Testimonials

"Sailing in the Sea of Cortez is a wonderful experience"

Sailing in the Sea of Cortez is a wonderful experience - until you have a serious mechanical failure of some sort. That’s what happened to me. I got dismasted. Luckily there were no injuries and luckily I was not too far from La Paz.

However, once anchored back in La Paz’s harbor, with your deck in a complete shambles and a mast bent in half, you are facing an interesting uphill battle, far from home, to get your boat put back together again. In my case, my luck continued to hold and Carlos Solis of Waterworks and Jeffrey Walker of Dawn Rigging took on the job of fixing my mast and replacing the standing rigging.

I can’t say enough positive things about these two gentlemen. They were each highly skilled at what they did and their prices totally reasonable. Jeffrey was the primary hands-on guy regarding the repair and the new rigging. I had ordered a new bottom half of the mast from the original mast company in the U.S., and the two pieces had to be sleeved and screwed together.

There were plenty of places where the repair could have gone sour but that did not occur because of the skill with which the work was done.

I now am re-masted and life is good again.

David Groverman aboard Wind Spirit from Newport Beach, CA

 

 

*Hawk eye in Latitude 38"

RIGGING, EPIRBS AND WHINING
To answer Gary Turner's April question about the advisability of getting rigging replaced in Mexico, there is an excellent rigger in La Paz.
Jeff and Alba of Dawn Rigging - Alba is Spanish for dawn - helped me re-rig my boat last year while I was docked in Marina de La Paz. I can highly recommend their work. Since my rig is an Isomat, I brought all of the special end fittings, turnbuckles and so forth down with me from the U.S. last fall.

Jeff and I had considerable discussions about whether to use 302 or 316 stainless wire. Most riggers I talked to in the States recommended the more corrosion resistant - and more expensive - 316. Based on his experience, however, Jeff felt that the 302 wire works well and is 10% stronger than 316. You can go up one wire size with 316 to offset this, but then you'd be looking at considerably more expense that's entailed with larger turnbuckles and such. It's been a year now, and I notice some rust discoloration of the wire, but it is only on the surface. Some of it actually washed off with the first rain!
Jeff has a good supply of 302 wire in stock, and a new Loos mechanical swage.

Hydraulic swaging is considered superior to mechanical, although both are satisfactory if done properly. One area where I was really glad of Jeff's expertise was the forestay replacement. Getting the Harken furler extrusions apart took most of a day, and involved the use of a blowlamp and a mallet. It was not a simple job!
One word of warning: if the breeze comes up in the afternoon, Jeff and Alba will most likely disappear. It has something to do with the windsurfing at La Ventana - on the east side of the La Paz peninsula - being superb. (www.latitude38.com/letters/200105.htm)

LA PAZ

La Paz is also a great place to get certain services done on your boat. It is difficult to get parts or supplies that are specific to fiberglass sailboats so bring what you need. La Paz has an excellent rigger named Jeffrey who can handle all of your rigging needs but it is best if you have the parts. He learned his trade in the US and he is very capable and very reasonably priced. I really can't say enough good things about Jeffrey and I feel very fortunate that I didn't get around to getting the projects done on my mast in the US.

Please don't sail down the coast with an unsafe rig.

Consultations

Alba & Jeffrey Walker
Dawn Rigging is available at:
From USA call to: 01 1 52 1 612 1079934
In México call to: 044 612 1079934
or lapaz@dawnrigging.com

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