December the 5th, 2021 - Two Jadrolinija ferries have ventured outside of the realms of the Croatian Adriatic sea to no less than a Slovenian lake located close to Kranj. But how?
As Jurica Gaspar/Morski writes, Krcanka and Kacjak are two Jadrolinija ferries from the wider fleet that sailed on a Slovenian lake in a small village near Kranj. How did they manage that, you might ask? Well, very simply, these models of real Jadrolinija ferries have been lovingly made by Klemen Peric and so far he has made three of them.
Kacjak was made back in March this year, and it took Klemen eight months to make it. The original ferry was built in Uljanik back in 1952 as a landing ship for the then Yugoslav Navy, and from 1963 until 1971 it was a Jadroinija ferry, after which, it ended its days in the Viktor Lenac shipyard. Krcanka had otherwise been in Jadrolinija's fleet since 1970, and at the end of 2015, it ''retired'' from function in Kraljevica.
All of Peric's ferries sail independently, they can dock at a port, which he also made especially for them, and they even raise and lower their ramps.
''I have three sailing ferries in my fleet so far. The first was Sveti Marin, then Krcanka. They were built around 2005, and I'm working on the details on Krcanka right now. Saint Marin is still waiting for details to be made. And as for Kacjak, you know I built it this year, the first voyage was in the spring, then everything stopped with the details, because I didn't get anything concrete from Jadrolinija. Then the son of the captain of the real ship, Mateo Rudan, called me himself. His father Jerry was the commander on the Kacjak and only they helped me with some old paintings, in addition to what I already had from my own photographs. After that, I made a model, because everything works like it would on a real ship,'' Peric explained.
He went into so much detail with these Jadrolinija ferries that he adapted small buses that could also board the ferries that would take them to the other side of the lake.
''Both of the two ramps on Kacjak can be lowered and raised with two servomotors and each ramp has its own power steering system, but they of course needed to be modified. To imitate the smoke, I bought a small "smoke generator", which runs on paraffin oil and 7.4V. It also has all the lamps like a real ship and everything runs on command. The bus is also remote, it's just a cheap toy, just enough to make the ferry boarding as realistic as possible. And I decorated it a bit, I painted it in the colour of Alpetour, because my late dad drove a similar coloured bus when he worked for this company,'' Klemen Peric added.
He received inquiries for the sale of these Jadrolinija ferries, some even said that the price is not a problem, but Klemen doesn't sell them.
''Yes, many people sent me messages about where to buy them or if I could make such a model for them, but I only do this for me, because this is a hobby I have only for myself and I work on it when I have some time,'' concluded the talented Peric.
For more, check out Made in Croatia.
