Canua Island will not be taking part in its inaugural season off the coast of Mandelieu-la-Napoule. The event barge with a surface area of 1750 m2 did not obtain the navigation and outfitting permits it needed to operate. The hundred or so employees, including 20 sailors, were made redundant before they even set sail for the first time.
With a capacity of up to 350 people, this floating beach with freshwater pool, bar-lounge and restaurant was given the green light by the Safety Commission at the end of May. But a number of elected representatives and the government have not given the green light. did not want to go any further in the face of local opposition on environmental grounds. The €16m project was the brainchild of Tony Philp and Marc Audineau, two former Olympic sailing athletes who describe themselves as lovers of the sea. " Canua Island respects the law and the rules protecting the sea" said the latter.
In fact, the construction had favoured materials with a low environmental footprint and above all recyclable materials (steel, aluminium, wood...). a long list of ecological commitments (bio-fuel, zero plastic, collection of grey and black water, etc.). " It was a highly innovative eco-responsible project." confirmed Odile Delannoy, deputy director of the Mandelieu-la-Napoule Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose town council supported the project.
The torpedoing of Canua Island was in fact caused by local political rivalries. On 13 June, Sébastien Leroy, mayor of Mandelieu-la-Napoule, wrote a letter denouncing the fact that ". the government preferred to satisfy the political whims of the President of the South region (Editor's note: Renaud Muselier, President of the PACA region), open political support from the presidential majority by "playing for time" in authorising the fitting-out of the vessel" . A few days earlier, Renaud Muselier had in fact " congratulations "of the sinking of this project, declaring " it's not a boat or a hotel, just a nightclub and a restaurant, a kind of barge out to sea and back all day long" .
An ally of Renaud Muselier, the mayor of Théoule-sur-Mer had also strongly attacked his neighbour from Mandelieu. Except that the PACA region's departments had validated the project during the development phase and that it will lose the sum of €770,000 in the process! And Sébastien Leroy reminds us in his letter that ". the Southern Region had supported the Canua project for years by committing its own financial guarantee and requesting that its logo appear on all communication media This is what we call the "event business".
As for the State, it is losing the €2.5m provided by the Banque Publique d'Investissement-BPI. Before giving up, Marc Audineau even wrote to the French President in the hope of resolving the imbroglio, but to no avail.
Moored at La Seyne-sur-Mer, Canua Island could be sailing away under more clement skies in order to avoid its investors losing their funds for good. And the mayor of Mandelieu-la-Napoule concluded: " If Canua is enthusiastically welcomed by a foreign country, the French government will be able to boast that it has used French taxpayers' money to develop the attractiveness, innovation and tourism of another country." .
