Mexico confiscated 380 yachts - MERGED THREADS

[gjordan]

Try not paying your department of motor vehicals fee in any state in our country, and see what happens? If you are going to travel to other countries, make darn sure you know how to stay legal. If it says to display a sticker, that doesnt mean to put it in the top drawer. Sneaking out in the middle of the night just makes it harder for the next cruiser. We are guests in other countries, and should make sure we do things correctly. Just a minor rant. _____Grant.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Teknav

Here's a "TIP"...Not many US private pilots fly to Mexico...the reason...private pilots are treated/questioned as if they were drug smugglers, irrespective of their FAA documentation. At a whim, one's aircraft can be confiscated. Why would you visit a place that is so maligned and corrupt? Cheap, in the long run, is very expensive! Stay away!

Mauritz
Plenty of other islands to visit!

Be afraid...Mexico is scary...the only place with "freedom and Liberty" is the USA...ha ha ha... See how the rumor mill goes folks. The story over drinks will now grow into another BS story spreading fear with 1/10th truth. I had a buddy who....I knew a guy who knew a guy who lost his boat in Mexico...I had to pay a bribe to get my boat free...come on folks. I expect to see better from the Cruising Community quite frankly than rumor mill and "make a midnight run outta there" type of advice.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Facts from the Ground in La Paz, Mexico:

It was reported on this morning's La Paz Cruiser's net by Neal (the Owner of Marina De La Paz who is very active in the Cruiser Community and has a good relationship with the Port Captain) that the Mexican officials are simply enforcing the paperwork requirements with the threat that boats would be impounded if they did not have their paperwork in place (which the law stipulates). When Neil was asked what "Impounded" meant, he said that the owners would be given 10 Days to get things straight.

So what does this mean? Should we all panic and sneak out of Mexico in the dark of night and start bad mouthing Mexico, it's laws, and officials? No. All it means is that if you are cruising in Mexico without the legal paperwork then you have better get your **** straignntened out pronto. If you have all your paperwork in order and got a generic email from a marina, just relax. Your boat won't be taken from you, just work with your marina contact person and stop planning your midnight get-a-way.

[Geoff54]

Originally Posted by zeehag

tip is temporary importation permit. it is required for all boats remaining in mexico over 6 months.

I know you are actually there but Noonsite says, "You are eligible to stay in Mexico for 5days without a TIP". Are we missing something?

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by zeehag

tip is temporary importation permit. it is required for all boats remaining in mexico over 6 months.

That may be your experience on the West Coast, but in Isla Mujeres/Cancun the TIP is required if you are going to be in Mexico for more than a week. OTOH, in Isla they don't care if you get a fishing license or not.

[susswein]

I have my boat in San Carlos, and got the following email from the marina last week:

Dear Client, on the 26th of this month the government agency SAT that regulates the Temporary Import Permits for vessels in Mexico inspected 10 Marinas simultaneously. Each Marina received at least 40 inspectors and 30 guards from the Armada to perform the inspection; needless to say it was a bit over the top. The inspection lasted all day and all night, leaving our facility at 6am. 40% of the boats were inspected and documentation on these vessels was requested, no vessel was boarded or inspected inside. For many of the boats we had the TIP in our files and for others we did not. We have 5 days to produce the TIP for those who we did not have the TIP in our files. Each boat MUST have a TIP to be legal in Mexico, it is the owner’s responsibility to have this permit, there could be a large fine if you do not have this permit and in some cases the boat itself may be confiscated.




This email is not to scare you, but to inform you of what is happening and for those clients that witnessed the inspection to understand what transpired. If you are listed in the inspection without a permit you will receive an email requesting a copy of your permit, I ask that you please send it to us via email today. If you do not have one, we will inform you what to do.




If you do not have a permit even though your boat was not inspected, we STRONGLY suggest you acquire one ASAP. It is very simple to get, go online to www.banjercito.com.mx , I'm attaching to this email a PDF file with the steps of the website. The permit costs approximately $50.00 usd and is sent by mail to your home in the US or Mexico, someone must be at the address given to sign for the permit when it arrives. When you finish the purchase online it is important to keep a copy of the receipt as proof of purchase. You will receive your permit in 10 to 14 days, please email us a copy, keep the original and keep a copy on your boat.

[zeehag]

i came in under last regime when you needed to get tip within 6 months of arrival. mine cost 65usdollars.

now you must get it when you check into first port of entry. now it costs 50 usdollars, approx.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Well then try to enter into Mexico again...BAD ADICE to just pick up and Run...very BAD.

People need to calm down, relax, and get their paperwork in order. How hard it is to get a TIP, have a current passport, Doc/Registration and Visa? For heavens sake...we are not talking about a $1000 cruising permit here folks.

