August 25, 2022 – Emerald Azzurra, a luxury superyacht of the Scenic Group sails the Adriatic. Spotted in Šibenik for the day, it sailed off to the Kornati islands. Its offer includes cruises with stops around several Croatian islands and coastal cities.

As reported by Tportal, after spending the day in Šibenik, the 110-meter luxury cruise ship Emerald Azzurra, with seven decks, two suites of 110 square meters and another 44 smaller suites with terraces and balconies and six luxurious cabins, set sail for Kornati.

TCN reported on the incredible story of Scenic Eclipse, the world's first polar discovery yacht cruiser, built in Croatia, christened by Dame Helen Mirren, and winner of the Cruise Critic Best New Luxury Ship 2019. A ship which is unique and setting the standards in high-end luxury cruise tourism. Read the full story here. 

(Dame Helen Mirren christening Scenic Eclipse in New York)

The Emerald Azzurra is a luxury superyacht built this year in the Vietnamese shipyard Ha Long and the first transoceanic yacht of the Emerald Cruises company. It is owned by Glen Moroney, the Australian founder and chairman of the Scenic Group, which includes Emerald Cruises.

Better known for its fleet of contemporary riverboats, Emerald Cruises has embarked on its first venture into ocean cruising using its own custom-designed superyachts. Emerald Azzurra for one hundred passengers is the first one, and in 2023 Emerald Sakara should set sail. Seventy-three crew members caring for one hundred passengers. You can see what it looks like from the inside and what it offers here.

If you decide to take an eight-day Adriatic cruise from Venice to Dubrovnik with visits to Krk, Zadar, Šibenik, Hvar, Split, Korčula and Dubrovnik at this time next year, you will have to shell out 6,900 pounds (HRK 61,000) per person.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

November 5, 2020 - Made in Split, the incredibly luxurious Golden Horizon is the largest traditional sail ship in the world. Take a look at her before her maiden voyage in spring 2021

Croatia is no stranger to the biggest and most luxurious yachts in the world. But, none of them look like the Golden Horizon. Built in Split to the template of a square-rigged sailing vessel called France II from the year 1913, she is the largest traditional sail ship in the world.

British cruise company Tradewind Voyages is offering places on the first voyage of the ship. The first cruise the world's largest traditional sail ship will undertake will see her sail around the coast and islands of Scotland and England. For the moment, the Golden Horizon is still moored in Split, where she was built.

The ship has 140 cabins and all face outwards, offering views of the sea. The refined but casual interior of the ship's shared spaces are intended to offer all the luxury of a modern cruise ship, but with the romantic ambiance of a traditional sailing vessel.

The largest traditional sail ship in the world is 162 meters long and 18.5 meters wide. It has five steel masts, 35 sails and can accommodate 300 passengers and 150 crew members. It holds a two-floored restaurant that can seat all passengers simultaneously and a glass-bottomed swimming pool.

The design of the ship might be regarded as retro, but its considered construction was specifically undertaken in order to facilitate sustainable holidaymaking. The ship will use its sails and sea currents for around 70% of its propulsion throughout any season.

Accommodation on board varies in size, standard and cost. The premium offer is four apartments of 45 square metres, each with two bathrooms, two showers and a jacuzzi. 34 smaller rooms have balconies and jacuzzis, while the other passenger rooms with windows are located on the lower decks.

The first passengers are expected to board for the debut two-week cruise on 1 May 2021. After its maiden voyage, it will spend the rest of the season touring Iceland, England and Ireland, the Arctic, the Baltic Sea, Norway, Denmark, Spain and Portugal, with each cruise usually lasting seven or fourteen days.

All images © Tradewind Voyages

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Croatia's Master Yachting is one of the country's frontrunners when it comes to Croatian nautical tourism, and recent investments, their last one having been in the Lagoon 620 luxury catamaran, have seen their revenue increase.

As Marta Duic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of January, 2019, Croatia's Master Yachting from Sukošan celebrated twenty years of existence last year, and as its director Darko Obradović says, they are one of the first companies in the nautical tourism sector in Croatia and their biggest advantage is that they're near the two national parks and their bases are close to Zadar.

