Yachting Malta new chairman aims to overhaul the sector

John Huber, the recently-named chairman of Yachting Malta, has called on the authorities to implement a number of measures to reform and merge the country’s fragmented yachting industry institutions.

“An authority such as Finance Malta has been so successful because everyone has been pulling on the same rope,” Huber told local daily The Times of Malta. “In yachting, way too many entities were born and died within a few years. What we need is a cohesive entity.”

Set up in 2015, Yachting Malta is a public-private partnership between the Maltese government and the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

“The public-private partnership (PPP) idea was great but now we need to refine it and to create something tangible,” Huber said, adding that the sector had “too many chiefs, not enough Indians, and no arrows.”

The organisation says its primary role is to identify and attract high profile yachting events to Malta, promote the existing events, such as sailing regattas, power racing, boat shows, yachting awards and others, as well as engage in various educational and training activities.

Huber serves as the managing consultant at John Huber & Associates, a Malta-based advisory firm specialised in tax services. He also sits on the board of governors of Finance Malta, a public-private initiative established to promote the country’s financial services sector.