The harbourmaster at Naples’s Mergellina port bans superyachts longer than 75 metres for security reasons. Billionaires can no longer moor their boats in Naples, meaning the city misses out much needed revenue.
Corriere della Sera reported media tycoon Barry Diller was forced to renounce Naples after the Mergellina harbourmaster banned yachts of more than 75 metres in length for security reasons.
The ban reportedly came as a surprise to many who have been mooring there for many years.
The Guardian reported a source at the port as saying the move was “incomprehensible” given megayachts had been able to dock there for the past 20 years. Furthermore, Naples will miss out on the type of visitor who brought something other than bad news to the city.
“I am getting many letters from magnates saying they’re thoroughly disappointed that they can’t dock in Naples any more,” the source added.
Unions criticise new regulation
It is not only the rich who are inconvenienced and lose out. “There are many consequences,” Costanzo Jannotti Pecci, the president of the Naples unit of Unione Industriali, told Il Mattino. “There is a feeling that superyachts mustn’t come to Naples. There even seems to be a lack of awareness of the pleasure that a tycoon might get from our city. The fame of a city such as Naples increases through these people.”
Massimo Luise manages a pier at Mergellina which hosts luxury yachts. He told Corriere della Sera that while he respected the rules, the economic repercussions for Naples were not inconsequential.
“It’s a shame for Naples, a special city full of culture and tradition which can no longer welcome guests of the calibre of Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Jeff Bezos and Jennifer Lopez, who over the years have come here,” he said.
