Hauling out your boat in the Sea of Cortez

In this article, I'll give some insight into when we haul out, where, and the various pros and cons we've encountered along the way.

When to Haul

There's no perfect time to haul your boat, and it depends a lot on what you want to accomplish. A lot of people haul their boats over the summer, if you are going to do this, it makes sense to do it as far north as you can, this gets you away from the hurricanes, and closer to the US if you need to drive up and get parts.

On the flip side, doing work in the summer heat can be unbearable, even with air conditioning, sanding the bottom of your boat in 40C heat is a pretty miserable experience.

We typically sail the sea in summer, so we often haul out over winter, usually when everybody else is launching, we usually haul out just before christmas, then come back from Europe late winter, and set to work sanding, painting, cleaning and getting Ursa ship shape.

Where to Haul

There are a few options for hauling out in the sea of cortez, we do all our own work on the boat, which means we've only hauled out in San Carlos and Guaymas, but I've also collated information from other places which might be of interest.

La Paz

There are a few boat yards in La Paz, Bercovich boat works is the only one I know of that allows you to work on your own boat. Marina Palmira has dry storage, and Abaroa can haul your boat to work on it.

The prices in La Paz tend to be closer to US prices, and for us are just too expensive to justify it. Whilst physical security is fine here, we'd be concerned about hurricanes and named storms if we left the boat here over summer.

Puerto Escondido

There are a bunch of boats hauled here for work and storage, its a good looking yard with concrete and hard packed earth for your boat. I don't know about the costs or the rules for boat work, but for storage it's pretty good as you are in a natural hurricane hole.

The only downside here would probably be the proximity to anything you might need, it's a long drive to the US border, and its a half days drive into La Paz if you need to pick anything up in a hurry.

Marina (Seca) San Carlos

Marina Seca San Carlos is run by the same people who run Marina San Carlos and is generally our go to now for hauling out. They have a storage yard and a work yard. The storage yard is mostly packed earth, with some hurricane poles.

The work yard is mostly concrete, and they are very efficient at moving your boat in and out from the various locations.

Prices here are very reasonable, and they are super friendly, you can work on your own boat. The security is good with a strong perimter fence, and the security guards check your documents before you walk in and are remarkably on the ball.

The location is good if you want to go up to Tucson, which if you drink some coffee you can do in a day trip, although most people will overnight in tucson or nearby.

There are a couple of downsides however. Your boat is gonna be hauled on a hydraulic trailer, I know of at least one boat falling off the trailer when being hauled (Due to failure in the hydraulic system, the boat suffered minor damage, but I imagine the owners got a few more grey hairs) and its a long way from the marina to the dry dock. It's almost always fine, but its pretty nerve wracking watching your home teeter tottering on a trailer down the highway with the mast scraping off the palm trees.

Another downside is the exposure for storms. The location of the boat yard is relatively sheltered, but the last time a hurricane rolled through (Think of them as a once in 5 year event) quite a few boats fell off their stands, although im not sure this would be any different anywhere else.

They can haul boats up to 6ft draught without much drama, but launching 6ft or deeper requires some planning. The launch ramp is very shallow, so make sure you book your splash date in advance if you don't want to be stuck in the dry dock till the next spring tide.

When the wind blows it also blows across the launch ramp, so care must be taken if you are splashing in the afternoon, we launched in 25kn gusting 30 last year, and i can assure you it was not a pleasant experience, that said, we all made it out alive and I didn't have to club haul the bow around, although we did need a few attempts to get pointing the right way in the fairway.

Marina Real San Carlos

Marina Real also have a travelift and storage yard, we haven't been there and don't know anybody who has first hand, but it looks as well run as anywhere else.

Marina Fonatur Guaymas

This has all the advantages of San Carlos, but with a proper travel lift, and concrete work yard. We hear great things about this yard and the guys who run the marina are super friendly.

The only downside with the location in guaymas is petty crime, we've met a few cruisers who have had stuff stolen from on-deck from both the yard and the marina, not to mention the bay in guaymas. That's not to say this is like Mos Eisley space port, but there is an increased risk of bullshit issues in Guaymas compared to San Carlos or elsewhere.

Space is limited here, and i've never been able to get hauled out when i needed to, but everybody I know who has been in here, generally has great things to say about it.

Marina Seca Guaymas (Gabrials Yard)

Probably the cheapest of the yards in the area, but you definitely get what you pay for. The yard itself is on dry mud, so when it rains, you're going to get really muddy. This can also cause your boat to sink down on the stands, so if you have a soft bit on your keel you need to make sure the yard know this and don't block under it.

The staff that operate the yard are great, and super helpful, but you will get nickle and dimed for stupid stuff, last time I was there, I was informed I'd be paying an extra 5 bucks a day because I had an air conditioner (Didn't matter if i used it or not) which isn't unreasonable, but it wasn't mentioned anywhere before the end of the time in the yard. It's not so much the amount, but just the lack of transparency which can be annoying.

Allegedly the dry dock here is better protected than San Carlos from storms, but despite what you might get told, there were quite a few downed boats in the same hurricane here as in San Carlos, a few less maybe, but probably not much difference when push comes to shove.

Finally, the approach into the yard can be quite tricky, the last 100M into the dock is very shallow, with an area about 15ft wide dredged to about 6ft, the rest is shoal, it may or not be marked, and if you run aground here you can be stuck for a day due to the single-tide-per-day tide patterns.

The travel lift is also small, so you may have to remove your backstay to get in and out.

It may sound like I'm bashing this yard a lot, but to put things in perspective i've hauled here twice, and its by far the best yard you are going to get for the money. If you are just going to haul, do some work and launch its probably unbeatable, but the facilities are poor, and it can be a bit of a headache if you're going to spend a long time on the boat here.

Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point)

I've never been, but Cabrales boat yard gets rave reviews from most of the people I know who have been there. It's close to the US border so getting parts is easy. It's far enough up the sea that hurricanes and severe storms are few and far between.

From what I hear the prices are excellent and the yard are very friendly and accommodating. The only real downside is that you need to go all the way up the sea to get there, which in all honesty isn't really a downside at all.

The only reason we haven't been up there has simply been timing, we tend to be in the northern sea in summer, and just haven't been around Cabrales when we needed to haul.