Today, they have 25 full-time employees, and up to 40 during the tourist season. The company has a fleet of 80 vessels, most of which are the catamarans of the Lagoon brand, as well as a large range of sailboats of at least 35 feet in length, to the latest Oceanis 51.1, and motor boats of various different sizes.

As Croatia's Master Yachting claims, their clients and associates are mostly from European Union countries, and the most sought after vessels are typically catamarans. "They're equipped like luxury apartments which sail, and seven days, which is often for which they're rented, it's possible to sail the routes that include visiting the most attractive places and bays along the Adriatic," says Obradović. The summer season is of course the most popular, and lovers of sailing also appear to enjoy taking to vessels owned by Croatia's Master Yachting in April, May, and in October.

"We're adapting to the market and the demand. Today, when everything is available online, it can be difficult to meet all customer requirements, and owing to that, our concentration is on quality and comfort. The company also operates in the YachtInvest segment, which enables it to buy boats through its own channels, and thus provides the ability to place your vessels under your own "charter managemnet". That means that a start-up investment is justified because the vessel makes a profit during the leasing period, which largely covers all the relevant expenses. In the end, the investor chooses how much he will use for himself and how much will be for commercial lease," explains Obradović.

He also praised the fact that Croatia's Master Yachting is growing in terms of the sale of vessels. Their operating income amounted to almost 23 million kuna in 2017, and according to Obradović's estimates, 2018's results will see revenues of about 50 million kuna.

"We're constantly investing in employee training and process optimisation, while investing heavily in the fleet. The last investment was purchasing a luxury Lagoon 620 catamaran which marked our entrance into the luxury charter, which is the future of nautical tourism because more and more customers require ''all inclusive'' packages.

We believe in our own knowledge of the matter, given our long experience, the number of customers returning to us from year to year, and the in importance of the number and quality of our boats. In the YachtCharter sector, the company has been recognised as the leader in the region," added Obradović.

Croatia's Master Yachting arrived to such a status, as they say, owing to a personalised approach to their clients and "tailor-made" offers, which was made possible thanks to their wide range of vessels.

"The plan is the expansion of our base, ie, the opening of new ones in other regions, and the continuation of investment in new products, namely new vessels, where the niche is the luxury charter," Darko Obradović of Croatia's Master Yachting.

Make sure to stay up to date with our dedicated lifestyle and business pages for more. If you're interested solely in sailing in Croatia, give Total Croatia Sailing a follow.

Click here for the original article by Marta Duic for Poslovni Dnevnik

As Morski writes on the 24th of November, 2018, a meeting of the technical working group in the framework of the ECO-NautiNET web project was held in Dubrovnik on November the 20th and 21st, in which the needs of the website's users were discussed. Through the ECO-NautiNET project, activities are being carried out to improve the competitiveness and innovation of small and medium-sized companies in the nautical sector, as well as acting as a means to support their internationalisation and networking abilities.

The meeting saw the presentation of the results of the research conducted so far between the four target groups - the small and medium-sized companies from within nautical sector, broker project partners, and supporting institutions and scientific institutions. Based on the results and conversations with platform developers, the technical working group has managed to define the simplest in which way to include future users, and which tools are needed for the most efficient presentation of the project's products and services, technical and technological achievements, and innovations.

The goal of the ECO-NautiNET web platform is to motivate and involve as many business entities, support institutions, and other innovations in order to take advantage of the opportunity to place themselves on new markets, and to develop the competitiveness and innovation of the nautical sector of the Adriatic-Ionian region as a whole, through easy access to all news and high quality information in just one place.

This goal is highlighted as the desire to become the most important development driver of contact with more than 500 businessmen from the nautical sector from across Croatia, Albania, Italy, Greece and Slovenia, and most entrepreneurs in this field continue to face the same or very similar problems irrespective of the country they come from.

As a result, most of these companies have up to ten employees, and as far as typical issues and problems are concerned, poor cooperation within the nautical sector, a lack of clear nautical sector development policy, and the fact that cooperation with research and science centres is either non-existent or very small stand out as the most common and indeed the most pressing.

