Cancun, Q.R. — With the current forecast for an active hurricane season, the Cancun Nautical Association is lobbying for an inner-city boat ramp. Its president says in the event of a hurricane, a centrally located ramp would be more efficient to remove its 600-plus boats out of the water.
Francisco Fernández Millán, President of Asociados Náuticos de Quintana Roo says in the past when boats have been pulled out of the sea, many of the trailers failed while traveling Kukulcán Boulevard in the Cancun Hotel Zone.
These broken down trailers, he said, caused traffic chaos. However, a centrally located boat ramp would avoid such chaos in the event of a hurricane.
Millán says their Association has between 600 and 1,000 boats docked in marinas in the Cancun Hotel Zone and currently, the only way out is via Kukulcán Boulevard since there is only one public boat ramp.
He said that while there are seven boat ramps in the Cancun Hotel Zone, six are private. He says there is a need for a public inner-city ramp along the coast that can be used to extract the boats in the event of a storm.
“That is exactly why we want the ramps to be on the coast near the city, so if there is a problem, not to affect the roads of the Hotel Zone,” he said.
At the moment, the only other public ramp is being utilized by CIA, the company building the Nichupté Lagoon bridge, to load construction material.
Millán explained that that ramp used to belong to Fonatur and was supposed to be donated to the city of Cancun who in turn, was to donate it to the Nautical Association, but that did not happen.
Millán says the need for additional public ramps is not only in Cancun, but also in Riviera Maya due to growth.
“It is an issue that is urgent, not just in Cancun. It is an issue that is being asked of me in Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos. The number of boats is growing. It is not just addressing the issue of the ramps in Cancun, it is addressing it at the state level,” he said.
