The small powerboat market has, for some time now, needed support. Boating is moving in the direction of favoring medium and large yachts at the expense of the volumes provided by smaller ones. In a market where the scissor is widening so much, it is important that there are signals at the institutional level that, instead, are going to push to incentivize the sector from the bottom up. In this sense, in the latest amendments to the Recreational Code there is an interesting novelty for owners of small boats. It is called “social boating,” and it provides for facilitations that have been punctuated with the recent Regulations implementing the Recreational Code. If done well and, perhaps, rialzat these acts
What is social boating
Social boating is defined as that carried out on a nonprofit basis with vessels up to 6 meters in length and also activities carried out to popularize boating among students at least 9 years old or for the purpose of therapeutic aid to people with disabilities (or psychological, learning disorders, etc.).
Incentives under the new Regulations stipulate that:
- in the port areas are identified by the competent authorities areas for mooring even dry for recreational units used for social boating as well as made public slips and parking areas for the relevant trolleys
- Boats used for social boating when parked “in transit” be given a reduction of at least 30 percent in the cost of providing dockside services
- managers of marine protected areas arrange facilities for the mooring of social boating units in buoy fields, equipped mooring fields and also for the provision of dockside services.
Our proposal
There has been a lack of incentives for minor boating. There is now a need to oversee that the facilities provided by these recent regulations are ef fectively implemented. Therefore, it is needed that authorities and agencies called into action as soon as possible and that boaters also report delays and noncompliance.