Isla Coronado Loreto Bay Marine Park
Isla Contoy Biosphere Reserve
San Carlos Sonora
Reaching to Isla Mujeres Cancun Quintan Roo
Isla Carmen Loreto Bay Marine Park
The Aquarium San Carlos

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Author Archives: Vince

We helped save Ms Toni a 40 foot Jim Brown, she is out of the water and safe!

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Vince • 0 Comments

Ms. Toni is a 40 ft. Jim Brown. The owner had some serious health issues and the boat was left for a few years basically unattended here in the San Carlos at the Los Tomates anchorage in San Carlos Bay. We got the boat put into the Marina just before Hurricane Newton devastated the area with 70 knot winds. We were happy to get Ms. Toni tied up to the Marina and safe since the hurricane pretty much swept clean any boats that were left in the bay. Yesterday we finally got her towed to the boat yard in Guaymas and safely pulled out of the water. While Ms. Toni was on the hook she was frequently boarded and robbed of several things. Solar Panels are gone along with the steering wheel and I am sure a host of other items. With that said the boat is still in great shape considering her ordeal. We were so happy to make sure she did not die in this last hurricane!! Thanks to Frank, one of my Sailing Students from New York who took the time to help me get her to Guaymas. It was an all day affair!!

Kathryn & Rodrigo get three perfect cloudy breezy rainy days for basic keel boat!

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Vince • 0 Comments

You never know what summer time will bring when teaching a sailing course. You are of course guaranteed warm water and this year we got two beautiful cloudy days and had the opportunity to sail through some refreshingly rain showers. That doesn’t happen all that often. Kathryn from the Alamos mine up in northern Sonora and Rodrigo a university professor from Oaxaca got a bit of a special treat with those cloudy days!!

Thanks to you both for three great days of sailing!!!

Dialing in a Halman 20 in San Carlos

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Vince • 0 Comments

I had the vast pleasure of sailing a Halman 20 the other day here in San Carlos. The boat came with a house purchase and I helped the new owner get the boat a bit sorted out. Halman Manufacturing Company built boats from 1978 to 1997 based out of Ontario Canada. The boats are serious little affairs and it would seem to me built to take the punishment that the great lakes can dish out to any would be sailor. Halman built 7 different models according to Sailboat Data. The boat I sailed here in San Carlos seemed as sold as a rock and had very decent performance for something so small. Even though the boat was only 20 feet long it has a slightly bigger feel to it. There was an enormous amount of space on the foredeck and it was remarkably easy to walk up there on such a small vessel. The interior was spacious and decent head room considering the size of the boat. Here is another interesting site on Halman 20’s. Apparently there are virtually no owners manuals for these boats but if you go to this link you might be able find one. This previous link has some great stories on Halman boats with one even ending up in Australia!

The following is cut and pasted from the link above:

Halman 20 Owners – Check this out!!!! Seems that “Mr. Halmans” factory built a lot of 20 ft. boats, but didn’t build too many manuals – and probably because people were so eager to go sailing, they weren’t going to take the time to do any serious writing or reading. If he was wrong, and you really do like to read and learn something new…. then here’s something make your day! Mr. Colin Starratt has compiled a manual of notes from being a Halman owner and has graciously offered to share that with us. If you’d like a copy, send me an e-mail at [Lmay@nordicaboats.com] and I’ll forward it to you. He’s done a great job in combining photos, sketches and real “meat and potatoes” perspectives from an owners viewpoint. The price to you for his work is simple, you have to send him a note of thanks and appreciation for his efforts. Absolutely the best deal you’ve run across for a long time I’d bet. The file is a “PDF” document and is about 40+ pages long.

Thanks Colin for all of your work. Your efforts will be appreciated many times over by all of the existing and new Halman owners who read and learn from your work. As an update to this “better than free” offer, there have been a lot of requests for his manual and I hope Colin is getting his e-mail box stuffed with your notes of appreciation.

Bob and Flo from the plains of Calgary did 7 windy days in a row

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Vince • 0 Comments

Bob and Florence had incredible weather for their 7 day sailing course. February tends to be the windiest and coldest month of the year here in San Carlos but this year was a bit different. Due to the monster el nino we are having this year the water temperature is still hovering around around 70 degrees in shore and the air temperature was in the 70’s and sometimes 80’s. As you will notice from the pictures we almost never had a jacket on during the whole 7 day course since the wind was not a cold bitter northwesterly like we usually have. Instead we had a very nice warm north and north westerly wind for almost all the days except for the final day which turned out to be the least windy of them all yet we still sailed most of it.

This February we also had far more boats sailing in the bay than we normally have so it was great practice to figure out who was on what tack and thus who had the right away. Bob is looking to purchase a boat down here and we are actively consulting for him to help him find the right boat for him.

I also ran into Bonnie and John at the Marina San Carlos fuel dock , who are also from Canada by the way!! Vive Canada!! Bonnie and John took a three day course with us a few months back and now have gone on to purchase a a boat of their own, Ingenium, which is pictured below. I got a great shot of the calico kitty they have on board!

Day 3 of 7 day course with Fernando, Emily & Fernando

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Vince • 0 Comments

Some shots from our third day out sailing with Fernando and his two kids. They are progressing rapidly plus we found the local dolphins in their usual spot!

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Fred & Alissa Basic Keel Boat, three sweet days!

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Vince • 0 Comments

So Fred came down from chilly Northern California and Alissa is finishing up her Masters in Linguistics in Southern California and we had a really nice three day basic keel boat sailing course!! And I got off my lazy butt and actually have the pictures to prove it!

Custom Installed Winch on Glenns Irwin 34

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Vince • 0 Comments

So a buddy/sailing student of mine recently purchased a Irwin 34 and was looking to have a winch installed so after some on line research we came up with this custom install for him!! It came out super dubber nice and the chain now runs directly into the chain locker and you never have to touch it!!

Gerald and Family all the way from Louisiana to San Carlos for Basic Keel boat 101

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Vince • 0 Comments

Gerald drove all the way to San Carlos from Shreveport LA. to take 101 basic Keel boat. By the end of the three days his kids were a well oiled machine and ready to kick dad off the boat and sail it themselves!!

Rodrigo & Mike 7 days plenty of wind

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Vince • 0 Comments

Day one was light wind, today was day 5 and we had gusts of 30 knots and some seriously nice seas.

Baja Crossing; Punta Pulpito to Punta Chivato then back to San Carlos with Ivan & Garvin

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Vince • 0 Comments

Had a great time sailing with the brothers Ivan and Garvin on a wild and wooly crossing to the Baja. We left San Carlos Monday afternoon and reached Punta Pulpito around 15 hours later. The crossing saw 25 knot winds with 6 to 8 foot seas. From Pulpito we worked our way north to the anchorages of Los Pilares and Santo Domingo. Both of which are located at the entrance to Bahia Concepcion. We eventually ended up at Punta Santa Ines, which most people refer to as Punta Chivato. Punta Chivato is technically the northern most point of the area with Punta Santa Ines the southern point. One major note of interest is that not one single light house was working between Punta Chivato and Punta Pulpito. The coast was completely dark. Not even the dangerous and shoaling Santa Ines Islands had any light houses working. The port captain over there is clearly not on the ball! So special thanks to Ivan and Garvin for coming down with us for some great sailing on Girovaga, the 37 foot Union Polaris which for all of its minor problems is still a very solid double ender that sails well as long as you have enough wind to drive her.