For sale: 2005 Chaparral Signature 240

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
Nice, James!

Fuel capacity? Sweet spot cruise speed? General fuel burn rate at cruise? AC shore power only, or genset?

Going bigger or staying at home?
 

YumaJames

Well Known Member
Unfortunately do not want to sell everything, but for personal reasons have to let it all go. 71 gallon tank. When I'd head out to the 50 marker for a few days I'd take a few 5-gallon gas containers with me, used a battery-operated fuel pump (comes with the boat) to fill er up. In calm conditions (2-3 guys and extra fuel on board) I'd burn 17 gallons to get out to the 50 marker (=2.9). Top speed is about 55 mph, but cruises/planes best (best fuel burn) at about 25-27 which is what I always kept her at. Forgot to mention in the ad also includes a manual dual-speed Diawa manual reel with deep drop rod, and a few other cheaper manual reels/rods. Sincerely, throwing in about $5000 worth of fishing equipment. Unfortunately doesn't have a built in generator, but could run A/C off a portable generator. Just did the 400 hour service, including new plugs, and impella. Miguel at Safe Harbor just took my manifolds off to inspect them for corrosion, and he said they're super clean, buyer can verify that with him. Thx.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
That my friends is a Havasu lake boat..............

I'd love to see it heading into a six foot swell with a 40 knot quartering wind and chop bouncing it like a painted cork fishing bobber.

Had a friend a few years back with something similar that wanted to tag along to Isla San Jorge. He had an 80 gallon tank, ran out of fuel within sight of the Mayan Palace on the return home. Wanted ME to tow him back! I said drop anchor where you are and I'll call Vessel Assist when I get back to the barn (kidding). I did notify the Capitan del Puerto of the sitrep.

They had a long night and an event to remember for a lifetime!

The guy was persistent though, next time out he brought eight red plastic five gallon gas cans, tied to the bow rails full of gasolina, I hoped! Supposedly the other half of what it took to get to La Isla. After a few hours of fish killing it was tiempo por retorno va Penasco. I said now in the lee of la Isla is the time to start to transfer la gasolina, he said no, when he gets low he will do it enroute! So we be maybe five miles north of la Isla and los brisas start picking up to the forty or fifty mile per hour standard afternoon blow.

We cruise along side and watch him trying to unleash those jugs and screw in the spouts and try to dump em into the gunnel side filler port whilst the boat is doing an eight foot pitch and dive every fifteen seconds. Mom and the kids are in the cabin getting their heads bashed into the ceiling and the toilet is swashing like a blender with Freddy Kreguer at the on-off switch. Another event to remember for a lifetime!

Sadly it was their last, they upgraded to a fifty foot motor cruiser that they kept and never left the dock in Mission Bay, never to see the Sea of Cortez again.

JJ
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
The Sea of Cortez... it ain't for bay boaters.

I fished with a guy in San Carlos that had a nice deck boat. He insisted it could handle it. He could keep up with me on the nice, flat days. The minute it got snotty, he had to run like hell to make it back in.

I still give him an A for effort. He hooked up some nice dodos and that was his only goal.

James boat looks worthy. But the fuel capacity does indeed scare me. I had 230 gallons and worried about that being enough on many runs. It's a big ocean out there. Sudden winds or a tide you weren't expecting sucks fuel like a methhead with a straw on a pile of crystal.

Add to that, the pumps at Circle K are short. You THINK you put 100 gallons in, when in reality, it was only 88. Found that out the hard way, too... Running out of fuel in one tank just outside the harbor. Thank god the other tank and motor had barely enough to get me back into Safe Marine.

I always overplan, but you're still fucked when Mexico undercompensates all that planning. Not many realize that wind and fuel burn even coming back from the island in the afternoon.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
Sooooooooooo lemmie tella you another good one.......

Back when we used the public (ramp) below the Friendly Dolphin and good ole drugged out Jose was my launcher, we had an interesting person meet us as we were being retrieved and handing over a mix of groupers, Yellowtail and Sierras to the fish cleaner kids. She was a latina woman just about as wide as she was tall with three teenage kids in tow. She was bitchin at and berating the Mexican kids in a long forgotten tongue that made me think of Miami FLA. Sure enough she told me that she had just made landfall in the Phoenix area and had her recently dead dads fishing boat towed all the way from FLA to RP! Those days we had a condo at Desert Oasis where they had built me a sixty foot pull-thru garage big enough for my boat and truck as one unit.

Turns out she had a trailer pad there as well and told me that she followed me to the ramp that morning and hung around all day to wait and see what I came back with. With her heavy Cuban dialect she told me her life story of being one of the refugee families from Havana and how her Pop-Pee had made good in Mi-Yami and had a really nice fishing boat built up that he and the familia spent many happy days on. Just so happened the boat was in the back lot of the Oasis and could I check it out and maybe she might buddy boat with me manana.

