Re-floatin operations started this weekend, finished by end of September
If you passed the north side of Marjan hill on a boat, or went to Slatine on Čiovo, then you probably didn’t miss the three huge shipwrecks that have been stuck in their place since the great storm back in March. After months of paperwork, figuring out who actually has jurisdiction over the ships and who owns them, re-floating operation has finally begun and they will be towed to the scrap yard or returned to their berths depending on their condition.
Operation is right on schedule and one of the ships, “Krka” has been successfully re-floated without any problems, even easier than anyone expected. Second operation on the north side of Marjan on ship “Orebić” is expected to take place in the next two weeks while the last ship, “Vranjic” in Slatine, will be removed from the beach by the end of September or beginning of October.
We spoke to the Split Harbour Master, Davor Vidan, who is noticeably satisfied with the situation at the moment: “We have worked on fixing the hull of the boat for almost a month because all hulls have to be seaworthy to enable safe re-floating. This is the most demanding part of this operation but so far everything is going according to plan. Our team is still working on krka to prepare it for the berth and at the same time reparation has started on the second boat on Marjan and we expect it to be re-flated in about two weeks”.
Because of this extensive operation, new warnings and safety instructions were given to all sailors, movement around the ships is limited to ensure safety not only for the workers but also for all yachtsmen in the area and according to Davor Vidan, there were no indicents. As far as the third boat is concerned, mr. Vidan stated that Čiovo authorities asked for Vranjic to be the last ship to be re-floated so that their tourist season is not disturbed considering that a large number of tourists gravitates towards this part of Slatine and traffic is already very heavy : “This will be the most complicated operation out of the tree but if we stick to the schedule and if there are no unforeseen circumstances, we should remove the ship from Slatine beach by the end of September or early October” he commented.
