On 26th November in Palma, at a meeting organised by the Balearics Business Enterprise Association (CAEB) all the major players involved in the local marine industry came together, to present their views and future expectations for leisure yachting and nautical tourism in the region.
Please click on "Read more" below for full information, key overall conclusions, plus facts and figures on utilisation of moorings in The Balearics.
In the opening address, Sr.Francesc Buils the government minister for tourism said; “The existing situation with availability of moorings, is clearly insufficient to meet the demand in the Balearics. While Sr.Josep Oliver, President of CAEB warned; “ We cannot fall asleep, while there is so much that we can improve with the marine infrastructure around the islands.”
The day was packed with presentations and statistics from various speakers, proving irrefutably that the huge demand within all sections of the industry is set to continue, and that the Balearics is a popular, premier choice boating and watersports location.
The nautical tourism statistics for 2007 were presented as firm evidence of this positive continued growth, with income from visitors pursuing leisure marine activities rising to 544 million euros, an increase of 15% over 2006. This was derived from almost 300,000 nautical tourists during the year, a figure that has grown steadily and almost doubled since the mid 90´s.
Subjects discussed at the “Nautical Tourism Vision for 2002” conference included:
* “The legal and fiscal framework for recreational water sports”, - moderated by Sr.D. Ricardo Ferrer, President of ANADE, the
Balearics Sports Marina Facilities Association.
During this session Sr.Tomás Fernández Quirós, a lawyer from the legal practice of Uría & Menéndez, suggested the following easing of fiscal burdens in order to stimulate the yacht charter market::
- Elimination of matriculation tax, or extension of the exemption for charter boats that exceed 15 meters length.
- Reduction of IVA to 7% for boats engaged in charter activity.
- Allowance of a percentage of private use for boats engaged in charter, as is allowed for chartered aicraft - arguing why should there be a differentiation?
* “The impact of large organised sailing events”, was acknowledged such as, The Copa del Rey, The Superyacht Cup, and the possibility of the 2016 Olympic sailing coming to Palma de Mallorca.
* “The repercussions of Nautical Tourism on the Balearics economy” - presented by Sr.D Vicenç Tur, Director of Economics for CAEB. In this he concluded that the seasonal profile for nautical tourism currently mirrors the trend for the conventional vacation visitors, but owes it´s low season sustainability to the infrastructure provided for maintenance, repair and winterising of yachts.
He therefore emphasised that ongoing future development must depend upon adequate provision of moorings, and shoreside facilities in order to keep pace with demand.
* “What do we expect from our nautical industry in the 21st century”
Perspectives from various speakers representing both the private and public sectors of the local leisure marine business.
* There is a potential demand for 40,000 moorings in the future, against a current availability of around 19,000 in The Balearics.
* All together, the sector makes a significant contribution to the Community’s GDP, creating stable, across the board business and employment in many economic sub-sectors.
* It is necessary to optimise and adjust current boating facilities, particularly the distribution of available moorings by length of vessel, making it easier to cater for larger yachts.(IE: Dry stacking for smaller boats )
* The Port of Palma must be converted into a Western Mediterranean Base for super-yachts and large boats. This segment currently has very limited opportunities due to the lack of available moorings.
* It is also essential to substantially improve the management of anchorages in order to deal with peak demand whilst guaranteeing the quality of the services provided.
As far as possible, these anchorages should be technically assisted and have specialist services (maintenance, waste management, supplies, provision of mooring buoys etc.) offered by the ports close by.
* In order to harmonise our situation with the rest of Europe and facilitate the development of pleasure boating, we must eliminate the registration tax on vessels longer than 7.5 m and reduce the applicable VAT rates, thus making it easier for vessels to be registered in the Islands.
* Major sporting competitions should be positively encouraged. Events such as the Kings Cup, the Princess Sofia Trophy and the SuperYacht Cup, plus possible participation in events such as the Olympic Games and Americas Cup are of vital importance for the image and economy of The Balearics.
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Our February edition will be a couple of days later than usual, due to the Christmas / New Year holidays.
Please return after the 29th January when our next monthly Newsletter will be uploaded.
As well as the usual news and features, there will be a number of training seminar announcements covering a wide range of yachting related subjects, which you can brush up on, and gain some useful skills and qualifications during 2008.
Leticia Van Allen – Crew Placement, announces that Angela Evans has been hired to join their successful team as crew consultant. She started in her new position in October 2007.
