Balearic Yacht Show - Launch day kicks off

Martin Redmayne, president of Superyacht Group, is optimistic about the evolution of this market, he said during his speech at the Balearic Yacht Show.

"I am absolutely optimistic about the future of the superyacht industry for the simple reason that we have a higher profile today than we have had so far.” Martin Redmayne was very positive, in the first presentation of the Balearic Yacht Show, the first virtual boat show in the Balearic Islands. This online show takes place from today until Friday 20^th November, where you can “virtually” meet over a hundred entities linked to the world of sailing.

The opening ceremony of the Balearic Yacht Show presented by the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce of Mallorca and the Balearic Marine Cluster, Antoni Mercant and Antoni Salom, was also attended by Juan Pedro Yllanes, vice president of the Government of the Balearic Islands, who highlighted the role of the Balearic Marine Cluster as a promoter of sailing in the Balearic Islands, a sector with a high degree of specialization and a high industrial component.

Juan Carlos Plaza, director of the Balearic Islands Port Authority, for his part, said that this virtual show will serve to unite efforts and demonstrate the strength of the marine industry.

An online show where you can find 360 tours of boats, a hundred companies in the marine industry with which to connect and conduct live meetings and more than 40 conferences related to the marine industry.

Seeing the evolution of the markets and the effect that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on them, Redmayne bets on "a very busy summer 2021 for the charter world" and says that "superyachts are becoming a safe bubble in which to enjoy a vacation away from cities or large resorts.

To maintain the good growth forecasts of the sector, the president of Superyacht Group believes that it is crucial to "better educate our future buyers" as well as the workers of the industry, "workers who we have to take care of more and train better". Redmayne has also stressed the need to bet on a more sustainable and environmentally friendly industry. "A boat that spends a large amount of gasoline to sail at 30 knots is not attractive to the new generation of potential buyers, a generation more aware of the need to take care of our planet.

Finally, Redmayne urged the institutions to position themselves alongside the marine industries. "A superyacht is not the toy of a billionaire; we have to change that perspective and explain to governments that this industry has an added value".

Connection Between Marine Companies is Key for the Current Situation

The connection between nautical companies is recipe for overcoming the COVID Crisis

Antoni Riera, director of the Impulsa Baleares Foundation, said in his speech during the Balearic Yacht Show that before the pandemic the Balearic marine industry was in an "exciting moment".

Under the title 'The marine industry, the key for the global competitiveness of the Balearic Islands', the technical director of the Foundation Impulsa Baleares and Professor of Applied Economics at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Antoni Riera has offered a detailed report of the marine industry in the archipelago.

The conference took place during the first of three days of the Balearic Yacht Show, the first virtual boat show in the Balearics, which began today and will end this Friday, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Mallorca and the Balearic Nautic Marine.

Riera said that before the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic, Balearic sailing was in an "exciting" moment and said that the specific weight of the marine industry in the archipelago was "higher than in the rest of Europe. "The Balearics have done very well in the last ten years," he said.

"Before covid-19, the Balearic Islands had 1,742 nautical companies, some of them with a great export capacity for both yachts and sails," said Riera in his telematic conference. "This business volume accounted for 14.7% of the Balearic industry and employed 7,066 people," he said.

Before the arrival of the covid-19, Riera has recalled that the Balearic nautical company had gone from giving work to 4,750 people to employing 7,066 in over ten years. "Our nautical company had been adding many entrepreneurs and a large number of regional sectors," he has insisted.  

Now, in times of pandemic, Antoni Riera recommends "linkage and connectivity" between companies in the sector to refloat business. "We must achieve a close connection between the actors of the marine industry," he said.  "We must not forget either that tourism pivots around the sea", he has stressed.

The professor of the UIB has admitted that the coronavirus pandemic has "damaged" the nautical sector. "It has destroyed business fabric and has destroyed jobs, certainly, but I think we are able to, in 2021, turn that around with a response based on the connection between companies", he has reiterated. 

"A dynamic sector such as the nautical one, which had grown 37% in the last 10 years, must have the capacity to react". "To move forward, it is necessary to put the blue ahead, keep the sea in good health and activate levers," said the professor.

Addressing the public administrations, Riera has requested that the competent bodies consider the nautical companies a dynamic and changing sector and that, if possible, they make policies "as a kind of tailor-made suit" for each case, due to the diversity of modalities that includes the branch.

Come and see us!

OnboardOnline will have a stand at this years show, come and find us in the Press Room and say hello!

We are also hosting a seminar on Friday 20th November at 10:45 am CET, 'Yacht Crew Help: A Portal to Support Crew Mental Health'. Here, we will discuss ISWAN's new portal and the importance of looking after the mental wellbeing of crew, a topic many will agree is more important than ever before. 

We will be joined by:

• Karen Passman, Founder of Impact Crew

• Caitlin Vaughan, Project Manager at ISWAN

• Captain Brendan O'Shannassy, Captain & ISS Board Member

• Karen Murphy, Addictions Therapist & Counsellor 

If you haven't registered already, do so for free here.