Hauling Out at La Cruz Shipyard & Workyard for $10.92/ft

Now that we’re floating (and the bill is paid!) I wanted to give a quick rundown on our experience at the La Cruz Shipyard (one of only 2 places in the general Puerto Vallarta area that you can haul your boat).

Brio - 33' sailboat - in the workyard at La Cruz Shipyard

We weren’t even going to consider the workyard in La Cruz, as we’d heard last year that you were not allowed to work on your boat (to the extent that they weren’t even allowing owners in to the yard!). As of March 1, 2013 however, this rule was changed, and you are currently allowed to do any work you would like to in this yard (we were only removing the rudder & prop shaft, but others around us were sanding, painting, fibreglassing, etc with no problems).

La Cruz Shipyard - 150 ton Travelift - Hauling sailboat in Puerto Vallarta

They have a 150-ton Travelift, and a good size yard to fit boats in. They were able to haul us with a day’s notice, blocked us up 2′ so we could drop our rudder, and they popped us back in the water with just a couple hours of advance notice. There was a bathroom, we were offered use of their showers, and there’s a nice little convenience store across the road for cold drinks on hot afternoons 🙂 Overall, we were happy with how things went and are glad that we decided to haul here.

The catch — because there’s always a funny little catch — is that getting a decent price on your haulout can be a bit of an exercise. Luckily we had been warned that the initial quote would be crazy, but that they were relatively open to negotiate. With this in mind, we went in and asked what it would cost to haul out.

$18/ft was the first answer (after the 16% IVA tax, that would have been $689 for our 33′ sailboat!).

When we questioned this price, Alejandro (the man we dealt with in the office) quickly said that he would give us the $14/ft “survey” rate that they charge for boats that are only being hauled for a couple hours. This was substantially better, but we still wondered if it was their ‘best price’.

We went back to the boat, pulled up Skype, and started making calls. Marina Fonatur San Blas (about 60 miles north of here) quoted us 3600 pesos ($288 US), we knew that Marina San Carlos charges $300 for in & out, and so lastly we called Opequimar (the other yard in Banderas Bay). That funny conversation went like this:

“Hi there, we would like a price to haul our 33′ sailboat please”

“Okay… That will be $430 USD, plus $88/day to stay in the workyard”

“Wow. That’s expensive. Do you have a March special?”

“Oh… yes, we do. It’s…. 20% off!”

Armed with these haul-out prices (and knowing we would never pay $88/day to be in a workyard!!) we went back to La Cruz Shipyard with a neatly printed spreadsheet comparing their yard’s prices to the competitor’s… and in the end they agreed to match Opequimar‘s haulout price (which we adjusted to reflect the 20% discount they were giving! :D).

Workyard at La Cruz Shipyard in Puerto Vallarta Mexico

SO, long story short, we paid $360.36 for the haul out, and $33/day to be in the yard (it’s $1/ft/day to be in the yard, so our total bill including that darn 16% tax came to $647.70 for our 6 day stay).

We know for a fact that other boats in the yard are paying anywhere from $14/ft to $18/ft, so wanted to share the message that our haulout worked out to be $10.92/ft, and that we were really happy with the overall experience. Nothing like working in paradise, right? 🙂

150 ton Travelift at La Cruz Shipyard in La Cruz Banderas Bay

*One last note — When we asked, we were told that La Cruz Shipyard does not allow you to sleep on your boat at night, so we rented a small apartment for $16/night. After talking to others in the yard, we realized that the smart thing to do might be to not ask at all… “It’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission”

Although having wifi, showers and a clean place to sleep at night was kinda nice!

 


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