The Nautical Congress addresses doubts about the rental of list 7th vessels

Recreational nautical legislation was one of the major debates at the Nautical Congress organized by ANEN.

Carlos Sanlorenzo, legal advisor of ANEN; Ana Núñez, Deputy Director General of Safety, Pollution and Maritime Inspection; Julio Carlos Fuentes, Deputy Director General of Maritime Regulation and International Cooperation and Jaime Albors, partner of Albors Galiano Portales, participated in a roundtable on 'Nautical legislation in Spain versus the European Union, harmonization and convergence'.

Fuentes acknowledged that "we have extensive, complex, and often unclear regulations, with scattered regulatory standards resulting from many years of legislation, so we need to update it." At this point, he recalled the "block of regulations we are working on, with a bill in the Cortes and the Royal Decree that we half-jokingly call the 'vacuum cleaner', after the broom, intended to clean up certain issues".

At this point, he highlighted that "we slightly modulate the definition of recreational boating to make it purer, with a chapter dedicated to recreational boating to strengthen the sector. Also, we have reduced the timelines for the ship abandonment file to three months, to provide agility to these procedures".

On the other hand, "the Royal Decree modifies some regulations to correct previous errors, in matters such as the temporary change of use of the 7th list, jet skis or the requirement of a title for vessels less than 6 meters. We have received many observations from the sector, which has taken it very seriously," he celebrated.

"When it comes into effect for this season, it will allow the user to rent their vessel for 3 months with a series of guarantees: valid certificates, change of list, and insurance that covers the activity and the people on board, in addition to the requirement that it be managed by a company, and not directly by the owner" Núñez highlighted.

"We want to establish a series of conditions to make everyone comfortable, so we will look for a consensus model to deliver to the sector and we will be open to holding many meetings with it in which we will learn a lot. Times require collaboration and agreement with the sector," Fuentes stressed, estimating that, optimistically, this General Law will be in place in a year and a half or two years.

Sanlorenzo explained the models of contracts for the sale of recreational vessels and nautical leasing that ANEN has developed to "provide legal security to the sector, facilitate negotiations of companies with end customers and protect the sector's interest, without prejudice to respecting the limits of the law," as he explained.

These contracts, which will be published next week on the ANEN website, will be available in two activities: sale of recreational vessels and nautical leasing. "In the future, we will also develop models for repairs and those activities required by the sector," he assured.

"For now, there will be four models: two for the sale of new construction vessels and two for second-hand vessels, for professional clients and for private consumers," Albors detailed at this point. "We have transferred the idea that already exists in the Merchant Marine and in the megayacht sector, where standard contract forms for crude oil transport, grain, sale of merchant vessels, construction, etc., have been operating for some time," he listed.

"They are very simple contracts, easy to use, and provide a reasonable starting point from which to begin negotiations," he elaborated. "These standardized contracts will provide a lot of legal security, but to be useful, it is essential that companies use them," Sanlorenzo urged.

Núñez then spoke about measures to expedite the dispatch of vessels in Maritime Captaincies. "We will implement the responsible declaration in the dispatch to avoid collapses in Captaincies. In this way, vessels will not have to wait for the OK from the Captaincy, and this will have a validity of one year, which will result in a lightening of work for the Administration and in peace and comfort for the sector," she stressed. "It will benefit practically all recreational boating, as it will affect vessels that have already been dispatched at some time, of national or foreign flag. Changes of list will not be able to benefit," Núñez clarified, who announced that "this would apply when the Royal Decree comes into effect, that is, on August 15, but in May or June the system will be tested on a pilot basis in some Captaincy, so that by the time the season starts most will already be dispatched".

In addition, she advanced that managers of companies will be able to carry out administrative procedures by entering data in an application, starting with simple procedures that do not require the participation of a marine engineer, such as name changes, etc.

Finally, Sanlorenzo closed the table with a reflection. "As a sector, we must think long-term when we talk about legislative changes, keeping in mind that the ultimate goal is always to promote access to boating".