Genoa

Genoa is the spiritual capital of Italian yacht building. The Ligurian coast between Genoa and Viareggio holds Sanlorenzo, Baglietto, Perini Navi (under The Italian Sea Group), Mariotti, Tankoa, and Amico shipyards inside two hours' drive. The Genoa International Boat Show every September is the second-largest European in-water show after Cannes and sets the Italian-builder order calendar the way Cannes sets the wider Med one. For tender programmes, Genoa is a builder's port and a transhipment hub more than a guest-facing destination; the guest work happens at the yards in Viareggio, La Spezia, and Lavagna while Genoa itself handles refit, paint, and freight.

Local tender stock reflects the Italian builder bias: Pardo, Sacs, Italyure, Castagnola, Cantieri Capelli, and the Sanlorenzo BluGame sub-brand all draw supply through the Ligurian corridor. Because so much of this stock is delivered as part of a mothership package from the regional yards, pre-owned inventory turns over here on the new-build cadence rather than a charter-season cycle, and open tenders and sport chase boats dominate the supply that reaches the brokers. New-order activity concentrates around the September show.

For a captain, Genoa's value is the supplier density. The city carries main agents and service hubs for the principal sterndrive, jet, and waterjet brands used in the tender fleet, plus the structural composite, hydraulics, and electronics subcontractors that the regional yards rely on. A boat that needs a drive package, a passerelle ram, or a damaged hardtop sourced and fitted between programmes can usually be turned in Genoa faster than anywhere else on the Italian coast, which is why so many Côte d'Azur fleets route urgent tender work east rather than wait on a La Ciotat slot.

• Amico and Co. at Riparazioni Navali inside the commercial port handles refit on yachts to 100m, with tender work folded into the mothership dock period.
• Mariotti Yachts for refit on the largest hulls (the yard built and refits Aviva, Crystal, and others).
• Sanlorenzo La Spezia and Viareggio for sister-yard support on Sanlorenzo and Bluegame craft.
• Tankoa (Genoa) and Baglietto (La Spezia) for builder-side warranty and refit on their own hulls.
• The Italian Sea Group (Marina di Carrara) for the Perini Navi and Admiral fleet.

The dense yard cluster means Genoa-based tenders rarely travel far for refit; the limiting factor is dock and paint-shed scheduling, not distance, and winter slots should be booked well before the autumn show.

Italian VAT runs at 22% on locally delivered tender sales. Italy operates a charter VAT lump-sum regime and a fiscal-representative requirement for non-EU yacht owners; tenders carried as inventory of a commercially flagged yacht do not trigger separate VAT, a distinction set out in our tender import VAT note. The Italian Coast Guard enforces RINA classification and MCA equivalency on commercially operated tenders. Italy does not apply matriculation tax in the same form as Spain, but the regional Tassa di Soggiorno applies to charter guests.