By: Jack Innis
May 27, 2010
Last updated: June 16, 2010
ENSENADA, Mexico -- The emergence of a new towboat company in Ensenada, Baja California Norte has started a maritime turf war that has already snared
a Southern California boater and towing captain, and brings into question whether U.S. towing insurance is still valid in Mexican waters.
At issue: whether U.S. flagged towboat companies such as Sea Tow and Vessel Assist have the right to enter Mexican waters to tow disabled American
boats back home.
The Mexican towboat company Baja Tow says they don’t. San Diego Vessel Assist owner Robert Butler says they do. And San Diego Sea Tow owner Bubba
Severance says it’s too early to tell how Mexican authorities will ultimately rule.
In the meantime, boaters with or without U.S. towing insurance requesting assistance in Mexican waters should know that the first boat they see might
not be Vessel Assist or Sea Tow, but Baja Tow. Both U.S. towboat operators have promised to somehow provide service to members with appropriate
coverage, but woe to the hapless mariner venturing into Mexican waters with no insurance and not much cash aboard.
The turf war, which began several months ago when Baja Tow launched its service, boiled over May 3 when Vessel Assist dispatched its towboat Shelter
Island to fetch a disabled member 2 miles off Ensenada Harbor.
Capt. Eric Lamb located the boat, hooked up his tow bridle and got under way. He didn’t get far.
“As we were towing, the Baja towboat company came out with (Mexican federal police) on board their boat and started telling us in Spanish we needed to
go to the port captain’s office,” Butler said. “Eric called me and said the federal police were trying to convince him to go into port. I told him not
to comply.”
A short while later, a Mexican navy gunboat arrived on scene and ordered the 31-foot towboat, and the boat being towed, into port.
“My vessel did absolutely nothing wrong,” Butler said. “We were turned in by the commercial assist company out of Ensenada, who thought that they were
the only ones allowed to tow in Mexico. They had actually threatened (earlier) to have our boats seized if we towed in Mexico. They detained us
against our will.”
It’s ironic that Lamb found himself in the middle of this dispute. For the past seven years, Lamb personally captained Shelter Island as part of the
Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race, following the fleet to lend assistance on both legs of the 125-mile run. In doing so, he’s done a lot to
promote boating between the neighboring nations.
Upon learning his boat was being detained by the Mexican government, Butler contacted a Mexican maritime attorney -- and a television station, in
hopes that media coverage would help ensure they were treated fairly. While the issue was being discussed by the Mexican navy, federal police,
Ensenada port captain and other officials, Shelter Island underwent a slew of dockside safety checks. Ten hours later, the towboat was finally allowed
to leave Mexico with the disabled vessel in tow.
“At the end of the day, I was right, our company was right and the Gold Card member still got his free tow,” Butler said. “No law prohibits us from
towing.”
But Sea Tow has taken a different tack. The firm recently reached an agreement with the Baja Tow, according to Severance. The Ensenada-based firm will
haul Sea Tow-member boaters stranded in Mexican waters to the international demarcation line and hand them off to Sea Tow, which will bring them back
into San Diego Harbor, Severance said.
“We have a deal in place, so Sea Tow members don’t have to pay,” Severance said. “They’ll be serviced in Mexican territorial waters by our provider:
Baja Tow. They speak English, they’re licensed and they’re the only legal option down there, currently. We’ve worked with them before on non-member
jobs -- towing a 43 Riviera and a 60-foot sailboat -- and I know first-hand that their experience level is good.”
Under the agreement, Sea Tow members will simply sign for services rendered at the demarcation line prior to accepting Sea Tow assistance. But
Severance was quick to point out that the new arrangement has yet to be tested on the water. At press time, no Sea Tow boater had yet been towed to
the border by Baja Tow and handed off.
For his part, Butler insisted he’ll keep sending his towboats into Mexican waters to service members.
According to Butler, his Vessel Assist parent firm has not yet seen adequate proof of commercial towing insurance from Baja Tow. Without adequate
insurance in place, Vessel Assist members might not have recourse for property damage or personal injury related to a tow, he said.
