A stranded sailboat in the port of Zadar stopped traffic

The first row to the sea in the Barka cafe in Zadar was sought after like never before. Namely, a sailboat of over 17 meters and weighing 20 tons ran aground right in front of the cafe. The perfect summer cinema for a morning matinee.

On the night of August 8-9, 2024, the Zadar area was ravaged by a strong thunderstorm that lasted for about half an hour. Many unwary skippers and their vessels ended up that night.

Tsunami for EmergenSea team

Calls to the EmergenSea network started coming in after dark that morning, and didn't stop until noon. A real Tsunami was created in the EmergenSea team. That day, we anchored 4 ships in the Zadar area, all while waiting for a decision to be made on how to remove the sailboat that stopped traffic in Zadar for a day and a half.

Safety first

Namely, the first thought and idea of the owner was a 150-ton crane, but that was abandoned because the part of the road before the Barka cafe is quite porous and taking such a risk was unacceptable, so the entire job and risk now came to us late in the afternoon of that day to something could be done already today.

Planning on the fly

The business plan had to be devised as soon as possible and it had to succeed from the first. We called Goran and Matija and part of their equipment from the EmergenSea base in Pula to help, and together with the equipment they were in Zadar around 22:00. The review of the state and situation began immediately after shaking hands with colleagues. The plan was hatched late into the night, and in the morning at 5:00, with the first rays of the sun, we went to the site and started the preparatory work.

The most difficult part of the job was to pull the Heavy Duty cylinders into the shallows below the boat. The plan was to turn the ship to the sea side and thus free the street around Borik for traffic as soon as possible, which we managed to do just before noon.

The rest of the work was to be routine. Patching the holes that occurred during the night, and for that it took at least an hour for the Sub Coat to dry and harden, and we also added a patch of thin plywood, which was not necessary.

Part two

Now all that's left is to pull the heavy sailboat out into the depths and do it:

over the top of the mast
or by towing it with a slightly heavier boat.

Given that the mast is a fragile plant and, moreover, taller than 20 meters, we decided to try pulling it first. Due to the mud in which the keel fell, when we used up the towing option, we went for a lighter boat in order to tilt the boat an additional 10-15 degrees very carefully and dosed, which turned out to be a good solution in the end, although it was not easy to worry over the mast whether withstand the pull for the butt. Many masts broke like this!

At around 14:30, we successfully pulled out this scumbag, which was later towed under the pumps to a Heavy lift crane in Biograd. Thus, the morning matinee ended successfully for many curious people.

Speculations and conjectures

We bring this text, among other things, to give everyone who is interested (or who watched the show and some things were not clear) at least a sketch by which they can explain to themselves why something happened this way or that way.

Kudos to the unknown HRT journalist (unknown to the author of this text) who patiently waited for Goran to get first-hand information from him. Namely, the journalist wanted to make a statement even before the finished work, but Goran did not want to give it before it end. The HRT journalist duly waited, followed and welcomed!