• The documents needed before leaving are Current Registration and Certificate of Documentation, Passport and a Crew List with passport numbers.
• If the vessel is owned in an LLC. a notarized letter from the LLC manager authorizing anyone who is going to drive the boat including the manager him or herself has proof of insurance.
• Make sure there is a visible hull number and the vessel has not had a a previous temporary important permit (TIP). Mexican rules and laws have a tendency to change at times.
• Here is a place to find some answers.  As always, do your own research.

I moved to Mexico and had practiced the year earlier living on my brother’s Jeannaue 54 in a small Mexican town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. 

I kept looking for a boat that fit for me. I have owned a Wharram Catamaran, A Piver Trimaran, several monohulls and ran many tugboats and large yachts and sail boats as a professional captain in an earlier life.

Well, when it came time for me to buy my own liveaboard yacht, I looked at everything and listened to a lot of friends at the Vallarta Yacht Club. I was getting frustrated; I liked a Contour 52 trimaran (only three ever built) that was in good shape lying in Hawaii. How to get it back to Mexico? And the cost of doing that, as well as the slip cost with the beam of a 52-foot trimaran were formidable. That Trimaran was one of many vessels I looked at and discussed.

Then I found (by myself, I do not have a broker) a 20-year-old 52-foot DeFever Performance offshore Cruiser (POC). She was just a block away down the dock from the Vallarta Yacht club and came with a slip and membership into the Paradise Village resort.

I  got a lot of boat for a what I thought was pretty good price. No broker represented me. The broker was out of San Diego and had a person that was here in Mexico. Together, the person that also “managed” the boat and the broker back in San Diego sold me the boat.

Maybe I am too trusting. I will be living on the vessel in the summer, (I bought the Defever in July) so is the Air Condition, okay? Sure, they said, the heads? Sure, they said.

The surveyor was good but it still come down to the buyer trying everything. Turn on all the faucets, flush every head, turn on every light.

When I complained to the broker back in the states he just said, “that was the information the owner and people on the ground in Mexico told me.”

Moral to the story? I wish I had had a partner, a friend on my side. I should have had my own broker to help me ask the right questions, talk to the right experts.

I have now spent almost twice what I bought the boat for, to renovate a “maintenance deferred” boat. I knew it was a renovation project, but I did not know exactly how big a renovation project.

My 1983 Defever 52 Trawler is now arguably the best looking trawler on the west coast of Mexico.  Contact me to talk yachts. +1-719-964-3800

I can represent buyers and sellers anywhere in the world.

The data for your region may and will vary from these general Southern California notes. I have passed the California Yacht and Ship salesperson exam.

As always, these are general guidelines. Your broker should walk you through all of these points. I have found it interesting that I tend to educate potential buyers about boat ownership more than anything.

Most first-time buyers need a tutorial on what lays ahead. Buying a boat has to be a good fit.  Give me a call, I would love to talk yachts with you.

• Survey- $15 to $25 per foot for general condition and valuation survey
• Engine Survey- varies, usually tops out at about $300 per engine. The generator is an      engine and oil samples are usually $30 extra per sample.
• Haul Out- Generally $10 per foot.
• Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)  registration. $70 plus sales tax due immediately which is 8% of the cost of boat at Finest City Registration in Pacific Beach CA)
• USCG      Documentation- Dona Jenkins Charges $372 to do an abstract of title and      Coast Guard Documentation.
• If there is going to be a loan on the boat then she will have to do a preferred ship      mortgage and it will be more like $550 for an abstract of title, USCG      documentation, and a preferred ship mortgage filed with the lending institution.
• The buyer has one year from the date of purchase to pay sales tax when the vessel is      USCG documented.
• Brokers do not collect sales tax ever and there is a tax liability notice each buyer      needs to sign saying they understand brokers do not collect sales tax.
• Off shore delivery is one way around paying sales tax as is purchasing an LLC owned      vessel.

Ongoing cost-

• Slip – Generally 1 month deposit then prorated amount for the first month. In San      Diego the slips generally run from $15 to $20 per foot.
• Mexico Banderas  Bay, Mexico region slip rates tend to be – low season (Summer) of 50 cents per foot per day and high season (November to May) 78 cents a foot per day.      Mega Yachts 80 feet plus are $1.75 a day and there is a 16% sales tax.      Electricity charges are extra. You must do your own research as marinas are  all different. Then there is always anchoring out.
• Liveaboard-  Liveaboard fees run from as low as $75 per month at a yacht club to an      average of $300 per month at a regular marina. There is usually a waiting  list for liveaboards at the most marinas. These are Southern California  rates and are probably much higher now.
• Insurance- I find a good rule of thumb is about 2% of the value of the boat, but it really depends. This has been going up year over year dramatically.      Shopping boat insurance is important. Some insurances will restrict your  vessel to certain areas for hurricane season.
• Property Tax  per year- 1.025% of the value so about $ 600 per year. (Southern California)
• Bottom  Cleaning- about $1 to $1.25 per month plus the cost of zincs. I would say an average of $2 per foot per month with the cost of zincs included. In certain areas of Mexico you must get your bottom cleaned every two weeks during the warmer months. My boat is 52 feet on the water and I pay 1500 pesos every cleaning or 28.9 pesos a foot or about 2.00 USD per foot.
• General maintenance- I would figure at least $200 per month or 5%-%10 of the value of the vessel per year.
• Electric- Depends on usage. Ask the Marina for per KW price.
• Labor costs do tend to be less in Mexico but they are going up quickly as of this writing      Mid-February 2024