Angela is an experienced chief stewardess and qualified English butler, she is a hands-on person and has a full understanding of the requirements needed for working on a yacht. Now working with LVA to create successful matches, Angela knows from first hand experience that a yacht is only as good as its crew. By joining the team, she is strengthening their ability to provide a professional, discreet, personal and friendly service.
Angela and the team can be contacted on:
Following on the heels of a cooperative partnership with BBC Chartering & Logistics, Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT), the world's only float-on/float-off yacht transport service, has announced several new routes made possible by the lift-on/lift-off capabilities of BBC supplied vessels. Newly-set routes to Dubai (UAE), Southampton (UK) and Aarhus (Denmark) expand the Ft. Lauderdale-based shipping company's list of destinations, which currently include ports in the Mediterranean, North West Europe, the Caribbean, the Pacific West Coast of North America and Central America, and the South Pacific.
DYT and its Australian agents Aurora Global Logistics are also adding two extra voyages from the Mediterranean to Brisbane, Australia. Being in March and October these will give clients better options to benefit from the cruising seasons in the South Pacific
A comprehensive survey of the Superyacht industry in Britain, carried out by Superyacht UK, has revealed increasing sales, expanding workforces and high levels of confidence amongst major manufacturers and suppliers. The sector is worth some £300m and employs over 3000 people. Superyacht UK is a subsidiary of the British Marine Federation – the UK marine industry trade body.
The survey gauged the views of Superyacht UK members involved in the design, build, supply chain and service provision of yachts over 24 metres. Interviewees ranged from designers to insurers and shipyards as well as engines, electronics and equipment suppliers.
Increasing confidence in the industry reflects an expanding customer base buoyed by City bonuses and continuing foreign investment, as well as an expanding share in overseas markets. The UK Superyacht industry demonstrates the ability of a high-tech, high-skilled, luxury manufacturing sector to thrive.
The survey revealed that:
* The value of the Superyacht industry in the UK is in excess of £300m
* Over 95% of businesses recorded either an increase or stability in their number of employees over the last year.
* 84% of Superyacht sector companies rate the workload of the domestic market to be higher or the same compared with 12 months ago
* More than two-thirds reported that the export market is now offering an increased workload compared with 12 months ago
* Looking forwards, 84% of businesses rated their company prospects as good or excellent
* There were over 500 new builds of superyachts in 2006-7 worldwide, of which 100 were designed by UK designers.
Record exhibitor and visitor numbers for 2007 further endorsed METS as the world’s largest and best attended leisure marine trade show. “It felt like boom time,” said METS product manager, Irene Dros. “It could not have been a better reward for us as we celebrated our 20th anniversary.”
Enjoying the unique METS mix of serious business and social networking, 1,137 exhibitors from 39 countries promoted thousands of marine products. A visitor total of 19,764*, against 16,805 for 2006, made for the busiest METS to date. “Such a significant rise in visitor levels was a triumph and a testament to the attractions METS offers with its core exhibitors, bustling national pavilions and thriving SuperYacht Pavilion,” she added. “Feedback from attendees so far has been extremely positive and we are delighted that so many companies have already signed up for METS 2008.”
This year, for the first time, exhibitors were also scanned upon entering the show. In addition to the visitors, on an average day more than 4,000 stand personnel entered the show.
Happy exhibitors
Piero Gai, general manager for Uflex Group of Italy described METS as “a show that every industry would like to have” and Francois de Sivry, COO for Karver Systems, France, added that the three days were “the most effective time ever spent!” Many exhibitors praised the SuperYacht Pavilion with Michael Gentes, director business development for US company Magefend Mooring Products describing METS 2007 as by far the company’s most productive show. “We met many active, interested and motivated buyers. The attendees or potential clients were delivered as promised every morning the minute the show opened. The SuperYacht Pavilion within METS is clearly a concept that works with qualified buyers and an environment conducive to discussing real business,” he said.
David Liu, general manager for East Brightness Hardware of China described METS 2007 as ‘excellent…with many high quality visitors” and Chen Xin Ping of Sumar Marine Equipment, China, ventured “we are happy to sign up for the next 20 years!” Chris Feibusch, sales director for UK company CJR Propulsion, described the show as the best ever, commenting: “We were able to spend quality time with all of our key existing and prospective customers. A number of exciting fresh enquiries added icing on the cake.”
