The second-hand market is very dynamic, with some 80,000 units sold by 2021. But the French boat fleet is aging, and it will take a few more years for the formidable mission entrusted to A.P.E.R. to bear fruit in ridding our harbors of the unused boats that clutter them up.

Professionals of all stripes, dealers, experts and port managers are campaigning and fighting to get the owners of these wrecks to get rid of them to make way for new boaters.

We obviously encourage these initiatives, which will lead, thanks to the support of the Fédération des Industries Nautiques and the Ministère de la Mer, to a reorganization of our sector, enabling new users to take to the sea more responsibly.

Joseph Mitton, co-founder of Nauticoncept and an early campaigner, regularly testifies to this: "Particularly in inland waters, we see many vessels arrive at the end of their lives, and much later struggle to find the owners and reach financial agreements to rid our ports of these too numerous wrecks. And it's not uncommon for me to be asked to assess the relevance of buying one of these leech boats...".

And without talking about wrecks, how many of the new buyers of second-hand boats leave the boating world disappointed by the considerable maintenance costs of a boat? Of its obvious fragility.

Today's professionals are mobilized to find solutions which, like property diagnostics, will at the very least enable buyers to become aware of the condition of their property. With no intention of imposing the drastic constraints (up to and including the impossibility of selling) of the automotive world, the profession is mobilizing to improve the perception of the boating world. Pre-sale diagnosis was on everyone's lips at the last Paris boat show, for several reasons: it could eventually solve the problem of dock space, it generates development for new and more responsible boats, and it accelerates the expansion of new uses, less tied to ownership.