Croatia 2011 | News chronicle                      Framed version Home

Mediteranska discontinues service and files for bankruptcy
28 October 2011 | Mediteranska Plovidba, the shipping company from Korčula, has notified the Zagreb Stock Exchange that it filed for bankruptcy. The passenger-only shuttle service between Korčula old town and mainland Orebić, maintained with its last remaining ships, the Lovor and Tamaris, will be discontiniued on 13 November 2011. The State Agency for Coastal Passenger Shipping is urgently looking for a new operator with a suitable boat to resume the service as soon as possible. Korčula - Orebić is a state-subsidized line. It was this route on which the company, then named Korčulansko-Pelješka Obalna Plovidba, began activities in 1955 with a small passenger boat. In 1971 the first ro-ro ferry, the Zamošće, was introduced on this route. Mediteranska was forced to discontinue the ro-ro service and sell the vessel in October 2010 due to liquidity problems. Since that time the company has operated under protection from its creditors, but an attempted financial restructuring failed. On 25 October 2011 its only reefer ship, the Atlantik Frigo, was sold in Rotterdam at a judicial sale at the request of 34 seafarers and employees to collect 2 million kuna (€ 289,000) in oustanding wages. The highest bidder was a broker who paid $ 500,000. The once mighty Mediteranska, as the trade journal Reefer Trends put it in a news item, entered the deep-sea reefer trade in 1974. Ever since its privatisation and listing on the stock exchange in 2005 Mediteranska has sought to bolster its finances. In 2009 it was unable to acquire a replacement for the condemned Dominče, abandoning the Dominće - Drvenik ro-ro service. (Sources: Agencija za Obalni Linijski Pomorski Promet, 28/10/2011; Vjesnik 28/10/2011) Update: The 11th November Mediteranska informed the State Agency for Coastal Passenger Shipping that provisions had been made to continue operation of the Korčula - Orebić service. Other operators, which were invited on short notice by the Agency to run the service, were unable to submit a suitable solution.  

Vis sold for further trade
7 March 2011 | Against all odds Jadrolinija’s car ferry Vis has found a new owner, Tuninha Transporte Maritimo S.A. at Mindelo, Cape Verde. Tinunha will use the 45 year old ferry in a service between Mindelo on the isle of São Vicente and Porto Novo on the isle of Santo Antão. Cabo Verde, to use its Portugese name, is an island group off West Africa. There were no buyers for the Vis when Jadrolinija offered her for sale in December 2010. In a new attempt in January 2011 Jadrolinija lowered the asking price from the original 2 million to 1.2 million kuna (€ 170,000). The general opinion was that only breaking yards would show an interest in the veteran vessel. She is now at the Brodogradilište Lošinj shipyard for a thorough refit before she will enter service in her new Atlantic environment in April, renamed Vicente. (Source: Agencija za Obalni Linijski Pomorski Promet)  

Split 1700 arrived at the breaker’s beach
31 January 2011 | It was reported that the car ferry Split 1700 arrived 12 December 2010 in India to be broken up at Alang beach. She made her last crossing on the Ancona - Split route on 18 April. The vessel was built in 1966 at Nobiskrug in Rendsburg, Germany as Kronprins Carl Gustaf, one of a series of five car ferries for Swedish and Irish owners. She was the last survivor of this quintet. In 1997, when named Wilanów, she was sold by her Polish owners to S.E.M. Marina at Split and registered in Panama as Split 1700. She joined the Kraljica Mira on the Ancona - Split route, which was named Blue Line at a later date. Since 2004 her owners were Blue Line International in Denmark, while the ship was still registered in Panama. (Fakta om Fartyg and other sources). There is a high-resolution picture of the ship for download here.  

First purpose-built catamaran for Croatian waters
20 January 2011 | Family-owned company U.T.O. Kapetan Luka at Krilo Jesenice will introduce a new, purpose-built catamaran on the Split - Hvar - Korčula service in 2012. It is the first newly-built high-speed vessel for a Croatian operator. The 40 m long catamaran will seat 350 passengers and is in build at Brødrene Aa shipyard in Norway. In 1985 the same yard built the catamaran Mala Lara (now G & V Line’s Melita), which Kapetan Luka bought in 2004. “We were very satisfied with the Mala Lara, and this is one of the reasons to choose Brødrene Aa to build the most modern and most efficient high-speed vessel,” owner Luka Tomić told . “We believe that advanced, purpose-built boats will secure us a strong position in the domestic market, which is important also when Croatia becomes a member of the European Union.” The company aims at operating a second regular service in 2013, when the licenses for the state-subsidized fast routes have to be renewed. The new catamaran (project name Krilo II) will replace the Krilo Jet (b. 2002). The fast monohull Krilo (b. 1989) is being offered for sale. Read more about Kapetan Luka here.  

Krilo II is the world’s largest carbon fibre passenger catamaran
The 40 m catamaran which Brødrene Aa is building for U.T.O. Kapetan Luka in Croatia is a breakthrough on the international market for this Norwegian yard. “This is great for us,” general manager Tor Øyvin Aa told the press. The catamaran for Croatia will be built from carbon fibre reinforced composites and is the largest such vessel for civilian use. The yard built 25 catamarans from this material since 2001, mainly for the Norwegian market, while two were exported to Sweden. With so many new ships in service Brødrene Aa don’t see much perspective now on the domestic market, which they share with the other Norwegian catamaran builders, Oma and Fjellstrand. “Therefore we have to position ourselves in the international market,” Tor Øyvin Aa explains, confident that their products have a competitive edge. Carbon fibre sandwich is 3 to 4 times stronger than glass fibre reinforced plastics and weighs 40 percent less than traditional materials. This translates into greater speed at less fuel consumption and emissions, though the initial investment in the ship is higher. The Croatian catamaran, cruising speed 30 knots, will be driven by twin propellers. Contract value is € 7.5 million. (Source: Firda Tident, 15/11/2010)