Statistics 2007:
· 19,764 visitors from 101 countries (2006: 16,805 from 89 countries)
· 1,137 exhibitors from 39 countries (2006: 1,101 from 39 countries)
· Including 71 exhibitors in the SuperYacht Pavilion (2006: 51)
· 46,000 gross square meters
· 20,800 net square meters
METS 2008 will be held on 18-19-20 November 2008.
Perfecting products
Randy Repass, founder and chairman of West Marine, the largest boating accessories retailer in the world, kept the focus firmly on marine leisure products during his breakfast briefing keynote address, prior to the opening of the show on Tuesday 13th November.
Using the unique platform of what he described as ‘the world’s best leisure marine trade show’, Repass highlighted the shortfalls of boating equipment. He shared some of his own frustrating boating experiences with the audience to underline his theme that the industry needs better quality products in order to help make boating more fun and better able to compete with other leisure activities. “We need to increase the ratio of fun to hassle,” he said.
OPACMARE wins DAME 2007
In a similar spirit of promoting the best of the best, DAME jury chairman Bill Dixon announced the winners of the Design Award Mets (DAME) 2007. Dixon referred to three elements – quality, design influence and innovation – as key attributes of the winning products and underscored the need for companies to keep on perfecting products in order to ‘vie for the customer’s discretionary leisure spend’.
The winner of the DAME 2007, the Teaky Beach stern platform chaise longue from Opacmare S.p.A. of Italy, was described as elegant, beautiful and easy to use. Easily hidden in the deck when not in use, Teaky Beach can be transformed using hydraulics and a simple handheld electronic control into a comfortable and stylish lounge chair. Dixon approved the jury’s choice. “The jury as a whole liked the simplicity and originality of the product and it is a fun feature,” he said. “Like all good design after the first spark of a new idea, it is the execution into a commercial product that counts. The finished product was easy to install and importantly took up very little volume. I believe the product could be put in a variety of locations on both power and sailing yachts.”
Boost for worthy charity
The 17th DAME competition attracted a total of 138 products from 107 companies. A shortlist of 34 products was drawn up and from these the jury selected the overall winner, five outright category winners and gave 11 special mentions.
All companies entering products for the DAME this year paid a registration fee per product. All money collected was donated to the Batavian Yard museum in Lelystad to help fund the building of a replica of ‘The 7 Provinces’, a 17th century Dutch warship. Mr Beije, director of Batavian Yard, accepted a handsome cheque for €20,850 from RAI Exhibitions managing director, Ids Boersma, on behalf of the competition entrants.
***
About METS
METS, the world’s largest trade exhibition of marine equipment and accessories for the leisure marine industry, is organised by Amsterdam RAI in association with the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA).
The show’s target groups are yacht builders, naval architects, repair yards, distributors, wholesalers, superyacht owners and captains, marina owners and operators and equipment manufacturers from the leisure marine and small commercial craft sectors from around the world. METS 2008 will be held from 18th to 20th November. More information about METS can be found at www.metstrade.com.
REPORT COURTESY OF SYNFO.COM
The Global Superyacht Forum (GSF), the new name for Project Amsterdam, went into its second year at the RAI conference centre from 12 to 15 November. This year a record 600+ delegates attended over 4 days and in addition to the ever widening international nature of the event, it seemed that many delegates were new to both GSF and - in many cases - to our industry. Many of these came from the financial world gathering round the potential high growth honey pot that is large yachting.
The first day started with the Captains’ Forum followed by the Business Summit where Barry Gilmour and Neil Miller debated as to the success but perhaps more importantly the ‘profit weakness’ of our booming industry. They concluded that there was a risk that demand would flatten. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good and the technical issues that placed Steven Rattner's teleconference session last could not have created a better flow. He too had harsh words about the business practices and profitability in the industry. He though was “unremittingly bullish” about the growth, citing how few of the estimated 90,000 people that could potentially own superyachts in fact do. Clearly for Steven the cup was half full.
The next day the flag and class debate looked, as last year, at ways to avoid diverse and contradictory interpretations. Things progressed but the panel remained little closer to having any published interpretations available. The ISO attempts to quantify and standardize aspects of large yacht building were looked at and later that day MCA and ISO explained how ISO standards may fit into an internationalised large yacht Code, something that is progressing slowly.
Marinas are in short supply as are human resources. The latter came up through the entire four days and the marina issue was raised in its own panel on day 2. ICOMIA, IGY and C & N Marinas looked at the challenges and solutions available to marina developers. One new Marina was announced in Croatia at Sibenik due to come on stream for mooring in 2008.
