THE CRISIS HAS STRUCK YACHTING HARD WORLDWIDE
Led astray by a market drugged with excessive amounts of money
available to too many people, who made easy profits through financial
speculation, the recreational boating sector in 2009 is paying a very
high price. – certainly among the highest – in the world economic
crisis. Shipyards closing down, dealers and brokers going bankrupt,
users’ lack of faith in the economic utility of a vessel, new fashions
and therefore new spending priorities, financial problems for
potential purchasers, credit refused to shipyards and their sales
networks, fuel prices that could shoot up at the first signs of
industrial recovery, new environmental compatibility requirements,
considerably reduced purchasing power of currencies and the middle
class, monopolistic cartels marketing all products, exaggeratedly
heavy tax burdens everywhere which suffocate consumption, waves of
poor people from underdeveloped countries pouring into the more
industrialised nations.
We could go on for quite a bit, also because the problems that people
are experiencing at first hand all over the world count for very
little in the macro-economy of bankers and multinationals that have
the advantage of immediate decisional powers, unlike nations which are
always trailing behind, often a long way behind.
Only the United States government, which over the decades has clearly
evaluated the yachting sector’s contribution to national and federal
economies – especially in coastal regions and near internal waterways
otherwise without resources – has sought to back it financially with
one of the first provisions of the Obama presidency. But yachting in
the States – with reference to vessels up to 40 feet – was already
undergoing crisis in 2007, with a creeping reduction that had been
going on for several years. This explains why 70% of the workforce
lost their jobs and many yards closed down.
The following figures give some idea of the importance of the
recreational boating sector in the USA: about 17 million boat owners
and more than 40 million users (data supplied to ICOMIA by the NMMA in
early June 2009); an army of builders and their dealers which in 2008
alone, with sales and services and without calculating the huge
infrastructural, commercial and tourism spin-offs, directly generated
a turnover of 33.6 billion dollars (around 24 billion euros), and this
notwithstanding a drop of 10% in comparison with 2007. No less than
11.2 billion dollars came from sales of new vessels and engines, but
this too was down 22% on 2007 since the major companies, especially in
the second half of the year, had already begun a structural
streamlining, chiefly in the accessories field. But the table we print
gives a complete picture of the drop in US sales and consequently the
attitude of users in the various sectors, a trend indicator valid to
some extent in all countries with a developed yachting sector.
Precise official data for European markets will be available for the
late summer-autumn boat shows, and will probably be worse. Apart from
provisions of a general nature for assisting the unemployed, we may
confidently state that no government – USA excepted – has thought of
helping the sector through the crisis. So once again it must find
within itself the energy for recovery. Which in any case will not come
about without a reduction of tax pressure on potential users, on
people who want to buy boats. In the euro countries, passage to the
new currency halved individual and family resources. And since wages
cannot be increased without triggering inflation phenomena, the
solution lies in halving VAT, in the removal of taxation or in
individual tax exemption.
Excessively detailed regulations also put
the brakes on development. The bureaucrats forget that sailing today is no
longer a concession but a right and that the skipper has sole responsibility:
when he makes a mistake to the damage of third parties, including those on
board, he should be punished. It’s absurd that in the Mediterranean countries
a public official is prosecuted whenever a disaster occurs at sea. The
countries that require a skipper’s licence are precisely the ones where there
are most accident insurance claims: we should rather think of a yachting
culture driven by incentives instead of obligations. Unfortunately a great
circus has been created around the word safety, defending the status quo
and hard to get rid of.
ICOMIA too, in which we firmly believe, has already promoted a more
understanding European attitude to yachting (within the very narrow and
sacred EC boundaries). But the Board must have the courage to play a
more active role in the European and international Community, especially
in support of users whose savings and leisure opportunities have been swallowed
up. EU VAT on sales should be no more than 10%, the same going
for services and tourist ports, taking in the fundamental role of yachting as
an economic flywheel. Sector magazines have the task of spreading awareness
of the problems among the public, while professional associations
should deal with struggle and demands.
Lucio Petrone