That was an eye opener to behold! It was a house boat on a thirty five foot vee hull with a shack attached to the deck. I'm like, it's a free world around here and if you want to tag along that's fine with me BUT DO NOT EXPECT ME TO HELP YOU IN ANY WAY WHEN THE SHIT HITS THE FAN OUT THERE! She says no problema! I'll be at la rampa manana en la manana.

My wife asks me if I have any idea what we are getting in to? I say it will be a guaranteed hoot so lets bring extra cervesas.

It musta took an hour and every available hand at the ramp to get that thing on the water and we head out. It's got some sort of automobile engine for power and she's sitting at the helm on the roof of the shack on a folding K-Mart deck chair, the kids are in the shack with the AC blowin since it's a toasty July morning. We make the left turn out of the harbor and set sail for Isla San Jorge.

So she's puttin along at maybe five knots and I pull around and ask what's up? She says the kids are getting seasick and might have to "slow down"! I tell her that at her speed she might make the island in five or six hours and I'll be seeing ya on my way back home. So we take off. We're off of the first estuary reef when I get a VHF call from her that she's in trouble, the engine quit and the boats takin on water. We turn back find her listing to port with half the deck in sea water. The sliding glass doors into the cabin are shattered and the kids are standing on the dining room table screaming like banshees.

So here it comes, Jim will you please TOW ME BACK TO THE PORT? I says no but I will call Vessel Assist, you are a member I hope? (joke). I do call the Capitan del Puerto and actually make contact with him and says he's on the way. I ask her if she's got life jackets and can swim since the beach at Las Conchas is only a quarter mile out.

So anyway the day was shot to shit and the only fishing left to do was La Cholla. I found out that she had to pay almost a thousand bucks to get that tub back to port and on her trailer. To top it off when we left for home Monday morning the boat and trailer were on the side of the road by the old airport with a broken axle.

That rig sat in the back lot at the Oasis for the next six or seven years, may still be there.

Don't ever mess Senior Cortez and his Vermillion Sea!

JJ
 

YumaJames

Well Known Member
Looking for anyone who has sold a boat located in Mexico. I may be selling the boat this weekend, and if the deal is made from what I've researched online looks like all I have to do is drive to a border entry that has a Banjercito and cancel my TIPS. The boat DOES NOT have to be brought to the border. Once my TIPS is cancelled the new owner can then obtain their TIPS online or bring the boat to the border that has a Banjercito. Is this correct? Thanks in advance for any first hand information.
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
My TIPS had expired, but sold my boat here in the US, so don't have a good answer for you.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
Hey Yuma.........

I'm not sure if this applies to the boat but I think a TIPS is a TIPS.

I used go to San Carlos pretty regularly and to LA Bay BC in my old 2004 Ford F-150. Had to do the import thing every time and was supposed to turn in the documents to the Mex Customs each trip and re-do it the next time. So I got sick of it and never stopped to do the turn in and did the back and forth with mucho tiempo con no problema. So I trade in my 04 for an new 08 and "forget" to go back to Mex to negate the TIPS. So next trip to San Carlos I stop at La Aduana to get a new TIPS on the new truck and they say no-no-senior you still have a truck in Mexico! I will not EVEN go the the shit I had to go through to get that straightened out.

I'm sure that they don't have to actually see the vehicle to cancel the old TIPS just the documents.

Good luck! But I do think the new TIPS can only be done with the boat actually at the border since they have to check all the numbers on the boat and the documents. I go through it every time I trailer my boat through the San Luis POE.

JJ
 

YumaJames

Well Known Member
At first I thought you'd have to bring your boat to the border so they could look at the serial number and cancel the TIPS, but from online research is appears you can cancel your TIPS without them seeing your boat. What about all the guys who sell bigger boats farther south (Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, etc). I'd assume they don't pull their boats back to the border after they're sold and instead do it online or through an agent? When I'm heading down south this weekend I'll stop into the Banjercitos and ask, but I was just wondering if someone has already been through this.
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
You don't actually néed the TIPS at Sonoita, but it makes life easier. San Carlos? Si. You have to have it. I went through hell with them because I only had a copy of the title for the trailer. Who carries the real titles around with them?

Had to wait for the "official" inspector. He strolled in about 11:00 after boning his wife or something... walked out to the parking lot and verified the copy against the actual trailer VIN, then said okay, $20. Paid him, paid for the TIP, another $65., then got ready to cross and tried to bone me again at the inspection station for money. I dime dropped the commandante's name, and they were all Si!

Viva Mexico! That's the way shit works.
 
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