SAN DIEGO – A second home can be more than a single-family dwelling.
According to your friendly Internal Revenue Service, a second home can be a boat or recreational vehicle, as long as it has sleeping, cooking and bathroom facilities. You can also deduct the mortgage interest on a boat or RV as long as it is used as security for the loan.
While boats and RVs have been extremely popular for decades, the boat and yacht component is really on the upswing south of the border in Mexico. That country believes it has found a way to further promote tourism (Mexico is now ranked 10th worldwide) and make a buck at the same time by appealing to visiting boaters.
Originally, the plan was called Escalera Nautica, or the Nautical Ladder, a series of 27 marinas constructed on both sides of Baja California and on the mainland of Mexico. The chain, seeking to lure the 1.6 million boaters in the U.S. Southwest, was scheduled to start at Punta Colonet, a small cove about 120 miles south of San Diego on the northern coast of Baja California, then extend down to and around the cape at the tip of Cabo San Lucas, up the Sea of Cortes (Gulf of California), then down the Pacific Coast to Huatulco.
It was the biggest tourism project of President Vincente Fox’s administration, and its road has not been smooth and comfortable. Not unlike the old Baja Highway, the Nautical Ladder project has endured huge chuckholes and detours, shortcuts and blowouts.
Heading into Fox’s final year in office, the effort was trimmed considerably and renamed Mar de Cortes, or the Sea of Cortes Project. The entry port now appears to be the existing marina at Ensenada, plus key rungs of the remodeled ladder at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Penasco and Nuevo Vallarta.
The most interesting piece of the project puzzle is a “land bridge” across the Baja peninsula from Santa Rosalillita on the Pacific to the northern end of Bahia de los Angeles on the Sea of Cortes. This would allow skippers to trailer their boats across the peninsula rather than sailing all the way around to reach the Sea of Cortes.
The original Nautical Ladder was hit by rising fuel costs, environmental concerns and investor skepticism. Fox, who ended the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party with his victory in 2000, clearly wanted a marine project completed before his one-term, six-year run was up in 2006. The Sea of Cortes Project appeared to be it.
In addition, Fox wanted to push through the idea of making Punta Colonet a major commercial port rivaling Los Angeles and Long Beach. The plan is to have Punta Colonet serve container ships by 2012, offering an alternative to Asian traders.
At the time the Nautical Ladder was first announced, environmental groups – especially those focused on the land and waters of the Sea of Cortes – questioned the scope and goals. John McCarthy, director general of Fonature, Mexico’s national trust for the promotion of tourism, said at the time that environmental measures would be in place.
The organization was assigned the task of luring not only vacationers but also the huge dollars from international investors seeking to develop a variety of real estate possibilities.
The plan, part of improving the tourist infrastructure, is going forward because of the possibility of American dollars at every rung of the ladder. Fonatur plans to franchise the marinas with early investment forecasts reaching a total of $2 billion in five Mexican states. The marinas will include everything that you would find in a master-planned community, including major single-family homes and condominium projects, restaurants, shops, moorage and fuel. The plan is to space the marinas approximately 100 miles apart so boaters can have a safe harbor on each day of a trip.
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