For a long time now, the City of Rijeka has been trying to see Tito's old ''Galeb'' ship, which is sitting dilapidated and abandoned - renovated. While some see the idea as a potential for tourism, others find it distasteful and wish the ship simply be sunk with the rest of its history. Despite the previous lack of interest, Rijeka has opened up yet another tender for interested parties.

As Morski writes on the 20th of June, 2019, the City of Rijeka has reopened the tender for the reconstruction of the Tito's Galeb ship after the only offer they received during the last tender was that of the "Viktor Lenac" shipyard. 

The shipyard's offer to the City of Rijeka for the old and dilapidated vessel which once belonged to Tito was deemed to be an unacceptable price in relation to their initially estimated one. Several months ago, after the necessary preparation, the second bid was announced.

The tender, along with VAT, is worth more than 40 million kuna, and in the process that took place before the actual tender was opened, four companies gave their remarks and suggestions and expressed an interest in converting Tito's Galeb into a ship museum, according to a report from Novi list.

The new estimated value of the renovation of Tito's Galeb (without VAT) now stands at 35.200.000 kuna, and things in this tender will be implemented in two groups. The first group refers to the reconstruction and conversion of Tito's former ship into a ship museum with all of the necessary, accompanying commercial amenities, while the other group refers solely to restoration works on the vessel's interior design.

It is estimated that the renovation and conversion of the Galeb ship will cost an enormous 33,600,000 kuna, and the restoration works on its interior design will cost 1,600,000 kuna (both prices are without VAT).

According to the first estimate, the renovation of Tito's Galeb should cost a massive 26,565,000 kuna, which was announced in the first failed public procurement procedure, while the old offer from the Viktor Lenac shipyard amounted to 59,964 .856 kuna (without VAT), which the City of Rijeka deemed too high of a price.

Following the two conducted consultation procedures with the interested public which preceded the repeated procedure for the first group of works, a repeated public procurement procedure was issued for potentially turning the old ship into a ship museum with all of the necessary accompanying commercial facilities, with the deadline for submission for that tender being July the 23rd this year.

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As Morski writes on the 5th of January, 2019, the complete overhaul of Tito's "Galeb" ship is undoubtedly the largest projects thought up by the mayor of Rijeka, Vojko Obersnel, in the past few years. Will his critics stop him? Unlikely, but the cost might.

For years, Rijeka's longtime mayor Vojko Obersnel has been subject to a lot of understandable criticism for his buying and desire to maintain Tito's "Galeb", which has cost more than a million kuna to date, but those protesting Obersnel's to completely repair Galeb would typically shut up when told that the overhaul of Tito's former vessel would be largely financed by European Union funds.

After the official acknowledgment that this is really true came, there were no longer any real obstacles to a tender for the job. Obersnel's critics have mostly remained quiet, even if temporarily, and even some of the furniture from the ship has been renovated.

At the beginning of 2019, more precisely on the 3rd of January, a public tender was concluded for Galeb's renovation, and although they hoped from the City of Rijeka that there might be at least a few bids, only one bid arrived wanting the job of bringing Tito's ship back to life.

The City of Rijeka's administration were likely finding it difficult to come across at least one shipyard ready to take up this truly demanding job, the cost of which is estimated at approximately 27.6 million kuna. As the Fiuman.hr portal exclusively reports from a well-informed source, the only offer came from the Viktor Lenac shipyard, but they have set the cost of the forecast twice as high as initially expected. If their offer is accepted, it will cost about 60 million kuna to breathe new life back into Tito's Galeb.

The City of Rijeka now has two options in this situation. One of them is to secure the remaining 32 million kuna from their own sources, and the only realistic possibility for it is to take out a new loan, which must be approved by the City Council of the City of Rijeka, where Obersnel has, at least officially, no actual majority.

It's no secret that the City of Rijeka has been living on credit for years now, and at this moment, owing primarily to poor management of the city's budget, this amounts to as much as 277 million kuna. To briefly recall, Maribor in Slovenia was also once the proud owner of the title of European Capital of Culture, and for this reason the city almost suffered bankruptcy, and many well-informed individuals are afraid that a similar path is currently being taken by Rijeka, especially if a loan is taken out solely for the purpose of bringing Tito's vessel into the 21st century.

Rijeka's second option is to cancel the tender entirely, and given the huge difference between the forecasts and actual costs of the ship's overhaul, the announcement of a new tender is not reasonable and it is questionable whether or not, should that be the case, Galeb's overhaul would be completed by the end of 2020 as the current deadline is quite stretched.

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Click here for the original article by Zoran Zdelar for Fiuman.hr

December 1, 2018 — A tender to restore the rusting hulk that was Yugoslav strongman Tito’s yacht "Galeb" has been released in hopes the dilapidated ship will be restored just as Rijeka becomes the European Capital of Culture, according to Morski.hr.

The call for bids to restore “Galeb”, Josip Broz Tito’s de facto personal yacht, seeks a shipyard willing to take on the HRK 27.6 million-task of overhauling the yacht ahead of its new life as a museum.

“We hope that Croatian shipbuilders will come forward and that their offers will be pedantic,” said Ivan Šarar, the head of Rijeka’s Department of Culture. The city will be accepting bids until January 3, 2019.

The project comes just as Uljanik, one of Croatia’s larger shipyards near Rijeka, undergoes a painful financial crisis with no clear solution. Ironically, Uljanik already overhauled “Galeb” once in 1952 after Allied forces sunk the ship in Rijeka during WWII.

The 380-foot ship was originally an Italian auxiliary cruiser, then a German minelayer during WWII. The Yugoslav Navy then used it as a school ship. Tito eventually made it his official nautical residence and floating embassy, using the ship for over 100 meetings with statesmen.

Tito most notably used Galeb to visit London in 1953, his first time leaving Yugoslavia since he broke away from the communist bloc and began a decades-long habit of playing the East and West against each other.

Galeb’s overhaul is part of a broader plan to spiff up the city in general, including an abandoned sugar factory. The two projects together are partially funded by the European Union, which is covering about HRK 68.8 million or 85 percent of the expenses.

If all goes to plan, the renovation of the exterior will be complete by the end of next year, followed by the rejuvenation of the insides. Ideally, Galeb will open its doors as a museum, as well as a public and catering space, by the middle of 2020.

The Museum of Rijeka has already begun collected restored copies of Galeb’s furniture, specifically from the salon and apartments, which belonged to Josip Broz Tito and his wife Jovanka. Next year, furniture from the large salon, dining room and guest cabins will be refurbished.

The Museum this year took over the ship’s inventory, including furniture, electronics and documentation.

Galeb has undergone several restorations since it was first created in 1938. This overhaul aims to return the ship to its Tito-era form, providing a historic link to Tito’s regime and the Yugoslav era.

Don’t let the rust and decrepit state of the ship fool you; Galeb has enjoyed a second life as a photo-du-jour among those who favor shooting decrepitude. It has also been featured in the British/American television series Strike Back.

For more on Galeb, click here.

Popular action-spy drama ‘Strike Back’ is back with season six, which is currently being filmed in the centre of Rijeka.

Tito's ship attracting international attention.