt that the Summit 35 will do that.

Compact galley is suitable for sandwiches and MREs

It’s hard to fault the interior of this boat. The layout is just about perfect, with a good sized galley and nav station as well as a positively luxurious head for a boat this size. The interior drawing shows a big dropleaf table in the main cabin, but Im sure few Summit 35’s will sail with it, as it looks heavy and takes up space needed for packing chutes. The galley is fitted with a gimbaled Origo two-burner alcohol stove. This is a very good unit that eliminates the need for a gas bottle and its attendant locker, solenoid, etc. While the galley is too small for cruising, it’s quite adequate for the racing crew that expects sandwiches and MRE’s instead of ‘meals’.

I was surprised to see that the Summit 35 is equipped with an aluminum mast instead of carbon fiber. This may be due as much to the IRC rule as to economic considerations. The boat carries non-overlapping headsails and can be fitted with symmetrical or asymmetrical spinnakers. There are some advantages to symmetrical spinnakers in tactical situations, especially at the leeward mark, but these are outweighed by the simplicity and efficiency of asymmetrical kites. Unless you plan to race your boat under IRC rules, which apparently favors symmetricals, you’ll want to set your Summit 35 up with a short bowsprit and asymmetrical kites.

If I were in the market for a racer, I’d consider the Summit 35. It’s a nice looking and fast boat with reasonable accommodations and, inspired by Barry Carroll, a good pedigree. I like the fact that it’s built here in America. I think that, regardless of whether the IRC rule really gains much traction in the USA, the S-35 will be a very effective PHRF racer as well. Its interesting to compare this boat to the J-111. Its very close, but I think I like the J just a little bit more. Of course neither is well suited for the kind of cruising were planning, but it would be interesting to see these boats matched against each other in a buoy race and in a long distance race.

Inasmuch as were in the market for a used cruising boat, my next review will be the Beneteau 423. In the meantime I invite you to visit www.summit-yachts.com if youd like to learn more about the S-35.

Do you find information about Boat Plans Canada are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Plans Canada. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read More..