Boccadarno: in June, the harbor will host the first boats

After less than three years of work the Boccadarno Marina has embarked on the final leg. Recently flooded the basin, all ancillary works of emerging structures are now nearing completion with the goal of opening the port by early June.
The event, organized on February 16th for the entry of the water into the basin, was attended by the Governor of Tuscany, Enrico Rossi, the mayor of Pisa Marco Filippeschi and other institutions’ representatives, as well as business and credit ones. It had been also invited to the event the citizenship that, for the first time, was able to look beyond the fence that, until that time, protected the site, making impossible to follow the progress of the work from the outside. And the great expectation for the first public opening of the port of Boccadarno,  it was shown by the thousands of people that, since the early morning, were in columns on Viale D’Annunzio to walk, for the first time, along the great scenic walk of the north pier. A real crowd, who discovered and enjoyed the new space recovered at the mouth of the Arno river, after that, for more than eighty years, the area was occupied by the buildings of a factory.

But the success of the port of Boccadarno is not only evidenced by the crowd who wanted to see for themselves an infrastructure that has been waiting by the city of Pisa and the coast for more than half a century. To date, in fact, there are a hundred of shipowners who bought a mooring in the port of Boccadarno and other contacts are going on, especially after  the harbor of Pisa and the Navicelli Canal were presented as a “positive anomaly” in the general panorama of the Italian boat, marked by a continuing crisis, last October at the Genoa Boat Show. The interest generated by the port of Pisa which is in sharp contrast with what happens elsewhere, was then also recently confirmed by the boat shows in London and Dusseldorf where there was the representative stand of the port of Pisa. On those occasions, there has been a significant convergence of interest from potential buyers from England, Germany and other northern European countries.

A port, Boccadarno, which, as the president of Assonat Luciano Serra told to reporters during the visit on Saturday 16th February, ” will be one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, able to attract a international and high-class costumers.” Quite similar was the comment of Robert Perocchio, president of Assomarinas, who also spoke at the event last month.

Recently, moreover, the port of Pisa Boccadarno has landed at Leghorn. The opportunity to show that in Pisa everything is ready to respond to the demand for berths on the Tuscan coast, was the festival dedicated to the world of the Sea held in Leghorn on March 21th to 24th in the Medici Port, which took place “TAG Heuer VelaFestival”, organized by the Journal of Sail in collaboration with the Yacht Club Livorno, which has made available its facilities at sea and on land.

An ideal location for a boat show out of the schemes and made it particularly attractive due to the strategic location of Leghorn, in the center of the Tyrrhenian routes and main gate on the sea of Tuscany. Furthermore, the organizers wanted not only to give life to a trade show in an exhibition space, but a true festival of the sea in an atmosphere capable of capturing and engage fans. The boat show has welcomed many open boats from 2 to 8 meters, cab from 5 to 25 meters, vintage and classic boats that have made the history of sailing, boats for hire. And large exhibition spaces have been dedicated to accessories, services and marinas.

“After being present at the London and Dusseldorf boat shows – explains Stefano Bottai, CEO of Boccadarno Port of Pisa – we wanted to offer our port also to the Leghorn fore. The interest in the port of Boccadarno shown by foreign shipowners during the exhibitions across the Italian borders has confirmed that a structure like ours, in a natural park and adjoining important cities of art and an international airport, is able to collect a strong liking. The berths already sold are quite a few and there are a lot of demands on getting rents during the summer months for the moorings still available. The goal of the company – adds Bottai – remains the sale, but given the demand we are also oriented to yield temporary rents for berths still free, from the month of June. And it was in this perspective that we wanted to present the project that is going to be inaugurated in Boccadarno in an important showcase such as the Leghorn boat show. “

Now close the conclusion of the work you can add that in these three years, the CMC of Ravenna, which was awarded the contract, employed in the yard of Boccadarno up to 70 people who have availed of  n.6 excavators, n.2 cranes, n.2 telescopic handlers and a tower crane.

Particularly challenging was the reclamation of the area before the beginning of the work themselves. It was an impressive work, given the state of pollution found, which led to the removal of successive layers of approximately 7,500 tons of soil contaminated by previous industrial processes and its contribution at authorized disposal sites after treatment under the law.