Palma de Mallorca

Palma is the busiest superyacht service hub in the Mediterranean and the deepest brokerage market for tenders in Europe. Programmes overwinter here in numbers from October to April, and the summer cruising pattern centres on Ibiza, Formentera, Menorca and the Spanish mainland, with day-boat work that favours fast open hulls and beach-landers over the flat Balearic anchorages. Most tenders sold or refit through Palma in any given year are 6 to 12 metres, with limousine tenders, open tenders and increasingly electric tenders leading the new-boat market. Used inventory turns over fast in March and April as crews spec up for the season, and Palma is the single most reliable place in the Med to find two-to-five-year-old pre-owned tenders coming off charter programmes.

The replacement cycle here is driven by charter presentation rather than mechanical life. A charter-fleet limousine that has done two hard Balearic seasons typically rotates out while still sound, which keeps the brokerage pipeline liquid and gives buyers a predictable autumn supply. Captains tend to finalise tender decisions during the winter lay-up so the boat is commissioned, antifouled and sea-trialled before the fleet repositions east in late spring.

Palma also carries the densest crew, surveyor and management ecosystem in the western Med outside the Côte d'Azur. The town's marine quarter holds independent tender surveyors, hydraulics and stabiliser specialists, electronics integrators and the major insurers' local agents, which makes it the practical place to close a pre-purchase survey and any insured-damage repair in a single visit rather than chasing trades across several ports. For charter-coded yachts, MCA and Red Ensign coding work on tenders and rescue-boat compliance is routinely handled here ahead of the season, so a tender bought in March can be surveyed, coded and signed off before the first guest week.

STP Shipyard Palma and Astilleros de Mallorca are the two anchor yards. Astilleros has more than 80 years of operating history and houses the largest mechanical and metal workshops on site, with hydraulic, piping and electrical solutions in-house. Pinmar runs paint operations at Astilleros and is the dominant superyacht paint contractor in the western Med. Smaller tender refits go through specialist subcontractors operating out of STP, including upholstery, electronics, hydraulics and joinery firms, and the dense Palma supplier base means a tender repaint, re-trim and engine service can run concurrently under separate contractors on the same hardstand. For very large work, projects also route to Barcelona (MB92), which sits four hours by sea.

Spain charges 21% VAT on yacht purchases, with the matriculation tax (impuesto de matriculación) at 12% on yachts over 8 metres unless they qualify for charter exemption. The charter exemption requires Spanish registration and a chartering structure with a Balearic broker. EU-flagged private tenders pay VAT on first import. Non-EU flags can use temporary admission for up to 18 months. The matriculation tax is the trap most owners miss when buying a tender locally rather than landing it as ship's equipment, so confirm the structure before signing. See our tender import VAT page for the underlying mechanics.