Kino Bay Chronicle

"Boats In, Boats Out

Lacking the availability of piers or docks to which boats can tie up and remain in the water between trips, most boats at Kino Bay must be launched and retrieved each trip. Lighter car-top boats can, of course, be put in the water and pulled out again by a couple of reasonably able-bodied persons.

The heavier, trailer-home boats, however, must be backed down a ramp on a trailer and released when afloat, after which the trailer is pulled back out of the water by the launching vehicle. This is an operation which requires some experience on the part of the launch truck driver and is fraught with problems because it frequently results in wet, and therefore salt-damaged, truck wheels. Most boat owners prefer to pay an experienced and well-equipped launching operator for this service.

For several years, the Club operated its own launch trucks with a paid Mexican employee. But truck maintenance costs often exceeded the revenue. For a time, beginning in 1988, a launching association was tried. Members bought into this plan with a payment of $100 and then could be launched for a $5.00 fee. If you didn't belong to the association, your fee was $10 and non-Club members paid $15.

This arrangement raised funds but had other problems so when Roberto Benitez, who was working for the Club as a launcher, asked in 1992 to take over the launching as a private enterprise, the Club gave him a truck and was happy to get out of the launching business.

Three and one-half miles southeast of Old Kino is a body of water popularly known as "the estuary", actually La Cruz Lagoon.

For many years, a large number of car-top boats whose owners fished in the estuary and nearby waters, could tie their boats to tires buried in the sand in front of an RV park which once operated there. The small boats could be launched and retrieved without help of a vehicle and could be left there in safety.

About 1988, however, a religious organization purchased the land and blocked off access to this popular small-boat launching area. Club representatives, with the help of Adolfo "Nazi" Salcido, a Sonora Department of Tourism official (now also directing the "Sonora Only" program) who has been of great help to the Club and Kino visitors, obtained use of another beach area nearby. The new site, however, was less protected from wind and not as satisfactory. Only a few small boats are launched there now and not left overnight as before.

The north and south ramps were both installed before the Club was organized. A second arm of the north ramp, built in 1984, proved unsatisfactory for some boats. It appeared that no financial aid would be forthcoming from the Mexican government, so the Club voted to raise funds for minor modifications, which were completed in 1991.