OneOcean and Sovren on Unification and Collaboration

Speaking with Sovern Founder & CEO, Stephen White and OneOcean Sales Director, Nizar Taji, we talk rising trends and pushing boundaries from a Spanish perspective.

Berthing in the Mediterranean, with its limitations and last-minute reputation has been waiting for a collaboration that makes transcending its balmy waters completely stress free. With marinas a destination-of-the-moment, Barcelona and illustrious Ibiza are taking the plunge into a year-round partnership, with summer and winter mooring packages hoping to solve the challenge of Med-mooring…

Ibiza is already an exclusive destination, and the facilities for superyachts in Barcelona second to none: how can the security of a year-round berth lead further improving the region?

N: Obviously the busier the marina is the higher the economic impact is on the local economy.  We are also seeing the industry react to this with a growing number of yachting companies opening up offices here due to our occupation and of course the MYBA charter show that we now host.

S: It’s about the whole destination. The Balearics have always been popular but Barcelona has come up so quickly in recent years. This means that a lot of the larger yachts are now using this part of the Med as a base, instead of just coming down from the South of France. So we see the whole location of Barcelona as a natural feeder for us in Ibiza for our summer season, and vice versa. We’re attracting more people to the area of Spanish cruising. It’s a win, win.

How do the facilities and features of each marina complement each other and form a logical combination?

N: Captains and crew love our first class facilities including a state of the art gym, crew lounge, OneOcean Club and of course over 4,500 bars and restaurants that are on our doorstop.  We have an international airport just 25 minutes from the marina, meaning they can explore Europe at the weekend, or choose to ski as the slopes are only 2 hours away.  On top of that we are one of the only marinas that can offer TPA to yachts staying with us. We also have enormous flexibility it terms of berths; we have a 420m quay where we can berth the largest yacht in the world, or alternatively berth yachts of all sizes. 

S: In the Med we have a very strong build sector, a very strong service and management sector, but when it comes to where you park the yacht, the industry has gone down the path of home-port destination, which doesn’t help the client in enjoying new destinations. There are very few cruising destination ports for the 60m+ range. That’s where we saw an opportunity; giving the very large yachts exactly what they need; the marina here is basically akin to being right in St. Tropez but with more superyacht berths.

So can we expect to see more of this type of collaboration from other marinas in the future?

N: I would like to hope that there will be more collaborations in the future, I think that as an industry we need to be forward thinking and work together to create new attractive products for the market, it is all too easy to become complacent, it is vital to that we constantly innovative .

S: From our point of view I hope so. I think it makes perfect sense. We’re already talking to other facilities. In an ideal world you’d want to have a string of marinas with the same level of service, sophistication and understanding so there’s a seamless exchange from port to port. It’s definitely a goal of mine to have a chain of marinas that have the same kind of ethos going, within the western Mediterranean, whole Mediterranean and eventually worldwide; but that’s a much bigger project!

With packages guaranteeing Ibiza berthing in the summer, and Barcelona berthing in winter, the stress of mooring in these sought-after locations is far removed. Working alongside the Spanish Port Authorities, it’s clear the collaboration hopes to make this region the jewel in the Mediterranean’s crown and we look forward to seeing Spain’s further foray into the world of ‘elite’.