Italian Waters Pilot

Publisher: Imray, Laurie, Norie & Wilson

Publication Date: 7th ed., 2006

The seventh edition of this ever valuable pilot is an evolutionary change. It covers the west and south coasts of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Malta. The page count has crept up from 429 in the sixth edition published 2002, to 452 now. But as the preface to this edition says “Italy has gone yachting mad” and this is reflected in a number of new marinas particularly on the Ligurian and Tuscan coasts. Although the total number of marinas he records has only increased by 13 to 390, the number of all-weather marinas has increased by 14 to 144 and 11 of these are in the north, though with welcome additions in Malta. These numbers hide the progressive expansion of pontoons in many harbours, though whether they are keeping pace with the expansion of the number of Italian boats filling them seems doubtful.

Inevitably there is a steep increase in the charging bands for these marinas, with few now in band 1 (free), though Heikell hasn’t changed the value of the charge bands. He claims that Italy is now a cruising ground in its own right, and not simply somewhere people go through. Though this certainly applies to Sardinia and Sicily, it would be interesting to know how much it applies to the mainland coast.

The chartlets and text continue in Heikell’s outstanding tradition, giving interesting historical profiles as well as all the practical information that one requires. The introduction to this edition includes a contents list which helps in finding one’s way round the first 39 pages of information.

In some ways, Imray pilot books haven’t entered the 21st century. For instance, there is a list of waypoints given at the start of each section, suitable for entering into one’s GPS. If these could be downloaded from the web they might actually be more reliable than waypoints taken from one’s own paper charts. But as far as I can see, this isn’t possible. Even Rod Heikell’s Mediterranean website seems to have disappeared. - CM