Glass and submarines were the penultimate session of day 2 with info on the building and regulations governing the latter. For glass, we learned of a number of innovative solutions to the need of ever larger and more complex glass forms demanded by modern yacht designs.
The role of design and how it may mesh and be managed into a project was the focus of the Design Workshop with a naval architect, a designer and a lawyer, who unusually had also owned and operated a yacht building yard.
Finally SYBAss had their say and told delegates of what the builders’ association future plans: indeed they confirmed that they would not arrange boatshows but did not rule out the possibility of arranging boat show-like events for members. They also discussed the role of builders in ensuring strong HR supply.
Day 3 started off with a legal session, which looked at the diversity of application of the law in differing states and looked at reasons behind choice of contract jurisdiction.
QinetiQ as ever showed us some unusual bits of tech kit. Most notable wasn’t actually the main feature, a diver detection system called Cerberus, but the second called Orpheus, a software to analyse and suggest heading and speed parameters for the yacht when landing or deploying helicopters.
As ever there was a paint session and this one was especially lively and well managed, and to be fair could have run twice the length and still held delegates’ attention. Not least was the question of how to apply a yacht finish coating to yachts in excess of 140m when it has never been done before and how can this fit into a contract.
Though not a radically new technology, Superconductor machines are new to our industry and currently being fitted to one 100m plus project; high-temperature superconducting motors were explained in detail by the manufacturer.
Next, two different techniques to reduce noise and vibration emitted by gensets or prime movers were explored. Then a replacement panel of refit and repair experts rose to the occasion with candid and at times witty thoughts on the vagaries of refit. Day 3 finished with a look at composites from Class on one hand and Design engineers on the other.
The next session focused on the shortfall of experienced and qualified people required across the whole of the large-yacht market. Shortages of crew and challenges ILO were the core topics for one of the largest panels of the event. A new approach to navigation still in its research stages called SLAM was detailed in the Navigations Systems session as was the regulation driving standardising of IBS systems. Vendors of SatCom solution came next detailing the differing products and service they offer.
Though fatigued by an excellent and well-attended Global Superyacht Party on Wednesday evening, many delegates stayed until the end, and enjoyed an illuminating look at restoring the status of the engine room in a build project. All the panellists proposed the build should grow from this technical space, rather than its contents being stuffed into the few frames left after the Owner area has been conceived.
This year the technique of sending questions by Email and SMS to the co-chairmen really took off with, for the first time, more questions than time available.
The debate will of course continue on the GSF community to which all delegates have free access with their user names and passwords.
This year the event was video recorded, as were numerous interviews carried out during GSF. This film will, if not coming to theatre near you soon, certainly be available on DVD free for delegates and available to others at a nominal cost.
On 1st March 2008, from Valencia, in Spain, Earthrace will attempt to set a new speed record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe running 100% biodiesel, and with a net zero carbon-footprint, in order to increase awareness of the environment and the sustainable use of resources.
Earthrace has been built to break the official UMI ‘Round the World Speed Record by a powerboat. By running on exclusively 100% Biodiesel fuel, and with a net zero carbon footprint, this not-for-profit project aims to promote awareness of the environment and the sustainable use of resources.
The top speed of Earthrace is around 40 knots (46 mph). When Earthrace attempts to break the ‘Round the World Speed Record however, the goal is to do 20-25 knots (23-29 mph) almost continually for 65 days. The challenge is more about keeping the boat running smoothly and efficiently for such a sustained period and beating the record than going at top speed.
Earthrace is a wave piercing trimaran. It has three hulls, all designed to go through waves rather than over them. It is also referred to as a stabilized monohull. The design allows this boat to go faster in rough seas compared to conventional vessels.
Earthrace has been designed to have up to 7m (24ft) of water on top of the windscreen. This can theoretically be achieved in 15m (50ft) waves; however, in sea trials the boat has so far only submerged to 4m (14ft). The piercing is controlled by pumping up to 2.5 tons of water into a special ballast tank in the bow. The more water in the bow and the faster the boat is travelling, the more it pierces. The only limiting factor is the crew’s physical ability to go at high speed into rough seas than the boat’s ability to handle it. In rough seas this boat is awesome (and scary!).
In trials around New Zealand, Earthrace was twice tested in 12m (40ft) breaking waves. The first was in the Cook Strait with 80 knot (90 mph) winds, and the second was during a storm off the west coast of New Zealand, which saw the boat tested in extreme conditions with huge seas from various directions.
