Near the beach
Governing: RD 876/2014, Reglamento General de Costas, art. 73; Decreto 25/2018 art. 12; Ley 2/2015 art. 9. Builds on: L3.2, L5.3.
Bathing zones (zonas de baño)
Article 73 of the Coasts Regulation sets two regimes:
| Situation | Rule |
|---|---|
| Marked (buoyed) bathing zone (zona de baño balizada) | No recreational navigation and no use of any sail or motor craft or floating device inside it. Launch and recover boats only through marked channels. |
| Unmarked coast | The bathing zone is a strip 200 m wide off beaches and 50 m wide off the rest of the coast. Inside it: maximum 3 knots, take precautions for swimmers, and any discharge from boats is prohibited. |
So off an unmarked beach you may enter the 200 m strip slowly (for example to anchor legally on sand), but off a marked beach the buoy line is a wall. A park plan can go further: the Es Trenc PORN (L5.3) requires the buoy line to be at least 200 m off the beach and 50 m off islets.
No other general Balearic coastal speed limit was found in this research. Individual ports set their own limits inside port waters.
Applying it
- Anchoring near a marked zone: your hull swing circle (L3.2) must keep the yacht outside the buoy line at every heading. Example: Rh = 41.4 m means the anchor must go down more than 41.4 m, plus margin, from the line.
- Tenders and toys: 3 knots in the unmarked strip means dead slow; in a marked zone, only through the marked channel.
- Discharges: nothing overboard inside the strip: no grey water, no black water, no bilge.
WARNING — Swimmers do not wear lights The 3 kn rule exists because a person in the water is almost invisible from a tender helm. Brief tender drivers accordingly (see Skippering Charter Guests in the Balearics).
Who is watching
- Environmental agents of the Balearic Government enforce the Posidonia decree (Decreto 25/2018 art. 12).
- Ports IB's coastal surveillance service (Servicio de Vigilancia, Inspección y Control del Litoral), set up in 2025 with 22 boats, a control centre and, from 2026, drones. By mid-September 2026 press reports (secondary) counted 1,358 checks, 128 inspection reports (actas) and 39 denuncias, including 687 anchoring checks, 234 Posidonia checks and 163 buoy-field checks in Mallorca. Two boats are based in Eivissa and Sant Antoni.
- Guardia Civil maritime service and the Capitanía Marítima for state rules.
Drone imagery gives coordinates and pictures that can go straight into a sanction file. Assume the chain is being photographed.
At an inspection
- Be courteous and cooperative. Under the Balearic charter sanctions law, obstructing an inspection is grave; obstruction that prevents it is muy grave (Ley 2/2015; bands €2,000.01–20,000 and €20,000.01–200,000).
- Show the documents asked for: permits, bookings, charter papers if applicable.
- Explain your anchoring: position, depth, chain out, the map you used. Your log entry (L3.1) helps.
- If told to move, move. Argue later, on paper.
TIP — The anchoring log line "12:40 anchored 39°xx.xN 3°xx.xE, 6 m sand, 25 m chain, footprint checked on ideib.caib.es/posidonia and by swimmer." Ten seconds to write; very persuasive afterwards.