Cuba has excellent natural conditions and a growing infrastructure to make a strong impact on the world market of recreational boating, Commodore Jose M. Diaz Escrich stressed.

Havana, Cuba.- The main director of the Club Nautico Hemingway of Cuba is convinced of this and leads a good group of people who dedicated all their lives to promoting this vacation segment.

According to the official, Cuba has ideal conditions for nautical recreation, with 4,195 keys and islets, 110,922 square kilometers, and 70,000 square kilometers of insular platform.

Likewise, 70 percent of the country is navigable by 26-foot-long boats and there is 40 percent of anchorages in bays, both on the north and south coasts.

The island has 3,900 kilometers of coral reef and 50 species of corals, besides an average temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, the wind speed ranges between 10 and 15 knots, and nautical activities can be practiced 300 days a year.

There are 62 urban and 244 rural settlements with more than two million inhabitants in coastal areas, not counting the number of inhabitants of the capital, Havana, which exceeds two million.

Cuba manages 30 ports and sub-ports, 37 fishing piers, and 20 shipyards; for tourism, it has 15 marinas and eight nautical bases. (PL)