Sometimes it is the supposedly small things that make a holiday resort stand out, as well as the until recently practiced solution of opening the Tisno Bridge (Island of Murter, Croatia) for half an hour in the morning and in the evening to allow sailors, motor yachts and larger pleasure boats to pass through. Currently the bridge is closed in the morning, so that skippers who want to go south will have to take a detour of more than 13 nautical miles.
Bascule bridge near Tisno remains closed in the morning
To explain the situation: The island of Murter lies in the northwestern part of the Sibenik archipelago and is separated from the mainland by the Tisno Channel. A 37-metre-long bascule bridge near Tisno connects Murter with the mainland. The island is very popular with water sports enthusiasts, as there are many interesting bays in the southern area, some of which have sandy beaches. Due to the fact that the bridge only opens in the evening, day trips to this region are only possible with a detour of 13.5 nautical miles, as the bridge currently only opens in the evening.
ATTENTION: The times currently given in the Internet do not correspond to reality and mislead skippers.
It says here (as at 26.07.2020):
Bridge lifting timetable:
1 May – 1 October – every day: 9 am – 9.30 am, and 5 pm – 5.30 pm
1 October – 1 May – Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 9 am – 9.30 am
Water sports enthusiasts the most loyal tourists
In our opinion, an owner and SeaHelp member was right to complain about this rather unfriendly behaviour of the administration towards the water sports enthusiasts. The competent Croatian authority, which ordered the morning opening of the bridge on the island of Murter to be cancelled without replacement, has probably forgotten one thing: Water sports enthusiasts, especially boat and yacht owners and sailors are among the most loyal tourists in Croatia, and even in the times of the Corona pandemic they were the first to return to Croatia as tourists. Statistics, which are also available to the Croatian National Tourist Board, support the assumption that boat owners in particular stay much longer in Croatia than many other tourists and support the Croatian economy with significantly higher spending per person per day.
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Facebook users asked for support
With this in mind, SeaHelp has decided to publish a member’s complaint, which has already been signed by a number of owners, as almost all water sports enthusiasts consider the morning closure of the bridge at Tisno an absurdity. On our Facebook page we ask all users who vote for a return to the old rule of morning and evening opening to leave an entry.
SeaHelp will send the entries collected on Facebook to the Ministry of Tourism and the Croatian National Tourist Board and will also hold talks with the responsible parties to return to the old regulation as soon as possible.
SeaHelp makes abuses public
If other water sports enthusiasts in Croatia also notice problems that should be corrected, please write to us. SeaHelp, with its five-figure membership base, can make legitimate concerns heard that would otherwise be lost in the instances of the Croatian administration.
Here is the complaint.
Complaint about not opening the bridge for Shipping 17.07.2020
Dear Mr. Mayor,
We hope this email finds you well. If this is not part of your area of responsibility, we would kindly like to ask you to forward this letter to whom it may concern.
Firstly, we would like to introduce ourselves: We are two couples, traveling to Croatia for ages already, who tried different places but ended up staying in Tisno at Pansion Gina where we found the best place for our motorboats to lie safely at the pier. We stay here for about 5-6 weeks in summer, enjoy cruising around with the boats, discover hidden bays and relax in the beautiful nature of Croatia.
However, we and many others (as far as we have observed it in the past days) have been hindered driving to the South by using the bridge which normally opens at 9 am on a daily basis. Since the bridge is not opening at the moment, sailors, motor yachts but also smaller motorboats that are too high to cross under the bridge have to turn around and take a detour of approx. 25 km which means a ride of 45 min (with our boat) which results in 25l petrol. This is not only time consuming and expensive but also polluting and absolutely unnecessary considering that the bridge could simply open for 30 min. in the morning. For us it is completely incomprehensible why this decision has been taken as this option was always a “plus” for Tisno. It is disappointing to see that apparently, Tisno is forgetting about the tourists that feel like home in Tisno.
With this letter we want to draw your attention to this issue and ask you to overthink your decision. For some it is only a bridge but for some it is an easy way to the Southern part of Croatia. In case the bridge will not open again, we will have to look for another place to stay at because Tisno is then not the most convenient place anymore. This is sad but with the bridge closed there will be better places from where we can discover the area around.
Yours sincerely
Cornelia & Claudio Euler
Waiting for response
We will inform our members and friends about further activities in this matter.
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