Sailing and windsurfing in the Balearic Islands will have their own space for general and technical training

Sailing and windsurfing in the Balearic Islands will have their own space for general and technical training

The Sailing Federations, the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands and the Regional Ministry of Social Affairs and Sports have today visited the area where the new facilities will be located

Palma

31/03/2023
Environment and CSR Port-city Technology and innovation Transport and infrastructure Socio-economic development

Sailing and windsurfing in the Balearic Islands will have their own space for general and technical training. The Regional Ministry of Social Affairs and Sports and the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) have reached an agreement to set up a specific space in the port of es Molinar, in Palma. Until now, the Sailing and Windsurfing technical training programme of the CTEIB was carried out in spaces and facilities provided by the sports clubs. This is a response to a former claim to have its own public technical training facility.

The space will be leased by the APB, while the Regional Ministry of Social Affairs and Sports will assume the construction and management of the new centre, through the Foundation for Balearic Sports, with an estimated cost of 486,000 euros.

Today the president of the APB, Jaume Colom, the councillor of Social Affairs and Sports, Fina Santiago, the general director of Sports, Carles Gonyalons, the president of the Balearic Islands Sailing Federation, Catalina Darder, and the president of the Spanish Sailing Federation, José Javier Sanz, visited the space where the new facilities will be located. The technical directors of the Sailing and Windsurfing technical training programmes were also present.

The president of the APB, Jaume Colom, has approved the signing of this agreement, which ensures that citizens have access to the sea and basic sports and, at the same time, that the Balearic Islands continue to be a pioneer in sailing.

For his part, Santiago pointed out that the absence of this public space was one of the objectives of his Ministry, especially after the privatisation of the Calanova area. He also thanked both the federation for its involvement as the driving force behind this project and the APB for assuming the need and generosity of leasing the space, which will be managed by agreement with a 15-year lease, he added.

The space where the new facilities will be located is Caló d’en Rigo. Already part of the project for the remodelling of the space that the APB carried out in 2021 was the installation of a sailing school of 511 square metres, taking advantage of a new stretch of breakwater with a deck, which is currently a raised walkway accessed by a ramp and stairs.

Project

The planned project includes an office for the CTEIB Sailing and Windsurfing programmes, a room for coaches, a classroom, changing rooms, gymnasium, boat storage facilities and workshop. Each of the rooms can be accessed directly from the outside, but the office, the coaches’ room and the classroom are connected internally. The boat storage facilities and the workshop are also connected internally.

Promoting sports

The aim of these new facilities is to continue promoting the training of technically-skilled athletes. However, other activities of the Balearic Sailing Federation and other federations related to the maritime environment will also be carried out in this space, such as the monitoring of young sporting talent.

It is worth remembering that the Balearic sailing and windsurfing athletes are currently achieving great results. One example is the bronze medal of the sailor Joan Cardona in the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, 2020. Cardona, in fact, is one of the athletes who has completed the CTEIB’s technical training programme.