The works began in late 2017 and will be completed in spring (Photo courtesy of Faro de Vigo)

It is no secret that water sports were born in our country to the rescue of bourgeois and classist societies in the last years of the 19th and early 20th century. A societies with the north in the long-set, in most cases or in the living-room games and the "dance assaults" of the carnival parties or the closures and early of the year.

This is why it is common to find nautical clubs that have never in their lives organized a race or promoted a sailing or rowing school, or that do not even have their headquarters by the sea. This is our story, and this is our misfortune... that in the 1970s and 1980s, the result of something that came from beyond our borders, and that represented an exponential growth of nautical tourism... which led to a growth sometimes disproportionate and disrespectful to the environment, does not mean that our Spain loves the nautical... nothing further from reality.

In the north and north-west, public support took time to arrive... the Basque Government in the 1990s started a great effort to promote decent sports ports in Euskadi... this is the case of the Getxo Kaia or the facilities of Zumaia, Hondarribia... the truth worked a lot in those years. In Asturias the greatest effort was made by the Harbour Authority of Gijón that put the Asturian capital in the European nautical, promoting an endless of events of international cut... it is clear that the hobby has arisen... The cantabra had certainly been the precursors of modernity, with that Navy of the Cantabric, which so badly went out economically, and more recently, facilities were put in place in Santoña or Laredo, for giving two examples...

With an investment of the order of half a million euros, Vigo will have in the very short term an installation of the very first level for the organization of sports events of nautical cut, without the old obstacles of some late-night societies... the industrial sectors immersed, such as hospitality, shops, services... are of congratulations in the City of Vigo

Galicia chose another model and the public supported from the back... generating good facilities in which the Xunta played a strong role in the time of Manuel Fraga. The best examples are the ports of Ribadeo, Viveiro, Sada, Camariñas, La Puebla, Villagarcía, Sanxenxo or the reforms and extensions of Baiona. In large cities such as Vigo and La Coruña, private marines were established, in the case of Marina Coruña, Marina Real supported by the Royal Nautico Club... while in the south Punta Lagoa, Marina Davila and San Adrián de Cobres were created, while the Bouzas Maritime Liceo was growing a lot and the Nautico de Vigo was facing its renewal of concession, which has not yet crystallized to a hundred percent, even though it has been half a dozen years...

But the problem of facilities is one, and the problem of proper planning with society is very different... If a basketball club wants to organize a big championship... it has no problem for example in a city like Vigo... it gets in touch with the IMD (dependent on the City Hall) and rents the facilities... if it is of football, or of gymnastics, or of water polo... same... I assure you that everything will be facilities by the team of this charismatic Viguese mayor who is Abel Cabellero... but eye and if it is of sailing?, of rowing?, of piragüismo?... eye in this case with the church we have met... well... forgive We did it.

From the celebration of the European Championship of J70 in Vigo, that is June this year, the old dársena of the Náutico de Vigo ES DE DOMINIO PUBLIC... IS THE PORTUARY AUTHORITY DE VIGO, president of Enrique López Veiga, to whom no one can deny that he has been the great culprit that in Vigo a great event of nautical cutting can be organized (as in other modern European cities) without entering into obstacles of private societies in total contrast to current European regulations... Vigo already has a nautical installation of the first order PUBLIC, which will be given for a relevant event, if it has a category for it... if we add to it the full disposition of the City of Caballero on the one hand and the Port of Enrique López Veiga... we will realize that we have entered fortunately in another dimension.

In the already-called DARSENA JULY VERNE two major sailing events are already scheduled for 2018:

- June, J-70 Class European Championship (organizes the Association of Owners of J70 and the Royal Nautical Vigo Club)
- October, European Laser Master Championship (organizes the Bouzas Maritime Licensing and the Vigo Maritime Club)