Abandoned vessels - ANEN and FEADPT jointly demand solutions from the Administration

What to do with the abandoned boats in the ports? Their number is on the increase, and it is estimated that around 15.000 vessels in both marinas and ashore can be classified as abandoned.

The management and the technical personnel of the ports lack means and administrative/legislative support to deal with the situation which,  apart from giving a regrettable image towards the marina users and nautical tourists, can also be a security risk for the port.

Currently there is no legal framework that would effectively and swiftly regulate the removal and recycling of obsolete recreational yachts, as the valid procedures are tedious and don´t offer efficient solutions. This leads a yacht owner without ways and means to deal with the situation to opt for an abandonment of the vessel.

With this in mind, the National Association of Nautical Enterprises (ANEN) and the Spanish Federation of Associations of Tourist Marinas (FEAPDT) have joined forces to request urgent measures to deal with this alarming situation.

To start with, both entities will demand the Ministry of Industry to develop plans parallel to those adopted for the automotive sector, like the plan PIVE, which has produced irrefutable results in sales and revitalization of the market.

Secondly, when it comes to regulation of the abandoned vessels, a legal settlement (a voluntary proceeding) has been suggested  both to the Ministry of Justice as well as to the Direction of the Merchant Navy (DGMM). It would allow, with just a notarized statement, a public auction of vessels that are abandoned or have defaulted payments, without having to start a court procedure. This proposal has also the backing of the Council of Notaries at the state level.

This way, the custodians of abandoned vessels could speed up the process and recover the accumulated costs and debts directly through the public auction of the vessel, or proceed to its scrapping and deregistration.

One of the other issues that the trade associations will work on consists of  a fleet control of recreational vessels active on our coasts, recorded in the Spanish Maritime Register. For this, they count on the close collaboration of the DGMM.

News supplied by ANEN.