Ibiza will put the management of its port’s sports boating facilities out to tender for 25 years

The Balearic Port Authority (APB) will tender, for a period of 25 years, the Port of Ibiza facilities dedicated to sports boating. These facilities were managed for 100 years by the Club Náutico de Ibiza (CNI) and, since 2024 and until May 2027, have been operated by the company Puertos y Litorales Sostenibles S.L., which has had virtually no presence in the sports boating sector in Ibiza or the Balearic Islands.

APB president Javier Sanz explained this Wednesday in Ibiza the details of the future tender during the presentation of the new delegate for the ports of Ibiza and La Savina, Alberto del Pino Rivera.

Sanz said that the conditions of the new tender will be approved on April 23rd by the Board of Directors of the Balearic Port Authority, will then be published in the Official State Gazette, and the selected bid is expected to be announced in December.

The new tender will give priority to sports boating, excluding social roots as a criterion in the scoring system, and the new facilities must offer a minimum of 170 berths for vessels between 6 and 15 metres in length. Of these, 85% will be home-port and social berths, for periods of one year or more, while the remaining 15% will be for visiting boats.

Among the requirements, the operator must establish and develop a sailing and canoeing school, maintain competition teams at federated level, and also organise sports and recreational events in both disciplines, as well as federated competitions.

The tender also requires the implementation of a support system for athletes and related logistical backing, along with the development and organisation of training events of a sporting, social, cultural and environmental nature.

In addition, an area must be allocated for the dry docking, maintenance and repair of vessels used for sporting activities, and the implementation of a dry marina and sailing club will also be taken into account.

The APB will also recognise the existing home-port users at the facility and will create a public registry of applications to access home berths in chronological order, a form of access that, as Sanz stressed, will be “public and not decided arbitrarily, and will not depend on anyone.”

As for investments to improve infrastructure and facilities, the aim is to develop a “modern, efficient and sustainable” port project through the renovation of quays, dredging works, industrial improvements, and upgrades to the building and breakwater. Each bidder will be able to submit “the investment they consider appropriate and the project they believe suitable,” the APB president added.

Sanz also referred to the Special Plan for the Port of Ibiza, which, after two rounds of public consultation, still lacks final approval, has no specific timetable, and continues to accumulate “major administrative delays.”

He regretted that the lack of this plan is conditioning “strategic investments” in the Port of Ibiza.

The port authority has recalled that €104.31 million is earmarked to modernise the port between 2026 and 2029, with investments planned for the new IBOSIM promenade, the reorganisation of the Port of Botafoc, a new shipyard, and a new 700-space car park.

Other planned works include the relocation of the Ibiza–La Savina maritime station, infrastructure for water supply and leak prevention, shore power electrification of the quays (OPS), as well as repairs and improvements to port infrastructure.

As for the new delegate, his appointment was the result of a public selection process aimed at providing the ports of Ibiza and La Savina with “a highly qualified technical profile,” capable of leading the “current challenges” in infrastructure, sustainability and port-city integration, the Port Authority stated.