Mexico's First Fireboat Arrives at Marina Cabo San Lucas

AINA, Mexico's first fireboat, inauguration at Marina Cabo San Lucas

On June 24, 2026, a crimson vessel named AINA entered service at Marina Cabo San Lucas. She is the first fireboat of her kind in Mexico, built to fight fires and run rescues on the water itself rather than wait for help from shore. Officials at the inauguration called her the only vessel of her kind in the country and the second in all of Latin America, after one in Chile.

For a harbor that holds more than 1,200 boats, that distinction carries weight.

A boat built for the water it protects

AINA runs about thirty feet, driven by twin outboards quick enough to cross the marina in minutes. Four independent discharge systems let her crew throw seawater or firefighting foam, the kind a fuel fire demands. She carries a crew of eight and a load capacity of five tons. She was built in La Paz at the Maritime and Naval Bureau shipyard, by engineers and fire crews who worked the design around the real conditions of this coast.

Until now, a fire aboard a boat in the marina was answered from land. Trucks, hoses, and the nerve of the Cabo San Lucas fire department, all working against the water instead of from it. AINA closes that gap.

The Bisbee name, again

The project was funded by Wayne Bisbee and the Bisbee's organization, alongside Wild Cabo and a group of Los Cabos residents who pulled it together. It cost more than five million pesos to build.

They named her for Aina Bisbee, wife of the late Robert "Bob" Bisbee. Bob turned a fuel dock in California into the Bisbee's Black & Blue, the richest sportfishing tournament on earth, with purses that have climbed past 11.5 million dollars. The family helped build the fishing culture that put Cabo on the map. Now their name rides on the boat that guards it.
Clicerio Mercado, the longtime coordinator of the Bisbee's tournaments, helped carry the boat from idea to open water.

The region's sportfishing community turned out for the launch. The Asociación Sudcaliforniana de Pesca Deportiva A.C. was there too, represented by its vice president, Yukari Ruiz, and its comissionate, Maximiliano Vargas.

That name runs through our own story too. Our 45' CABO Express crew won the 2025 Black & Blue, so we feel this one a little closer than most.

What comes next

The marina plans a dedicated firefighter substation on the water, staffed around the clock, every day of the year. Once it stands, response times for vessel fires, fuel incidents, and emergencies along the docks should drop sharply.

We spend our lives on this water. Boats, crews, and the families who come to fish with us. A vessel like AINA is the quiet kind of investment nobody thinks about until the morning they need it, and on that morning it is the only thing that matters.

Today she is fresh paint and full tanks. Soon enough she will have a story of her own.

From all of us at Top Anglers, dockside at Marina Cabo San Lucas.