A Slovenian sailor and skipper said: “I never thought I would see something like this in real life.” But it happened.
The sailor, skipper and eNavtika reader was today at 14:00 anchoring with his sailboat and crew in front of the Mali Ždrelac passage. The passage allows navigation between the islands of Ugljan and Pašman, which are connected by a bridge. The height of the bridge above sea level is 16.5 m (mean sea level), allowing passage only for vessels whose height above the waterline does not exceed 16.5 m. All charter boats available in the Zadar area (Marina Zadar, Dalmacija Sukošan, Molum and Kornati) that are too tall to pass under the bridge have a sticker clearly indicating that passage under the bridge is not possible. In our experience, all charter companies also emphasize during handover that you must not sail under the bridge with that vessel.
But many renters ignore the warnings or simply forget them. And then an accident happens.
Such an accident is not only about damage to the vessel. In the case shown in the video, the mast broke and fell. It can fall onto the vessel itself or onto another vessel passing under the bridge at the same time. Accidents of this kind are extremely dangerous and can end with tragic consequences.
The skipper of the sailboat who recorded the event said: “Before we started filming, I was shouting to the skipper of the sailboat not to go through. He didn’t hear me; he even accelerated because he wanted to pass under the bridge before a tourist boat coming from Kornati. When there was nothing more we could do, one of the guests started recording. Immediately after the recording ended, I lifted anchor and went to the bridge, and from there one of the guests, who is a doctor, took a SUP to the other side to ask the crew if they needed help. Luckily, everyone was fine. On the sailboat was an English family with two older teenagers who were on the bow during the accident and—‘instead’ of the skipper, their father—decided that they would make it under the bridge. But they didn’t. According to them, the family sails quite a lot… the sailboat had a sticker at the skipper’s position stating that passage under the bridge is strictly forbidden… everyone can draw their own conclusions.”
Therefore, we emphasize once again: The height of the bridge in the Mali Ždrelac passage between Pašman and Ugljan is only 16.5 m. Do not sail under the bridge unless you are absolutely certain that your mast height is lower than this
