As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 18th of October, 2020, the Croatian shipbuilding company Agena Marin from Biograd, known for its semi-submarines with glazed bottoms and small taxi catamarans, which sail the Croatian and international seas, will present its new innovative creation next week at the Biograd Boat Show. It is a new ecological, commercial vessel in retro design.

''The Solar Ferry is an extremely economical boat, without fuel and service costs, and its purpose is to transport passengers on shorter routes and panoramic rides, romantic tours or campaign cruising along the shores of the sea or lakes, which enriches the tourist offer. It's a completely ecological and economically acceptable commercial vessel called Solar Ferry, which is powered by solar power and electricity,'' explained Mladen Peharda, the owner of Agena Marin.

The new ship built by Agena Marina is eight and a half metres long and has a capacity of up to 12 passengers, and its purpose is to transport passengers on shorter distances and panoramic rides.

"The boat has a line of steamships from the 1920s and I see it as an ideal tourist vessel for so-called ''champagne cruising'' or some romantic tours along the coast or lakes. Something like a tourist carriage ride through the city. However, this shape of the ship was taken for another reason, and it's related to its economy. Namely, in the past, hulls were designed to be as efficient as possible, because at that time there were simply no engines of unlimited horsepower. We took it on because we wanted a low-resistance hull, which would be well-suited to solar and electric propulsion,'' Peharda explains.

Apart from the retro hull and solar panels, economic viability was achieved through the construction of the ship itself, since it was built in a vacuum infusion of extremely light, "sandwich" material. In addition to the reduced weight, this segment also introduces an additional environmental component, as the material is mostly based on recycled PET packaging. On top of that, great savings throughout the project were achieved through the use of ordinary AGM batteries, instead of the otherwise much more expensive lithium ones. The batteries are very easy to charge, because the power of solar panels on a hardtop is 1,500-2,000 W. The estimated travel speed is 5.5 knots and the battery capacity of the solar roof allows sailing time of five to eight hours, depending on the speed and load of the ship.

That's why Agena Marin's innovative Solar Ferry has no fuel and service costs, and it's completely affordable. The manufacturer has prepared a discount for the first three customers to board Solar Ferry at the aforementioned boat show, and the price of a standard equipped boat will be around 300,000 kuna, which is two to three times cheaper than can be found abroad in this category and size of boat.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 13th of August, 2020, after more than ten years in which the business was supposed to ''get serious'' and youthful enthusiasm was supposed to mature into a stable business in which this Croatian product was the main star, Mladen Peharda thought that was it, he'd cracked it, that from now on things would be plain sailing. And then came the global coronavirus pandemic.

His company, Agena Marin, which manufactures tourist vessels along with the provision of business solutions for markets around the world, is a drop in the ocean of companies whose plans have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic this year, with the majority cancelling nearly closed deals and orders. But for Peharda and this Croatian product, this is just a dip that will pass, the only option is to continue doing business, preparing and developing new projects and markets. A visionary and innovator who started his business fifteen years ago, literally in a garage, designing the world's first semi-submarine for tourist trips, has 15 employees in his workshop in Poličnik near Biograd today,

''So far there have been no layoffs or. It just doesn't stop,'' he said.

"No one has managed to escape this crisis, because it has affected the whole world, all of our markets are stuck in tourism, and that needs to be overcome. For a year now, we've been half-dead, we've sold six boats so far, a lot of them have been cancelled, because we make products and do work which is related to the tourist season. We used the help of the state, which was very useful, and in the rest of the year, everything will depend on how the market will recover,'' explained this Croatian entrepreneur.

He addd that they invest a lot of money and time into research and development, which they're now doing intensively.

"We're developing a model for a small solar ship… In the meantime, we're negotiating some new projects and have several potential new customers, so not everything has completely stopped," said Mladen Peharda, whose business switched to exports after the breakthrough of the semi-submarine concept in Croatia. His company generated 10.2 million kuna in revenue last year, 3.5 times more than the year before, with a profit of just over half a million kuna.

Peharda designed and produced the world's first semi-submarine for tourist excursions.

"After we reached our goal in 2016 to sell 30 semi-submarines on the Croatian Adriatic and exhibited at the largest nautical fair in Düsseldorf, we turned to exports. Our message is that we don't sell the product, but the whole business solution. Practically free of charge in the price of the vessel, we give customers all the ‘know-how’, because it's very important to us how our product will be placed and accepted in the market and among its users. It’s not a franchise, but it has a lot of the elements of a franchise. At first, it was not easy to break into markets where they don't know you, but in these four years, we've sold about 50 vessels in the Maldives, the Caribbean, Mexico, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Seychelles, Spain, and one ship is in Ohrid in Macedonia,'' revealed Peharda.

After the international success of this Croatian product, a semi-submarine which is sold in two sizes, three years ago, the Agena Marina team developed a prototype taxi catamaran, created for local use at a decent speed on relatively short distances such as the Adriatic. The first yellow eco friendly catamaran, Taxi Cat, sailed in 2018 on Korcula, and Italy is the first and currently the only foreign market for this Croatian product. Currently, nine more Taxi Cat boats are being built for the Croatian market, one model is being drawn up for 12-metre diving trips, and there is also a larger "brother" Taxi Cat designed for 80 people.

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12-pax semi-submarine was delivered to the Maldives, first tourists are already exploring the seas.