Page 60: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2018)

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PASSENGER VESSELS 3

Photo courtesy Mladin family.

Krilo Jesenice

The Village of the Cruisers riving south on the coastal cades, home to an ever-expanding ? eet coast. Others were doing the same and, and more came the next year. He supple- highway from the ancient of coastal cruising ships for the burgeon- by the early 2000s the Croatian tourist mented this by hauling newspapers to the city of Split in Croatia in late ing Croatian tourist industry. industry was growing rapidly and the islands. Soon he moved up to a 22-meter

DOctober, one is amazed to There is no shortage of rock along the families of Krilo Jesenice were growing wooden boat with 14 cabins for 28 pas- come on a forest of masts. These are not coast of Croatia but ? ne sand for con- with it. As business expanded, the fami- sengers. A then he traded up again to a your usual sailboat masts lined in orderly crete and mortar has long been a valu- lies enlarged their ? eet with larger more 36-passenger wooden boat. It was these rows in a marina, they are masts of all able commodity. A prime source was the modern vessels two boats that Duje recalls spending his shapes and they are supported by a range Cetina River, about 10 kilometers down Croatian regulations limit the total childhood summers on. of what at ? rst appear to be spectacularly the coast from Krilo Jesenice. But haul- number of passengers on this type of Finally, in 2015, the Mladin family well maintained mega-yachts. A few are ing sand was incredibly hard work and coastal cruisers to 36 and boats with 18 made the move to a modern steel hulled classic, bright ? nished wood but bold, it didn’t pay well. About 30 years ago, double berth cabins became the stan- twin-engine luxury cruiser. white, steel-hulled ships with cruise ship Duje Mladin’s grandfather added a few dard. In the early 1980s, Duje’s father, This 43 by 8.5-m boat would be as up- style raked bows predominate. simple cabins to his sand boat and took although still a teenager, began working to-date as any on the coast. As do most

On the shore, two rows of houses clus- some tourists for a boat ride. The next on the sand boats, but soon he bought a of the families in the village, they had ter at the base of a mountain making the year they brought friends. ? shing trawler and worked that for sev- the shipyard build only the bare hull and sea of ships ? lling the harbor all the more Soon, Duje’s father, Ivan Mladin, got eral years. Seeing the growth of tourism superstructure and deliver it to their vil- dramatic. This is Krilo Jesenice, long the a larger wooden boat on which he could in the 1990s he bought a 16-meter boat lage port with only the engines installed. home of mariners noted for their ? eet of accommodate a dozen people in cab- that could haul up to six passengers. His Then, in the winter months they hired all sand hauling vessels, but in recent de- ins and make longer voyages along the ? rst group of tourists spread the word the subcontractors to complete the inte- 60 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • FEBRUARY 2018

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