On 22 December, legislative decree 12.11.2020, no. 160, “Correttivo” of the Boating Code (legislative decree 229/2017), provided for by the delegated law that gave rise to the reform of the sector that came into force at the beginning of 2018, came into force.

The “Correttivo” decree contains interventions on 31 articles and makes it possible to complete the intervention of rationalisation and administrative simplification to favour users and businesses in a logic of international competitiveness of the Italian flag.

The validity of the provisional licence is also envisaged for the issue of the crew list and the licence for the on-board transceiver equipment, in order to cut the red tape that makes the British, Maltese and Dutch flags preferred for medium-large vessels, the revision of safety equipment in the case of navigation limited to the national search and rescue area, the possibility of carrying out medical examinations directly at driving schools, a single national regulation for the chartering and leasing of vessels, rules for cabin chartering, and the introduction into the Master Plans of commercial ports of state-owned facilities to be used for dry storage of boats and pleasure craft.

Among other contributions, the decree makes it possible to:

• fill the gaps in the updating of administrative procedures, in order to make the recreational craft telematics system fully operational and streamline fulfilments;
• allow the shipyard building a pleasure craft, if for any reason it is unable to sell it, to register it in its own name, in order to create a “zero km” market;
• provide regulations for the navigation of ‘drones’;
• introduce new forms of commercial use of pleasure craft, in line with the recommendations made by the Council of State, to support the sector’s dynamism;
• provide for sanctions for the abusive exercise of the activity of nautical school;
• correcting the rules on nautical licences, with a view to the social inclusion of the disabled and the elderly
• introducing a minimum three-year nautical licence requirement for the command of pleasure craft in occasional chartering activities, in order to ensure greater safety;
• the establishment of a national archive of recreational craft products, in order to combat the placing on the market of fraudulent products that cause accidents or injuries.