Initially, there were only reports from individual crews who had been turned away with their catamarans in some of Mallorca's harbours or who were unable to reserve a place. Now the procedure has been confirmed, at least unofficially. In order to leave more space for smaller yachts and monohulls, yachts over 15 metres in length and all cats in general are increasingly being turned away due to their large width. The Ports Islas Balears association includes 43 harbours on Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. Even if many of them are very small, they also include some large, popular harbours such as Andratx, Sa Ràpita and Pollença. The chain's harbours are popular with sailors, partly because they are cheaper than most private marinas.
When YACHT and the cruiser department of the DSV enquired with Ports IB, there was no official explanation from the management, but the practice was confirmed behind closed doors. Even before this, there was no section on the association's reservation website that allowed the extreme width of a catamaran to be entered - for many ports, the limit is just over four metres. However, not all berths are allocated online. As the proportion of cats has been increasing rapidly on the Balearic Islands for years, this will further exacerbate the shortage of berths in the area.