At press time, Vessel Assist San Diego had towed boats out of Mexico six or seven times since the May 3 incident, Butler stated.
But what are the chances that some unlucky boater will be caught in Round 2 of this maritime tug-o-war? Butler cautioned U.S. boaters planning Mexico
cruises that, due to the open nature of VHF radio transmission, the first assist vessel to arrive on scene might be Baja Tow -- regardless of what
towing firm a stricken boater might attempt to call. It may be wise to decline service, he said.
“If you are in Mexico and Baja Tow comes alongside -- and you’re a Vessel Assist member -- you’re hiring them at your own risk and your own free
will,” Butler said. “We do have reimbursement programs, but it’s out-of-pocket, initially. I don’t have the authority to say whether a certain tow
would be reimbursed; that’s an administrative thing with our parent corporation. But if you’re a Vessel Assist member and you’re in Mexican waters,
even if you’re in port, Vessel Assist will come and tow you within the limits of your policy.”
While Vessel Assist and Sea Tow operators don’t see eye-to-eye on how to best handle this turf war, they do agree that boaters without towing
insurance put themselves at serious risk. In the past, both U.S. firms have towed uninsured boaters back to port, negotiated deals, and even allowed
boaters to leave the dock to pick up cash to pay for services rendered.
It is yet to be seen whether Baja Tow would act with that much benevolence -- or how such a scenario might play out if the disabled boat was towed to
Ensenada Harbor rather than San Diego. Might towing charges and daily storage fees quickly add up to more than a particular boat is worth? Similar
situations develop daily at automotive towing companies -- on both sides of the border.
At sea, charges add up so quickly it’s not even clear whether it would be prudent for a mariner to carry enough cash on board to pay for a tow.
“They’re going to charge $300 an hour, just like we do -- and they’re going to start their clock from Ensenada,” Severance said, in relation to
uninsured boaters. “If they get you near the Coronado islands (about 50 miles from Ensenada Harbor), it might cost you $900 just for them to get
there.”
Add time spent rigging, towing, waiting for an American towboat company at the border -- and even the time it takes the towboat to return to Ensenada
-- and an overheated engine could result in a 20-hour tow, costing the owner as much as $6,000 cash.
“They recently charged one of our members a couple miles out of Ensenada Harbor $250 to do a jump start,” Butler said. “They’re not cheap.”
Baja Tow representatives have not responded to The Log’s requests for interviews, placed through intermediaries including a boat captain who has
worked for Baja Tow.
Sources say the new company is not the same firm as TowBoatMX, a boat towing operation based out of Ensenada that was started two years ago and is
reportedly now out of business. According to a banner at the company’s towboatmx.com website, “the domain name expired on 04/19/2010 and is pending
renewal or deletion.”DENNIS - 6-22-2010 at 04:11 PM
What is the distance from shore that's called 'Territorial Waters" by Mexico and US? Who establishes that distance?postholedigger - 6-22-2010 at 04:28 PM
12 miles as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.toneart - 6-22-2010 at 04:58 PM
Do you suppose that NAFTA might have regulations that could clarify the legalities? That has probably been looked into, but sometimes people
immediately involved in an incident like this may be so engrossed in the immediate fight that they might not think of all possibilities such as NAFTA.
I am just thinking off the top of my head here but I don't know squat.Osprey - 6-23-2010 at 07:21 AM
My money's on Bubba Severance --- with a handle like that I think all licenses are forgiven.wessongroup - 6-23-2010 at 07:28 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
What is the distance from shore that's called 'Territorial Waters" by Mexico and US? Who establishes that distance?
that is an excellent question, as I had the question over who was the "owner" of the site where Deepwater Horzion was located and operating ..
In that particular case, the United Nations.. yep... the United States owns most all of the Gulf of Mexico under some deal set up via the United
Nations.. at least that was how it read to me...
and based on that, the oil gushing out of that hole in the bottom of the Gulf, well it's OUR oil ... BP just bought the "rights" to extract our
minerals from our land in one of our tract managed by the Department of Interior
