TCN is delighted to welcome a new baby into the family on June 1, 2017. Meet Total Croatia Sailing!
I must admit that I do like this expanding Total family of talented and committed writers, researchers and translators, a team which seems to keep on growing both in terms of projects and enthusiasm. It is exactly six months ago that I hired a very capable lady from Capljina to research and build Total Zagreb, a city she came to know intimately from her 8 years in the city, and to experience as a qualified Zagreb tourist guide. Six months later, she sent me a photo this morning enjoying a coffee at ‘The Office’ in Jelsa, aka Cafe Splendid on the main square – the birthplace of the Total Croatia project almost six years ago. And then a message that she had met my father-in-law, who said hi – Jelsa is small like that.
Dragana is just one of several TCN writers – all female – of the younger generation who have enthusiastically got involved in perhaps our most ambitious project yet, which I am delighted to launch after much hard work by several people (and not including myself). She was in Jelsa on Day 5 of a Green Sail tour of Central Dalmatia, collecting photos, footage and material for a range of content which will help popular our new site, Total Croatia Sailing.
Croatia is fast emerging as arguably the top sailing destination in Europe, with its endless coast, over a thousand islands and the ever-present sun a winning holiday combination for a growing number of tourists. And yet, much like the much-lauded Croatian wines and cycling tourism in Croatia, the potential for tourists is far ahead of the available information for visitors in English. Of course, there are many sites about sailing in Croatia – it is a very lucrative business – but almost all of those sites are dedicated to promoting a particular business or company. Independent information and daily updates are relatively hard to find.
And so as with Total Croatia Cycling and Total Croatia Wine, we thought we would try and do something about that information gap. Meet Total Croatia Sailing.
Following the simple Total Croatia philosophy – Give People What They Want – TCS aims to provide the most comprehensive information about sailing in Croatia, from standard marina guides and charter companies to meeting some of the true characters of the sea, and bringing top gourmet and cultural attractions to our readers. Wine is an important part of Dalmatian life and the sailing community, for example, and we will be focusing on sailing and wine options a good deal. Advice for first-time sailors, what to consider when chartering a boat, and where to get those supplies – just some of the helpful tips we plan to share.
As Total Croatia Sailing is driven by the younger female TCN generation, there will be plenty of social media activity. Something called Instagram and things called vlogs will be regular parts of the TCS service. We will have a range of contributors up and down the Adriatic, offering a glimpse into the summer on the Adriatic where they are. And we welcome your contributions! If you would like to contribute an article, a video, or have constructive criticism and/or suggestions, please contact us at [email protected]. We would be delighted to hear from you.
I would be lying if I said that the website is the finished article. It is not, but we wanted to go live at the beginning of June to catch the season. So if you see a photo missing here or there, or some section not quite working, please bear with us – they will be sorted soon, I hope. There is a lot of useful information on the site which we wanted to share with June sailors, rather than waiting until everything was perfect.
One section to check back on later this month is events. Currently, we have a list of all the regattas taking place on the Adriatic, but this will soon be overhauled with a much more comprehensive overview of what is happening this summer along the coast and islands.
I would like to pay particular tribute to TCS Editor and head of sales, (even though she is a Kiwi), Tash Pericic, who has shown enormous dedication in pushing TCS to launch. And with so much commuting on the Number 60 bus from Dugi Rat to Split each day, what she has achieved in a short space of time has been nothing short of miraculous. She used to work for Gordon Ramsay, in addition to five years as a hostess on the Adriatic, experiences which make her ideal to run the site. Not met Tash yet? Here she is, interviewed about life in Croatia for Insider.
Thanks too for the efforts of Sonja, Nikolina, Dragana, Tara and Iva – a talented team of individuals.
Big thanks too to the VERY talented team of designers at AM2 Studio, not only for a great website delivery, but also for opening my eyes to the true power of technology. It was a privilege to work with the next generation of innovative entrepreneur, however briefly.
Due to the lateness of starting the project and our wish to be live this summer, there will undoubtedly be a bias towards content in sailing in Dalmatia, simply because that is where we are mostly based, but we will be building our network gradually, and we are confident of offering a Total Croatia Sailing service for the entire coast in 2018. Current information on the site covers every marina and harbour. If you are planning a sailing trip and need some recommendations, please contact us.
We are of course looking to work with partners who have an interest in promoting their business and the Croatian sailing story, so if you are a sailing business, restaurant, shore-based company, hotel, local tourist board, winery or any other business somehow connected to wine who could benefit with better exposure to the international sailing community in Croatia, talk to us on [email protected]
And so, without further ado, meet Total Croatia Sailing! And tell us what you think.
And so, without further ado, meet Total Croatia Sailing! And tell us what you think.
