Boating event in May: Ucina chooses Milan

Genoa - The event dedicated to boating, is scheduled for the spring of 2015. But not in Genoa. Ucina decided to organize the event in Milan, as it is explained in detail in a programme designed by the leaders of the Confederation and anticipated by MediTelegraph. An unexpected turn of events as the plans, until recently, were different. The President of Ucina, Massimo Perotti, after the last Genoa Boat Show, spoke about “an event related to the boating lifestyle held in May, taking a cue from the inauguration of the Expo”. Among its various objectives was to set up “a forum inviting to Genoa, the most important designers and naval architects in the world.” Not only that, the leader of Ucina had also expressed the wish that “Renzo Piano would preside over this forum and why not, also, present these important people.” Now there is a change of plan to move everything from Genoa to Milan with an event that called “Milan, 2015 and boating.” According to the document studied by Ucina, the exhibition will take place alongside the two big events in the city in Spring 2015, the Milan Furniture Fair and the Expo, which “are able to attract different segments of the public and press but both are important for recreational yachting”.

In addition to the actual boat exhibition, the event, which will cost about €700 thousand, will also host the “Yacht Design and Made in Italy” exhibition which will open during the Furniture Fair: the estimated budget is €350 thousand, available to “the seat of Bovisa Tech.” The other events planned during the show in Milan are two conventions. The first, “World Yacht Design Forum with Adi Prize”, with, it has been suggested, an investment of €250 000, provides, among other things, the involvement of Genoese architect Renzo Piano and will be also organized during the Furniture Fair. The second event, which will be held during Expo 2015, has an estimated budget of €100,000 and has been called “Feeding the world - The role of the sea.” In the past weeks, Ucina had confirmed the next Genoa Boat Show in autumn. But at the same time a similar event in Liguria was mentioned. So why this sudden change of the spring event to Milan? There are approximately three million euros promised by the government in support of yachting, but mainly of the events related to the field and organized around Expo 2015.

The funds would be at risk because the Ministry of Economic Development asked Ucina to work for the unification of the sector. But first of all to ensure the participation of the most important Italian brands at the main event. At the moment the situation is looking rather different: Cerri and Baglietto were absent at the last Genoa Boat Show. Also Azimut/ Benetti decided to leave for the first time. The only big name to appear in Genoa, apart from Sanlorenzo which is owned by Perotti, was the Ferretti Group. Thanks to the contribution paid for its participation, the Romagna giant gave considerable help to the realization of the main Italian event dedicated to boating. But Mr. Galassi, leader of Ferretti, has long announced that his company will not, again, attend the Genoese event unless it is held early in the spring. It is due to these considerations that the backup plan was created to hold the event in May in Lombardy. The goal of the Confederation’s leadership is to attract those that decided not to participate in Genoa, for different reasons, and consequently avoid losing the funding promised by the government. Meanwhile, yesterday, the Senate passed the bill for the reform of the Navigation Code. A new era could open for the Italian boat industry thanks to the provisions of laws that are about to become operational.