Balearic ports have most income from leisure boats in all of Spain

PALMA
THE Balearic Port Authority is the Spanish Port Authority which has the most income from charges to leisure boats, according to a report by the State Ports department, which is part of the Spanish Ministry for Public Works.

The Balearic Port Authority, which manages the ports classified as “general interest” (Palma, Alcudia, Mahon, Ibiza and La Savina in Formentera), last year took 4.36 million euros in charges for leisure boats.

This is a much greater quantity than that taken by the Port Authorities of Las Palmas (792'000 euros), Santander (721'000 euros) and Barcelona (561'000 euros).

And this is not counting the charges made by the concessionary companies which are even higher.
This situation is due to the high number of moorings existing in the general interest ports on the islands. “The Port Authority administers a very small stretch of the Balearic coast and manages a large part of the leisure boat moorings which exist in the islands”, confirmed the President of the Balearic Port Authority, Francesc Triay. “On the other hand, we are running out of places to put more moorings in the ports because there are so many now. “In addition to this, the demand is so high we can't meet it”, added Triay, who said that the “future solution” would be to develop the dry docks. “This should be the future, because if all the boats want to be in sheltered waters and afloat this cannot be done without sacrificing a large part of the Balearic coast”.

There are approximately 1'400 applications for moorings in the publicly managed areas around the port of Palma, which exceeds the 1'217 moorings on offer, and means that the waiting list is four years in Ca'n Barbara and six years in Portixol, while the waiting time in Sant Magi and Moll Vell is somewhere between these two.

The Port Authority confirmed that the waiting time for moorings could be reduced, as there are applications from one boat in two different areas of the port, a situation caused by the low turnover of boats in these areas and by the long waiting lists.

The prices of the moorings are determined by the scales laid down by the State Ports Law and are appreciably lower than those charged by the concessionary companies, who can increase their prices depending on the services offered by the port.

The variation in prices can be in the order of 50 percent, although there is a variety of prices which varies according to the type of boat and type of services offered.