This type of cruiser panic isn't new. Every few years the Mexican authorities do sweeps through Marina's (I remember one in Mazatlan when we were there in 2009) and check for TIPs and they fined dozens of boats without them OR boats that had them but were not properly displayed.

Neal's a great guy and I have a ton of respect for him (regarding your second post).

I worked as the captain of a sport fisher and we'd routinely go offshore of Ensenada (and further south), then head back around again. In the summer I was running that schedule twice a week. So taking a boat 60nm is no big thing and I gotta tell you, I'd still go with that.

There's a 90% chance it's a paperwork thing and when you show your TIP everything will be fine. But if you've spent 10 seconds in Mexico you know there's a lot of distance between the way things should be and they way they end up being nationwide. And you get to pay your slip fees and maintain the vessel until the paperwork is sorted out.

So for me, with the money I've got wrapped up in my boat and that it's been my family's home for seven years, if I was 9 hours away from US waters and a foreign country was dangling vessel seizure over me I'd burn the 5 gallons of diesel and be having breakfast in Point Loma.

If you're in La Paz or somewhere further south, or you simply want to make another decision, go for it.

[zeehag]

when you travel with legal paperwork and do not mouth off about how so and so said to fake paperwork,then you have nothing to concern yourself with.
if you go around mouthing off about how you get your papers on the down low and mouth off against the place in which you cruise,then you have something to concern yourself with.
i am not worried about this purge.i am 100 percent legal.
usually when a regime in mexico decides to normalize things there is a purge of old deadwoood. paperwork changes with regime.
many souls cruise and bring boats into mexico then leave. they no longer care about the paperwork and their boats,cars,etc become liabilities for the government.
if you are in this category, you should worry.
if you are legal, you should not worry.

[rebel heart]

Just an update from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle:

This morning Mike at PV-North Sails said SAT went boat to boat and asked for a vessel's TIP, documentation, and crew list (and maybe some other stuff). If you didn't have it, your vessel was "confiscated" in a very loose sense.

The marina manager here (Raffa) is having boat owners that got nabbed sign a piece of paper that he's then driving to Guadalajara, which in ten days will release the confiscation and start the process of correcting the paperwork problems.

We had just checked into the marina and furnished copies off all our current paperwork, so we're fine.

[Ocean Girl]

Anyone heard from earlier poster Tarzan?

[sww914]

I think that if the US found foreigners without the proper paperwork there'd probably be 10 Coast Guard guys with guns and 20 cops on the boat and they'd take your ass away. Then there'd be a long court hassle and a big fine, not just a chance to fix your paperwork in 10 days.

[rebel heart]

The best part: SAT/Aduana (Mexican customs officials) went randomly through the marina and just wrote boat names down. Some they knocked on, some they didn't, and didn't bother to check with the marina to see if current info was on file there. Had all your paperwork on the boat and with the marina but stepped off for a taco? Busted.

They had to just walk the marina and not check on the anchorage because Aduana doesn't have any boats.

And even better: the local Aduana offices themselves can't actually correct the problem, so the confiscation letter, signed (by you) letter saying you're aware of the problem and are responsible for the vessel, and your TIP need to be sent to Mexico City where they will be reviewed by someone that was never planning on reviewing them.

This place is like a Benny Hill skit sometimes.

[chouliha]

Originally Posted by gjordan

Try not paying your department of motor vehicals fee in any state in our country, and see what happens? If you are going to travel to other countries, make darn sure you know how to stay legal. If it says to display a sticker, that doesnt mean to put it in the top drawer. Sneaking out in the middle of the night just makes it harder for the next cruiser. We are guests in other countries, and should make sure we do things correctly. Just a minor rant. _____Grant.

Grant - well said!

What hundreds of boats not having the correct paperwork WTF? In a foreign country? If this was a IQ test.......

"I stumbled upon needing a TIP by accident" Oh give me a break. Just about every guide book mentions this requirement. Not doing your homework is not grounds for saying "no one told me". Every forum around that deals with Mexico including Yahoo Southbound Group, Noonsite, CF, etc. discusses the TIP and how to obtain it. Now the Mexican government just made it easier by being able to do it online before you even cross the border.

Suggesting that people cut and run back to the US is not good advice. What about the people following in your wake? Those people coming into a port behind you would have to deal with your decision to flee. Think about what your actions cause the folks following you have to deal with. You think by suggesting people flee would not piss off the local officials?

Mexico is such a easy place to cruise with very limited paperwork needed that people have no excuse to not do it correctly.

Remember what it was like before they eased all the restrictions and paperwork? Every place you stopped that had a port captain took you 1/2 a day or more to check in and out! Plus it cost you $$ as well

Chuck

[Celestialsailor]

it surprises me that they just cannot check with the Marina office for their list, then knock on the boats that are not on the list. I guess it's a case of job security.