03 Mar 2009: Panama Canal Yacht Club Bulldozed - Cruisers Told to Move Boats By April 1st.

[CruisingEditor]

The Cruising Compass received word on Monday that the PCYC is no longer.- Cruisers Told to Move Boats By April 1st. The Cruising Compass received word on Monday that the PCYC is no longer.

According to the Panama Connection SSB net Saturday morning, "The container yard next door to PCYC has for years been trying to acquire the property and received a court order at the end of the day Thursday condemning PCYC and granting them the rights to close PCYC. Since Friday was a holiday and the courts were not open, PCYC could not fight the order via the courts. Friday morning a bulldozer drove through the fence connecting the two properties and began destroying the clubhouse, bar, restaurant and other buildings. The dinghy dock is available only to those already on a list for access and only until April 1. The docks and boats have until April 1 to vacate."

The emailed report from s/v Winterlude also noted that "this info is strictly second hand news, but from cruisers at PCYC."

This was confirmed on Tuesday by Dee and Alan Dark, Sunflower, currently in the San Blas Islands. They wrote to the CC, ". . .we heard the same information as Winterlude. We have friends who are in Colon and are in daily telephone contact with them. The current situation seems to be that all the club buildings have now been totally demolished, and that there no longer seems to be a requirement to register to use the dinghy dock. So our understanding is that cruisers on the Flats anchorage will have access to the dinghy dock until April 1st. However there are containers blocking the road access into the club, so one has to walk through the container terminal to access taxis and the main road, so provisioning is not as easy as it used to be.

We also understand that several of the Canal agents have approached the Port Captain and immigration with a view to resolving access for boats needing to clear in and out, although we have no further news at this stage."

The Shelter Bay monopoly will not endure, as one other Atlantic side marina is under construction and others are contemplated. From: www.thepanamanews.com. Photos courtesy of www.thepanamanews.com.

Panamarina is an alternative marina which lies nearer to Portobello. MORE: http://www.panamarina.com/.

[Gregg A Granger]

I am truly sorry to hear that. We made our greatest friends of our circumnavigation at the PCYC. After the Caribbean, this bottleneck was a gathering spot to meet the people you'd be with over the next year through the Pacific.
Gregg