tom,Tom Dacon wrote:
Alan, our interlocutor, while rather dyspeptic, DID say one thing I can
support whoeheartedly. I kept my boat in Ventura Harbor for twenty-four
years before bringing it up here to Port Townsend where I now live. I can
recommend Ventura Harbor Boatyard very highly. I've had a lot of work done
there over the years on my fifty-year-old wooden sloop, and all of it has
been first-class. It's employee-owned by a nice bunch of guys who are expert
at their business. Rates are competitive but not unreasonable. And when
you're back in the water, the northern Channel Islands are a day's sail
away. If it's not too late to change your plans, I don't think you'd regret
it.

Tom Dacon
s/v Bettina

Tom,

Thanks much for the feedback.

If you check around you'll find that the Baja Naval yard has a good
reputation (including even within the last 3 years--after which,
according to our "dyspeptic interlocutor," it purportedly went to pot).
Conversely, there are some pretty bad horror stories one can find out
there about some of the So. Calif. yards (e.g., when a yard by where I
used to keep my boat dropped a Newport 27 on the concrete). Stuff
happens. In any case, I always try to weigh advice, and grant it (or
whatever portion of it I can) the credence it deserves.

My trip to Ensenada, by the way, is not *merely* for the bottom work but
it's a trip I've been wanting to do for some time with a few of my
friends. (I'm going to have the bottom work done while I'm at it.) The
description of Todos Santos I received from you and a few others was
useful, corroborating as it does some material from other sources. (And
that was, after all, what I was soliciting--and not all the other stuff
about towing costs from Ensenada to SD, whether Catalina is a swell
place to sail, etc.). Anyway, based on this info I'm figuring on
skipping Todos Santos altogether, or perhaps I'll just sail close enough
to take a look but won't figure on making it a stop over. The islands
just don't seem attractive enough to outweigh the negatives. (I guess
they are sought after by surfers and perhaps divers, but I don't do
either.) And thank you again for your input on my original question.

Ventura--I will remember your endorsement of the Ventura Harbor
Boatyard. (In fact, I have cut and pasted your e-mail into my "boat
notes" file, where I save such info.) It could make good sense to do a
haul out there if I were wanting to do another Channel Islands trip some
summer--which I'm sure I will in the next few years. I have done the
Channel Islands quite a few times but have not been into Ventura Harbor,
always opting for Oxnard or Santa Barbara instead. In the other
direction I also did a haul out at South Bay Boatyard in Chula Vista,
and my experience with them was decent. So there are some good yards
around, but I appreciate your testimony about Ventura specifically.

Regards,
Alan