The increase of the available mooring surface in the yacht club of sa Rápita

The executive board of IB Ports gave the authorization yesterday for the remodeling of a quay in the yacht club of sa Rápita (municipality of Campos), which will increase the available mooring surface. It also gave green light to the start the process of granting the administrative concession, through public tender, of the premises destined to bar-café-restaurant in the port of Cala Ratjada (Capdepera).

The works in sa Rápita, which will be "executed and paid for entirely by the club", consist of the demolition of a quay of 48 meters and a construction of a new one of 35 meters, along which berths of 4 to 6 meters of length will be substituted by berths of 10 to 12 meters respectively, as the new channels for manouvering between the quays "allow for this". Besides, the navigable channel between the new quay and the harbour wall "will permit in the latter a modification of the length of the first 15 berths from 8 to 10 meters".

With an aim to add various transit berths on the waiting quay, the executive board of the Ports IB informed about an addition of 10 new berths, which are expected to have an average occupation of 70% in June and September, and 90% in July and August.

After the remodeling of the quay the total mooring surface "will increase to more than 580 m2, a 4,40% more than reflected in the act of recognition". 

These works and the addition of 10 berths in the waiting quay "mean an increase of attributable fees of 32.650 euros plus VAT for the concession holder".

The complete report in Diario de Mallorca.

The long overdue reform of the nautical qualifications

On the threshold of the reform of the nautical qualifications, which is an indispensable step for the future of the recreational yachting in Spain, we - as the defendants of the interests of the sector, have the obligation to look ahead and continue on the path we set out on in 2010.

Then, becoming aware that the Spanish nautical sector  could not carry on ignoring the development in the sector elsewhere in Europe and in the world, at ANEN we started the battle with the Administration to plan and defend the necessary and inevitable reform of the nautical qualifications.

With an out-dated and inadequate normative that didn´t correspond  with the reality of our enterprises  or the aficionados, neither national nor international, we were not navigating on the right course.

After years of work and negotiating with various representatives of the Administration, we have managed to initiate a law change that will finally allow us to harmonize our nautical qualifications, which will also increase our competitiveness and number of devotees  - objectives we all within the sector agree upon.

The Balearic nautical sector supports the GDS Unimarina of the Majorcan company Portbooker

The main representatives of the Balearic nautical sector have expressed their unanimous support for the Unimarina project, a GDS (Global Distribution System) of the ports and marinas jointly developed by Travelport and the Majorcan company Portbooker. According to the persons in charge, the platform "represents the future" in the management of the worldwide marine installations, by concentrating all online operations related to their services, and it confirms the leading role of the Balearic Islands in the field of technological innovation in the tourism sector.

The president of the Balearic Port Authority (APB), Alberto Pons, the director of the Ports of the Balearic Islands (Ports IB), David Gómez, the director of APB, Juan Carlos Plaza, and the president of the Association of the Marinas and Nautical Installations of the Balearic Islands (ANADE), Cristina Mari, had a meeting today with the executive members of the expert committee of Unimarina, the instigators of the project, who have come to Palma to finalize the details of the official presentation of this platform of global distribution of nautical services, which will take place during the next edition of the Palma Boat Show.

The president of the Balearic Port Authority, Alberto Pons, highlighted "the huge potential for technological development that exists on the islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, applied to the Balearic nautical sector" and expressed his conviction that "the new system for the marina reservations outlined by Unimarina will be the standard in the near future". For Pons, the fact that a Majorcan company is innovating in this area is extremely important, as the project "inevitably sets the pace within the nautical industry, as today everything is managed through internet".

The APB offers around 40 commercial premises for rent in the ports

The Balearic port Authority (APB) is promoting the rental of around 40 properties in its possession in the ports of the islands with the intention to make the unused spaces profitable and at the same time to encourage the start up of new entrepreneurial projects in attractive areas. These premises could be used as shops, cafés, restaurants, offices or company headquarters and the prices per square meter vary depending on the location and to what kind of use the property will be destined.

The associations and companies interested in the premises can contact the commercial agents of the Port Authority of the Balearics through email fleal@portsdebalears.com

In the Port of Palma, the largest selection is available in the area along Moll Vell. After moving to their new headquarters, the APB has relocated their staff leaving various premises on the Moll Vell empty, ready to house new projects.

In the Port of Alcudia there is a coffee shop and various commercial premises available in the Harbour Terminal, while in Ibiza, Mahon and La Savina various properties are aslo available for rent.

Report by Gaceta Náutica.

Letter from the president - December 2013

It´s a long time since we have received so many good news in such a short time in the nautical sector as during this autumn. Only a few days ago the Council of Ministers approved the Draft of Law of Maritime Navigation, which will update our legal regulations so that for the first time ever the recreational yachting will get a specific treatment in the legislation. It is a truly historical milestone. One of the other controversial points of the spanish nautical sector, the nautical qualifications, is also close to being adapted to the european actuality. We will discuss these and some other issues in this letter.

As I mentioned, we are finally close to having a more rational legal framework, adapted to international agreements, and which grants our activity, the recreational yachting, a specific treatment. So far our system has never distinguished the commercial ships from recreational yachts and this has been a huge problem for our businesses. Thanks to ANEN and all of us who form part of it, we have managed to change this. As members of the Board of Directors of ANEN, we can testify to the huge effort required to get this far. A lot of team work was needed and an investment in reports that accurately reflect the sector, to be able show what doesn´t work and to convince the Public Administration why a change is necessary. We have succeeded and made progress through hard work and by going that extra mile. With this new law, which still has to be approved in the Congress, Spain overcomes the contradictions between the international agreements and the last century Spanish normative, harmonizes the legislation with the international maritime law, thus giving us and our clients better legal security, and introduces updates in the sales contracts. If you want to study the details more in depth, you can find the complete Draft of Law on the website of the Ministry of Justice.

The launch of Unimarina, the technological future of the ports

The platform conceived by the Majorcan company Portbooker, with the collaboration of Travelport, will be operational in April 2014. Already now all the ports and marinas in the world can consult their booking codes on the website of unimarina.org.

The launch of the GDS Unimarina, developed jointly by the Majorcan company Portbooker and Travelport, has given us an opportunity to get a glimpse of how the ports and marinas will be managed in the future. We are on the threshold of a new era within the nautical industry worldwide, the products and services accessible now with the help of the latest technology and with the strict quality controls typical of the sector. 

The development of the marine GDS (Global Distribution System) means a revolution comparable to the one in the aviation sector. In 1953, the president of the American Airlines and the commercial director of IBM happened to be seated next to each other on a flight from Los Angeles to New York. They had a visionary conversation resulting in an idea to create a data processing system that would allow a globalized sale of airline tickets. Nine years later, in 1962 the first system, called Sabre, was installed in the IBM 7090 computers. If the system managed to process 84.000 daily telephone calls then, today the technological advances allow the leading GDS  like Galileo of Travelport to reach the capacity of 40.000 messages per second and more than 1.200 million routes per day.