Training, recruitment and the ecological transition
At its annual general meeting, held at the MEDEF headquarters in Paris on March 27, 2024, the Fédération des Industries Nautiques - FIN, the employers' association for French yachting professionals, looked back on the year 2023 through the presentation of its activity report and outlined the outlook for its actions in 2024.
Speakers focused particularly on ecological issues, noting that FIN is "at the forefront of the ecological transition in European boating". They spoke of FIN's efforts within the European association EBI to work on life-cycle analyses for pleasure boats, as well as its internal working groups on alternative propulsion systems, and initiatives aimed at the public to promote Ecogestes, respect for Posidonia and the Blue Boat. The fragile equilibrium of the APER dismantling sector and its public financing by the State was underlined, while reaffirming the willingness of companies in the sector to support it, having recently doubled the amount of eco-contributions.
FIN also reported on its campaign to promote the nautical professions, Equipe Nautique Recrute, launched at the end of 2022. The figure of 2,000 recruitments was put forward for 2023, with the aim of maintaining a level of 1,500 recruitments per year.
Nautic en Seine project to continue
Boat shows remain a hot topic for FIN, which is back to organizing shows with its 1st edition at the helm of the Grande Motte international multihull show on April 3, 2024. After congratulating itself on the momentum of the METSTrade and IBEX BtoB shows, whose management it has taken over from Business France, the Federation also announced the date of the future Nautic en Seine, which is to replace the Nautic de Paris. After an initial postponement to 2024, the new schedule calls for it to be held in the 1st week of April 2025. This represents a major challenge for the FIN, which plans to hold 2 shows in the space of a few weeks, between the Ile de France and La Grande Motte.
Changes to the Board of Directors
Following the Annual General Meeting, 3 newly elected members joined the FIN Board of Directors: Bruno Thivoyon (Beneteau SA), Antoine Thomas (ENO) and Loïc Bonnet (Dream Yacht Charter).
The new executive board, comprising Jean-Claude Ibos (Wichard SAS), Fabrice Lacoume (Yamaha Motor Europe), Stephan Serra (Uship SASM), Nicolas Gardies (Fountaine Pajot-Dufour) and Gérard Lachkar (AGL), re-elected Jean-Paul Chapeleau as president of the federation.
