The concession contracts for 20 of 22 ACI marinas end on 31 December 2030. In an EU country, concessions can no longer be automatically awarded to a state-owned company; they have to be put out to tender. And there are interested parties who have taken a look at the marinas in attractive locations. Malicious tongues claim that the repair and renovation backlog that is evident in some ACI marinas is linked to the imminent expiry of the concessions. We present the current projects below.
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Marina Polesana
The new Marina in the Bay of Pula now also offers winter storage in addition to 400 berths for boats and yachts up to 25 metres in length. A 200-tonne mobile crane and a self-propelled trailer that can move ships up to 100 tonnes are available for this purpose. On the St. Katarina peninsula belonging to the marina, the former Austro-Hungarian army barracks were converted into the five-star Hotel Monumenti and opened in May 2025.
Porto Baroš Rijeka
At boot 2024, the then ACI General Director Kristijan Pavic announced full-bodied that construction work on the largest investment project in nautical tourism on the Croatian Adriatic would begin in spring 2024. We are talking about the conversion of the former industrial harbour Porto Baroš in Rijeka into the Luxury marina with 230 berths for yachts up to 19 metres in length. The investors include ACI and the German Lürssen Group. Yachts should be able to dock from the 2025 season. However, not a single sod has been turned to date. The new luxury marina was no longer an issue at the ACI stand at boot 2026. Questions were met with narrow-lipped answers. Allegedly, war scrap had been found on the seabed off Rijeka, which first had to be salvaged. Nobody could say when the construction work would begin.
Krk city harbour
The announced construction work in Krk's town harbour began just in time for the end of the 2025 season. There was a lack of berths and the main pier offered little protection from the Yugoslav swell rolling in from the south. Now the harbour breakwater is being extended to the west and a new breakwater is being built from the Portapižana bay opposite. This will create a large harbour basin that is largely closed to the south. When the two new piers are completed (planned by summer 2026), floating jetties will be installed in the eastern bay of the harbour, where local boats will be moored. The moorings thus gained near the old town will be available to guests. The construction work should be completed by August 2027. Other major projects include the renovation of the pier in Malinska, the redesign of the waterfront promenade in Vela Jana and the extension of two piers in Punat harbour.
Robot marinero in Punat
The Marina Punat in the south of the island of Krk is the first in the world to use a robot marinero equipped with artificial intelligence. Thanks to the Pro Active Boat Care vessel monitoring system, all berth holders have been receiving a photo of their boat once a week via an app for years, as well as a message if lines, fenders or tarpaulins are no longer in order. With 1,400 berths, this was a huge amount of work for the marineros, as every picture had to be taken and transferred by hand. This routine work is now carried out by the Robot Marinero. It immediately recognises when the boat is no longer in exactly the same position and sounds the alarm if its thermal imaging camera detects a build-up of heat below deck on an unmanned boat. The robot's sole purpose is to ensure the safety of boats at berth and to prevent damage.
Training according to RYA standards in Punat
From 2026, the sailing school based in Marina Punat "In2TheBlue" according to the standards of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA). This makes the Austrian sailing school the first certified RYA training centre on the northern Adriatic. The courses offered by the RYA in Punat include the following certificates: RYA Day Skipper, RYA Coastal Skipper, RYA Yachtmaster Offshore. All courses are strongly practice-orientated and take place in small groups on board in English. The training lasts seven days and focuses on seamanship, navigation and crew management under realistic conditions. Independently of this, you can also complete training at "In2TheBlue" to obtain the German and Austrian sailing licences and the SRC radiotelephony certificate.
Baška harbour to be completed in 2026
Following the completion of the two outer breakwaters in spring 2025, Baška town harbour has become an interesting stopover. There are new berths on the inside of the two piers. Construction work is currently being finalised on the T-shaped jetty parallel to the waterfront promenade (already visible in the photo in the shell). It is expected that the planned 72 new berths for locals and guests will be ready for use from the start of the 2026 season.
Molum Marine Club opens
A brand new marina with the name Molum Marine Club was opened in June 2025 in the municipality of Sv. Filip i Jakov (approx. 4 kilometres north of Biograd). The new and very elegant facility offers 127 berths for yachts up to 35 metres in length and eight metres draught and the contemporary services of a modern marina. The new Molum Hotel & Residences resort is also part of the marina. The Molum Marine Club is one of the few marinas on the Croatian coast with an extraction system for black water.
Marina Šešula
The new Šešula marina in the bay of the same name in the west of the island of Šolta should have been completed in 2024. But even in the 2025 season, there was still no sign of it. As has been customary for years, up to 60 boats and yachts were anchored in the popular, narrow fjord during the high season, with landings on the shore - with the well-known consequences for the water quality. The planned marina with 70 mooring places on a floating jetty with sanitary facilities would be a blessing for the environment. An enquiry to the Hotel Martinis Marchi, which intends to manage the facility, remained unanswered. But according to insiders, construction work is unlikely to begin in 2026.
First boat show in Albania
Albania will host its first international boat show from 16 to 18 October 2026. The in-water boat show Balkans Sea Fair Albania is primarily intended to attract manufacturers, brokers and charterers of larger (motor) yachts. The venue for the Balkans Sea Fair is the Orikum Marina in the south of the Gulf of Vlora.
More cheap bunkering in Montenegro
Since 2025, yachts flying foreign flags have been allowed to bunker fuel duty and tax-free in Montenegro. The tax-free sale of fuel is legally controversial and should actually be discontinued. However, as there are fears that the owners of large motor yachts will move back to neighbouring Albania, where yachts flying foreign flags can bunker tax-free, the country of the black mountains will continue to offer discounted fuel in 2026. With the outbreak of war in the Middle East, the price of duty-free diesel also shot up and stood at €1.15 at the end of March. It is reset weekly by the government. Currently, the ordering, payment and customs clearance of tax-free marine diesel must be handled by a local, licensed agency. Cheap bunkering in the Balkans should soon come to an end. The EU accession negotiations with Montenegro should be finalised by the end of 2026 and the small country should be a full member of the EU from 2028. Owners of large yachts will then still be able to travel to the neighbouring country to the south for a short time until Albania also joins the EU in 2030. The following petrol stations are allowed to dispense diesel duty and tax-free: Porto Montenegro, Marina Portonovi and Marina Bar. In Porto Montenegro, flow rates of 1,000 litres per minute are possible.
Maps and literature at delius-klasing.de:
- DK Recreational craft chart set 7Adriatic 1 "Venice - Rijeka - Sibenik - Drvenik V.", ISBN: 978-3-667-13019-8 64,90 Euro.
- DK Recreational craft chart set 8Adriatic 2 "Zirje - Split - Dubrovnik - Bar", ISBN: 978-3-667-13020-4, 64,90 Euro.
- Bodo Müller/Jürgen Strassburger: "Coastal Handbook Croatia and Slovenia", ISBN: 978-3-667-13007-5, 39,90 Euro.
- Bodo Müller/Jürgen Strassburger: "Coastal Handbook Croatia and Montenegro", ISBN: 978-3-667-12593-4, 39.90 euros.
Bodo Müller
Freier Autor
