The Spanish recreational boat market hit heights in 2021 not seen since the peak of the market before the financial crisis in 2008, with boat registrations up by 33% in 2020, and more significantly, up by a significant 17% compared to 2019, the last year not impacted by Covid.

In total 7,178 pleasure boats were registered in 2021. The charter market also fared well, with registrations of boats for charter use up 25% in 2019, and 70% up on last year, according to data collected in the ’Annual Report of the recreational craft market 2021’, edited by the Spanish industry association ANEN from the data provided by the General Directorate of the Merchant Marine.

With respect to 2019, smaller boats, up to 8m in length, continue to be the most in-demand (86% of the nautical market) and saw a 15% growth in registrations. The segment from 8m-12m (9.7% of the nautical market) grew by 40%. Lengths from 12m-16m (3.1% of the nautical market) saw 19.3% more units registered. 72 units were registered in the 16m-plus segment, a rise of 14.3% compared to the 2019 data.

Compared with 2019, motorboats remain the most in-demand (44.8% of the market, 2% more than in 2019) and grew by 22.6% in registrations. They are followed by PWCs (24.7% of the market) that saw a 9.6% growth in registrations.

Semi-rigid inflatable boats (12.5% of the market) were also in big demand with registrations up by 10%.

Sailboats, though still the smallest boat segment in terms of usage in Spain, also saw a significant rise in demand with registrations in 2021 up by 43.6% compared to 2019.