Balearic Islands: Improved booking system for buoy sites, stricter controls when anchoring
Andreas Fritsch
· 08.05.2024
PortsIB, as the port authority of the autonomous region of the Balearic Islands, manages most of the island group's port facilities, with Mallorca at the centre. In addition to administration, PortsIB also offers guest berths for hire. Some of these are significantly cheaper than those in the marinas operated by private companies or yacht clubs in the Balearic Islands. In 2022, buoy fields were also introduced, but these could not be booked for larger and wider yachts.
This is because you have to register with PortsIB as the skipper and the boat before making a booking. Until now, however, this was only possible if the boat did not exceed 15 metres in length and 4.46 metres in width. This meant that many catamarans were too wide for a booking and even boats over 45 feet quickly reached their limit. They did not benefit from a berth booking, which is very practical in the high season on the Balearic Islands due to the rush on the scarce berths if you don't want to be at your berth in the early afternoon. It was also not possible to book a mooring buoy, even if these are offered up to a length of 25 metres and without any restrictions in width. The system was simply not programmed for this.
New booking platform to solve problem on the Balearic Islands
However, this will change from 22 May at 12 noon CEST, as PortsIB points out on its own website. A new registration system will then be activated so that boats up to 25 metres in length can also be registered from then on, as there are buoys up to this category. There will then no longer be a restriction on width. It will then also be possible for wide yachts and catamarans to hire a mooring buoy from PortsIB.
The association offers buoys up to 8 metres, up to 12 metres, up to 15 metres, up to 20 metres and up to 25 metres boat length. The buoy fields are located on all the Balearic Islands. They are available from 13 June to the end of September, in some cases until 15 October. Details on booking are available in a PDF, from page 11 also in English. You can find the PDF here.
In addition to the PortsIB buoys, there are four other buoy fields managed by Club Náuticos and the large buoy field in the Cabrera National Park.
And these are the twelve harbours that are managed directly by PortsIB and where guest berths can be booked, which are cheaper than in the marinas run by the private sector or by Club Náuticos. Some only accept bookings up to 12 metres long and 4 metres wide: Port Andratx, Port de Sóller, Port de Pollença, Cala Rajada, Cala Bona, Porto Cristo, Portocolom, Cala Figuera, Colònia de Sant Jordi, Ciutadella, Fornells, Sant Antoni de Portmany.
If you prefer anchoring to using a mooring buoy, the quality and durability of which is difficult to assess in slightly stronger winds, you can still anchor freely in many places when sailing the Balearics, even close to the harbour. However, there are a few things to bear in mind when anchoring, so here are just two important aspects.
Firstly: the row of yellow buoys separating the anchoring and bathing areas. Access routes to and from land with the dinghy are marked with additional red and green buoys.
Strict rules and also controls for anchoring
Secondly: The seaweed. Anchor AND chain must not touch the protected underwater plant Posidonia Oceanica. It is controlled. Anyone who is "caught" must move if there is still space to be found in suitable places! Anyone who refuses to do so risks a fine. The protection of the Posidonia oceanica seagrass has been a major issue for years. In order to educate boaters to only anchor over sand and to protect the plant, around 20 patrol boats are now deployed around the Balearic Islands during the season.
More on the topic:
This is having an effect: the error rate is falling. Noticeably so, as the balance sheet at the end of the monitoring period on 10 October 2023 shows. The Servicio de Vigilancia de la Posidònia de Baleares, as the monitoring organisation is known in Spanish, registered 7,578 boats that had dropped anchor over seagrass, which is protected by law. That sounds like a lot, but it was just 4.2 per cent of all 180,867 boats inspected. In the summer of 2022, this figure was still more than 10 per cent, meaning it had halved within a year.
The educational work through articles, brochures and also through the yacht charter companies on the Balearic Islands seems to be bearing fruit. Most of the skippers or owners of the conspicuous boats do not have to expect any penalties. The primary task of the seaweed wardens is to provide information, coupled with the request to change location and then anchor over sand.