Over 80 percent of the respondents are primarily interested in improving competitiveness and innovation by linking small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the Adriatic-Ionian region's nautical sector with supporting institutions and research and scientific centres through the ECO-NautiNET web platform.

ECO-NautiNET is otherwise project number 398 which is part of the INTERREG ADRION transnational cooperation program co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and IPA funds (IPA II).

Make sure to stay up to date with all things sailing by following Total Croatia Sailing and our dedicated lifestyle page.

Click here for the original article by Jasna Jaklin Majetic on Morski

The Šibenik company, Capax, currently employs twenty people and, as they themselves have pointed out, are constantly looking for new, quality members of staff.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of November, 2018, after a successful September when they presented themselves as the only Croatian exhibitor at the prestigious Monaco Yacht Show, as well as managing to win the Golden Kuna (Zlatna Kuna) award for the best small company in Šibenik-Knin County, Capax opened its new headquarters in the historic Dalmatian city of Šibenik at the end of October this year.

Covering an area of 900 square metres and in addition to the brand new office, located at the new facility is a spacious service workshop and the only laboratory designed for engine oil analysis in the wider area. Capax already offers videocopy services, ultrasonic measurements, vibration analysis and thermography, but only now with the engine oil analysis specialist lab services has the Šibenik company managed to raise itself to yet another higher level. All these services will also open up new markets such as those which involve dealing with work boats, construction machinery, locomotives, windmills, and more.

While this is a Šibenik company, renovation works are carried out in nearby Trogir, within the Trogir Service Centre (SCT), with which Adria Docks has recently been established. Adria Docks manages renovations, optimises work processes, and ultimately controls the quality of the outsourced works. Within the framework of a long-term joint venture with the Trogir shipyard, in an area of about 250 square metres in the SCT area, lies the second part of Capax's investment, a test station for ship and industrial engines of up to 3.4 megawatts.

The total value of the investment is more than 15 million kuna, of which 5.5 million kuna are non-refundable funds from the European Structural Funds indended for the building of production capacities and the investment in equipment.

"Access to the client, respect for their demands and a true effort to achieve goals through project and refit management have inspired us as the leaders of the domestic yachting industry. We have well equipped and educated service teams for the most common types of marine engines, clutches and generators we find on larger yachts and on mega yachts. Our service engineers are ready to solve every problem, whether it's mechanical, or electrical, or something else,'' they state from Capax.

They add that for subcontractors, whenever possible, they use the services of other Croatian companies and hope that their success will stimulate other companies from the Croatian nautical sector to invest and develop themselves more. Capax was initially founded by three like-minded people, Mario Baljkas, Teo Petričević and Željko Tesi. As previously mentioned, they currently employ twenty people and are constantly on the look out for new, high quality staff. The company continues to record steady and stable revenue growth, and last year, those figures amounted to about 30 million kuna.

The clients of this Šibenik company are typically the owners of yachts, or the management bodies of yachts, as well as insurance companies and shipyards and marinas. They specialise in technical engineering, consulting and supervision in shipbuilding, diagnostics, servicing, and the repair of marine engines, their maintenance and inspection in terms of value assurance for insurance purposes, as well as for sellers and/or new owners.

They are the authorised servicing body of some of the most prominent marine engines in this segment of the market, including Caterpillar, MTU, John Deere, and ZF, in addition to Šibenik, they also have offices in neighbouring Montenegro and in Albania.

Otherwise, this year, Capax was the first Croatian company to appear at the Monaco Yacht Show after four years in early autumn. they were one of the 580 exhibitors from 38 countries around the world.

"We're very pleased with the effect of participating in the fair and we believe that it will bring us more ships to service and overhaul to Croatia, and we wish to encourage other domestic companies to join us in the coming years,'' Petričević said.

Make sure to stay up to date with our dedicated business and Made in Croatia pages for more.

Click here for the original article by Darko Bicak for Poslovni Dnevnik

Could Istria be the next big thing for mega-yachts and their owners?

In the first eight months of 2016, ACI had 143 million kuna in total revenues.