NEWS AND NOTES
Blue Water Sailing
MARCH 31, 2009
Pat Miller Rains has a favor to ask of all Cruisers:
Help save the Panama Canal YC - Write Now! Join in on the "International Day of Mourning for the Panama Canal Yacht Club."
In this weeks' Cruising Forums, Capt. Pat wrote. "I would like to suggest April 1st as an "International Day of Mourning for the Panama Canal Yacht Club" due to the recent savage destruction of the 81-year-old Panama Canal Yacht Club (PCYC). Located in Colon at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal, it is the humble but critical cross-roads of the international cruising world.
All during the month of April, on my arm I will wear a green scarf or arm-band, kelly green like the color of the PCYC logo, to signify my support for their ongoing legal effort to stay open, serving world cruisers.
Roger De Hoyo 2009s
As reported here earlier, the Panama Canal Yacht Club (PCYC) was recently bull-dozed to smithereens during a stealth holiday-morning attack by the giant Panama Ports Company (PPC), which controls both ends of the Panama Canal. Even though the Panamanian judge ruled in favor of the PCYC, the merciless PPC (Hutchinson Holdings, Hutchinson Wampoa) blockaded the land entrance to the tiny marina by using its giant cranes to stack two 40' containers across the gate, posted its own armed security guards inside, then bull-dozed the clubhouse and out buildings with its heavy equipment. So much for due process by law. The PPC told all the stunned boaters who were berthed in slips and med-moorings at the club, that they must "get out" by April 1, because on April 1 the PPC intends to also demolish the last remaining yacht docks of the PCYC.
Fearing for their personal safety and damage to their boats, many of the cruisers who were berthed at the PCYC that day were forced to get out, whether they had already transited the Panama Canal or not. A few of them found refuge at the new marina across Bahia Limon, but there's not enough room to accommodate all the yachts that had planned to transit the Panama Canal. Nor all of them heading that way. And there's no place for boats anchored in The Flats to land dinghies to get ashore. Asked about that on local TV, the PPC said they don't care.
Roger De Hoyos 2009
Roger, the manager of the PCYC, said the club's 800 registered members are still fighting this illegal action in the courts, but the club doesn't have enough money to fight much longer. Some of the boating media is getting behind this issue, but April 1 is the day after tomorrow. Right now, the PCYC "office" is being run out of a tool shed, but Roger expects the PPC to cut off their electricity and phone at any moment. The phone is (507)441-5882, Fax:(507)441- 7752, email: pcyachtclub@ cwpanama. net.
What can we do? Please write a Letter to the Editor expressing your support for the Panama Canal Yacht Club in its legal fight to stay open, to remain a safe place for yachts and private non-commercial boats to prepare for transiting the Panama Canal. You can email the Editor at comments@cruisingcompass.com.
In Panama, TVN Channel 2 reporter, Lucy Molinar has taking up the issue, challenging Panama Ports Company on camera to justify their actions - but the PPC is very powerful, does whatever they want.
While I was there last Wednesday, the PPC tried to fence off the PCYC property from the water, but a judge stopped them.
Please write a quick Letter to the Editor in support of PCYC and wear a green arm-band during April.
Yes, thousands of sailors with fond memories of the Panama Canal Yacht Club will weep at its cruel demise. Remember the skinny old bar tender, who was deaf but could read lips perfectly - in six languages? Remember the V-shaped bar itself, made from the bow of an original mahogany pilot boat? The Chinese family who ran the restaurant on the patio, and the funky showers, the mechanical ways, the wobbly dinghy dock?
Saddest thing is, that tiny bit of shoreline occupied by the yacht club does absolutely no good to the PPC giant, because it's too shallow for ships, and even if it were dredged 100 times deeper, that corner is way too narrow for a ship to be turned around - in even with tugs. The PPC probably can't park more than 10 containers on that little scrap of land. So, this whole destruction of the PCYC buildings is really just a spiteful maneuver, a power play.
If there's justice in this world, the Panama Ports Company should be ordered by the courts to build a new clubhouse and docks for the Panama Canal Yacht Club, perhaps located on the west side of Limon Bay near the new ferry terminal. That side of the bay is undeveloped jungle. The shore is too shallow for ships to anchor, but fine for yachts. That location would keep yacht traffic out of the way of container ships, and give safer access for us little guys to the approaches to the Panama Canal.
That would be a happy ending for this sad story. I hope we can work in that direction?
Thanks, Pat Rains
Photos courtesy by PCYC manager Roger De Hoyos
