As terrific as Mazatlan is for engine work, boat canvas and stainless steel, there is a dearth of sail makers. If your main sail has experienced some...ermm...user error lately; saaay, in the form of an excessively taut outhaul that stresses the grommets along the luff and tears the sail fabric? If you're in Pacific Mexico, the best place to get your boat for the necessary repairs, is to La Paz. Once there hail Snug Harbor Sails on VHF 22 and hope they're not so busy they can't respond. It's a small shop - just Doug and Rhea there - but it's a very good one and you should make them your friends.
There we were, at anchor in La Paz harbor in December, getting ever-closer to the Christmas holidays when the town's businesses shut down. Hailed Snug Harbor, they said right on, they could squeeze us in. We unhank the main sail (in 15 knots north wind), flake (aka stuff) it into its sail bag, then the next morning early we drop it gently into the dinghy, scoot ashore, hump it out of the dink onto Marina de La Paz's dock, schlep it a block to the taxi stand, and off we go across town to Snug Harbor. Arrive at their door at 0745, well after they opened for business. They say hi, what'cha got there, we show them, they try not to laugh; yes they can fix our mistakes.
And they say: well, we can get it back to you in about a week. Which at that time was longer than we'd expected...but turned out to be much faster than we could ever leave the Necessary And Progressively More Comfortable Cruisers' Vortex Of La Paz.
Anyway, Doug and Rhea say, sail repair can be done by next Wednesday. Fine. Turned out, it was finished 4 days early, but for some reason they and we never made VHF contact, so we hail them the following Wednesday and they say where you been, your sail's been done for days, now please pick it up and put it back on yer boat. Except they were far nicer than what I write here. But we stepped lively.
Dinghy to shore. Taxi to Snug Harbor, Pick up sail, inspect,
smiles and handshakes all around. Pesos exchanged for invoice. Excellent repair and reinforcement job, excellent price, fast and friendly work. Taxi back to dinghy dock. Tip the nice cabbie. Hump sail into dinghy. Scoot back to The Fox. By the time we'd got back aboard, VHF 22 was alive with hails to Snug Harbor Sails, all wanting assistance and the calls came so thick and fast Snug Harbor had to start turning away business. In December, people arrive at La Paz en masse and everyone want to get their boats ready - quickly - for a cruise. My advice? If you think you might need some sail repairs, and want them done well, get to La Paz early. And plan on making life easy for yourself and Snug Harbor Sails, and do business with them no later than 0730, weekdays.
Your results will be optimal.
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