Getxo quadruples its mooring fees

Getxo mooring fees rise from 40 to 180 euros and the marina is left without boats

Forty euros a month was what it cost to moor a six-metre boat at Getxo marina. Now it costs 180. For larger boats the jump is even bigger: from 200 to 800 euros a month. The administrative concession expired, fees were recalculated upwards and the result is a public marina that has stopped being cheap just when its natural clientele —weekend boat owners and locals with a small motorboat for going out after baby squid— had less room to pay for it.

The paradox is a good one. The neighbouring marina, Marítimo del Abra, a private club in difficulties, turns out to be cheaper than the public one. With the new prices, the expectation going around is that the berths that free up will end up in the hands of charter fleets or foreign owners, with the boat sitting idle eleven months a year. And a mooring, they remind us, is not a property: it is a concession with an expiry date.

What has changed with Getxo marina's fees

The marina was never territory of great fortunes. It ran on monthly fees of 30 to 50 euros within a 25-year concession, a figure that made it an almost accessible service. The new fees, published by Getxo Council and the marina operator, break that model: a six-metre boat goes from 40 to 180 euros, and a large boat from 200 to 800.

Some argue that the authorities have achieved exactly the opposite of what they claimed to be seeking: making public mooring more expensive until it is above the private club, and pushing members to the Marítimo. The difference between old and new fees is not explained by maintenance or pending works alone, and the full breakdown of both rate tables produces a jump that surprises when set out in columns.

Why are boats leaving for Marítimo del Abra and Laredo?

Those who stay have been migrating. First to Marítimo del Abra, until it filled up. Then to Laredo. Recreational sailing in the area rests on two clubs, Marítimo and Orza, with their regatta calendars, plus the yacht clubs of Castro Urdiales and Laredo. The Getxo estuary is large and surrounded by cliffs, but it is far from everything: to go for a spin you have to head out to sea, and for much of the year there are gales. An expensive mooring in an awkward spot has few takers.

Someone who has been a boat owner sums it up bluntly: more than 90% of boats go out no more than ten days a year, and almost always for the Carmen procession and some summer regatta. If the boat is used ten days, the increase is paid for storing an object, not for sailing. It is the same calculation that years ago led another owner to sell his boat and move it to Galicia.

The closure of Skippers and the collapse of the leisure scene

The bar Skippers, a fixture of afternoons at the marina, held its farewell party. Behind the closure is not only the price of mooring: drink-driving checks, the obligation to remove terraces and closing hours gradually emptied the area until it was left without the customers that sustained it.

Those who pass by describe it as a bleak landscape, with toilets that require a password and closed premises. Some point out that it is the only known place where a McDonald's has closed, which is a fairly graphic way of measuring the abandonment. What remains are half-empty terraces and a hospitality scene that no longer resembles the one the area boasts of. The cinema survives: the Lauren de Getxo is still open and is, they say, the cheapest in Bizkaia.

How much does it really cost to own a boat in Spain?

Buying is not the expensive part. You can find 26-28-foot sailboats for less than 10,000 euros. The problem is berthing and maintaining it. The comparison with France is devastating: on the other side of the border the cost was half and the boat was lived as a sport, not a luxury. Many Spanish boat owners have changed their flag to Poland to avoid the technical inspection of vessels, and videos explaining it number in the dozens.

And then there is the coast. In the Valencian Community, it is claimed, there is not a single public slipway to launch a boat, while in the Balearic Islands councils offer them with parking and a symbolic annual fee. Without slipways and without anchoring areas, the only door is the private marina. The sea is not what creates the scarcity.

Getxo, Neguri and the changing of a bourgeoisie

The backdrop is the same as ever. The old bourgeoisie of Neguri left decades ago for Madrid, London or Miami; the mansions have been divided into flats of 100 to 200 square metres at a million apiece. What remains are small rentiers, heirs with their inheritance split up and a fruta that no longer sustains itself.

Getxo is still idyllic for young families. If there are not more, they say, it is not for lack of desire but of means. And the sandstone flats, even in the most showy areas, remain unrenovated: time capsules at gold-plated prices.

With mooring fees quadrupled and boats moving out, it remains to be seen who will fill next summer a marina that began to empty before the prices went up.