Marina Punat has been adorned with many awards and titles, the most recent one being the Gold Anchor award.
Marina Punat on Krk island has recently been crowned with the title of the best marina in Croatia out of 32 nautical destinations, voted by users surveyed in the Zlatno Sidro 2017 (Gold Anchor 2017) poll. Built in 1964, it is the oldest marina in Croatia and has been the centre of nautical tourism in the Adriatic ever since. It is also the first marina that has been awarded a Blue Flag and one of two marinas in Croatia. In the last couple of years (and decades), Marina Punat has been awarded various titles and superlatives, but what exactly is the story behind such long-lived success of the marina?
Great location
An important reason of what makes Marina Punat successful is its great location, situated in a sheltered bay, the marina is a safe refuge from all winds and a great place for keeping and mooring a boat year-round, reports Novi List on September 24, 2017. In addition to its exceptional maritime characteristics, the director and spokeswoman of the Marina Punat, Renata Marević, said that the geographic location of the island of Krk is also very attractive to all boaters and sailors, namely due to the fact that the marina is undoubtedly the nearest and the most accessible center for yachtsmen from most of the prominent emissive markets for Croatia. Only a few hours away by car, and significantly less by plane, Marina Punat enjoys the status of the nearest and most accessible starting point for sailing the Adriatic, as well as a great destination for “instant” weekend holidays.
Customer approach and client-tailored services
In addition to its great position, what makes marina stand out among other, almost as equally great marinas, is a broad range of innovative content, products and services tailored to the wants and needs of modern boaters.
“Despite all that we have and the fact that we’re constantly upgrading our services and infrastructure, the key to what makes us successful and special, is our customer approach,” says Renata Marevic, Director of Marina Punat, pointing out that the most important thing that customers appreciate is exactly the core of this business, and that is, great care and complete trust to keep their vessels safe and secure.
Perhaps the most valuable and certainly the most interesting testimony of such an approach is a well-designed and developed system of surveillance and monitoring of each entrusted vessel, called “Proactive Boat Care”.
“Proactive Boat Care is a system that we have created by ourselves and which, with the help of the mobile devices that our seafarers carry with them daily, record and document in real time all the activities carried out on each of the 1,300 vessels that we take care of here, both on sea and on land” says Marević. Thanks to this interactive and well-designed system, the customers of Marina Punat can now get a constant and detailed insight into the current state of their vessels as well as comprehensive and automatically generated reports on all the procedures and controls that ship owners need to know about via weekly email (which is usually sent on Fridays).
Considerable investments and continuous innovation
he innovative additions to the marina’s broad range of services and facilities, is the recently introduced “floating sanitary facility”, which is an autonomous pontoon complex designed, engineered and manufactured within Marina Punat Group, which includes the nearby Punat Shipyard, which has gone through an organizational and technological adaptation that has transformed the Punat shipyard complex from a typical shipyard into a modern dockyard where even the largest megayachts can be repaired, maintained and upgraded. For example, a platform for servicing even the biggest vessels at the height of 25 metres has been recently put to use, which makes it easier and simpler to repair large boats.
Besides the nearby shipyard, Marina Punat has also been greatly investing in the nearby Kanajt Hotel, located exactly opposite the berths. “This season, we have added a large pool with heated sea water and sunbathing area to the Kanajt Hotel, one of the few hotels on the island that works throughout the year. The hotel will also soon get a wellness complex equipped with saunas and a relaxation zone. For those who do not use accommodation on the boat, the hotel is also equipped with a complex of exceptionally comfortable and equipped two-bedroom mobile homes adapted to the natural environment.” The marina also offers a rich animation programme designed for the youngest, as well as a wide range of exceptionally high-quality catering facilities near the marina itself, as well as a host of entertainment, cultural and music events.
Gold Anchor Award and satisfied customers
Although the most important segment of our business relates to year-round activities that do not depend on the season itself, this summer we have witnessed an exceptionally high intensity of daily or transit traffic, that is to say, a great number of yachtsmen visited us coming from other nearby destinations. n the peak season of the season, we have recorded over 200 transit arrivals, which, when added to our 300 regular customers, happened to be quite demanding in logistical terms,” Marević concludes, adding the fact that the pleasure of the yachtsmen themselves was proven with the recently won Gold Anchor award, which again demonstrated the true professionalism and dedication to the work of all 150 permanent employees of the Marina Punat.
Excerpts translated from Novi List
Photos: Marina Punat Facebook