The boat came through unscathed. But for the crew, it is a bombardment of the senses, with violent motions as the boat buries deep inside waves, noise from the waves as they crash overhead, engines roaring, darkness as the boat enters a wave then light as it comes out the other side. All crew agreed that it was the scariest thing they had ever experienced! But it does allow Earthrace to maintain high speeds in atrocious conditions.
Earthrace was built in Auckland, New Zealand, by Calibre Boats who specialise in high-tech composite boatbuilding. It was launched on 24th February 2006, and commenced sea trials in May that year. Construction took 14 months and over 18,000 hours of labour. And there is always more work to do to keep the boat in top performance condition!
Earthrace cost about $3 million to build. Of this, Pete (the Skipper) and his wife mortgaged their house and sold up everything they own to make the project happen. This raised about $650,000, and then they borrowed another $650,000 from friends, family, and a finance company. The balance was sponsored, mostly in the form of donated goods and services. Earthrace is a not-for-profit project that continues to seek support from sponsors and donors. Please contact the crew or visit www.earthrace.net to find out how you can help Earthrace make history.
The hull is made from sandwich composites. This involves 40mm of Diab foam core, sandwiched on the inside between three layers of carbon (which allows the boat to be strong and incredibly light), and on the outside between three layers of carbon, one of Kevlar (which gives the hull outstanding impact resistance, and one of e-glass (which is used as very thin fairing layer).
There are two strategies for crossing the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. For boats with shorter ranges (<2,500nm), they must go on the northern route, in which case an Easterly direction is favoured (based on average wind and current directions). For boats such as Earthrace with greater range, they can cross both oceans directly, and can effectively hug the equator for much of the voyage. This favours voyages heading west.
The current proposed race route is:
Valencia – 3 days - Azores – 8 days - Puerto Rico – 3 days - Panama Canal – 4 days – Manzanillo – 4 days - San Diego – 6 days - Hawaii – 5 days - Marshall Islands – 5 days - Pulau – 5 days - Singapore – 4 days - Kochin – 4 days - Salalah – 4 days - Suez Canal – 4 days - Valencia
As November turned to December the third scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha saw the entire BWR fleet sail past surging south to the “Roaring Forties”. Racing ahead of the fleet was PV2 with a narrow lead over PRB, Veolia Environnement was challenging and establishing third place with Hugo Boss experiencing a huge buzz as it sailed passed Delta Dore to capture forth.
The weather patterns in the South Atlantic hasn’t done the bulk of the fleet many favours, and it is the leaders benefiting the most who by day 22 had added 40 miles to their lead over third placed Veolia Environnement in the last twenty four hours. Skipper Alex Thompson of Hugo Boss who was still retaining fourth at this point commented “They’re going to get south first and extend away, but at some point there will be a concertina effect where we’ll get closer again.”
Hugo Boss also suffered a significant scare with a cargo ship that was set on a collision course with them. It was only due to the best endeavours of its crew that Hugo Boss did not fall foul of the cargo ship.
From Alex Thomson - Hugo Boss: “Last night Capey noticed a ship on the horizon that was coming towards us. I made sure the active echo was on and switched on the AIS so he could see us clearly, but the ship kept coming on a collision course. About five miles away I went below and called them on the VHF. I kept calling and calling but no joy, so I grabbed the searchlight to get their attention and light up the sails…Capey had tried sailing high and low but the ship seemed to alter course to keep us in their sights. At this stage it was getting critical so I grabbed a white hand flare and set it off but still it kept on coming. We had no choice but to put HUGO BOSS head to wind and over we went, sails flogging and mast nearly in the water. The ship passed by so close I could nearly read its name on the transom…Bloody rude and dangerous and very obvious that a proper look out was not being maintained…”
By day 25 despite their escapade Hugo Boss carried on to make good gains and whilst still forth they achieved a thirty one mile leap closing the gap between themselves and third place Veolia to fifty three miles who lost six miles to PRB.
The leading four are now in the 40’s with the first three slowing down somewhat allowing Hugo Boss to push on with their convincing catch up and with PRB sailing in freezing fog who knows what turn the race will next take.
Please see next page for latest news:-->
Latest News and positions (Dec 18th 2007): Veolia Environnement has become the third boat to suffer catastrophic mast failure in the Barcelona World Race when the French entry dismasted on Monday 17th Dec. Skippers Roland Jourdain and Jean-Luc Nélias were unhurt and are safe.
