"ATHENS, Greece (AP) — At its height eight years ago, George Kranitis' family-owned shipyard in Patra, Greece's third-largest city, employed some 35 people and sold around 340 boats annually.
And if that wasn't enough, things just got a whole lot more taxing — literally.
In order to get its third financial bailout in five years, Greece's government has had to introduce a series of economic reforms and austerity measures — just to get discussions started.
One involves the extension of an annual luxury tax to all recreational boats over 16.4 feet (5 meters), so it's not just your average Catamaran that's a feature across countless harbours in the Aegean Sea.
Another has been increasing that tax to 13 percent from 10 percent.
The combination, according to Kranitis, could prove to be the final death knell for an industry that's already seen boat registrations shrink from a high of 11,112 in 2007 to just over 2,500 last year.
"We're being destroyed," said Kranitis who also heads the Greek Boat Builders' Association.
"I can't understand what these people in government are thinking.""
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