Sports skippers who want to moor their yacht in the port of Rab on the Croatian island of the same name in the Kvarner Bay must currently prepare for restrictions. Construction work is currently underway there to protect the harbor and the historic old town from damage by waves. Yacht owners are called upon to exercise extreme caution when entering the harbor.
Directly opposite the historic old town of Rab is the Marina Rab on the island of the same name in the Kvarner Bay. The marina is one of the most popular ports in the region, because on the one hand, the attractive old town of Rab attracts visitors; on the other hand, the marina is an excellent starting point for trips to the many beautiful anchorages on the island of Rab and for excursions to the surrounding islands.
However, those who are currently planning to call at the port of Rab must be prepared for restrictions. With extreme caution, for example, when entering the port area should bypass a platform of the construction site.
Skippers should keep a good lookout when approaching the port entrance
Skippers should also keep a good lookout when approaching the harbor entrance. Here yellow buoys mark the construction site areas (see photos). In general: Attention to all boaters who want to enter Rab, they should currently take special care when passing the entrance to the port.
The reason for the restrictions: as the news portal morski.hr reports, a new, second breakwater is currently being built in Rab in order to better fortify the coastline. The construction work is one of the largest investments since the establishment of the Rab Port Authority.
Attention. The port of Rab currently receives a new breakwater to better protect the facilities from the south wind, this means restrictions for skippers
He said that the new breakwater, when completed, should have a length of 44 meters and better protect the port facilities from the south wind, which are popular with sports skippers from the country and abroad. The seabed is currently being fortified, he said, and work on the foundation has been underway since the end of January. For the start of this year’s tourist season – so morski.hr quotes those responsible – the shell should already be in place.
“Completion of the works will reduce the impact of the south and waves on the water surface of the Rab harbor, but also protect the historic core of the town of Rab from flooding by the sea,” shared Županijska lučka uprava (ŽLU) Rab, the Rab County Port Authority, announced.
Maritime conditions would also improve as a result of the construction work and would enable the mooring of ships in all weather conditions within the port, which in turn would also have a positive effect on even better transport links to the island.
According to the Port Authority, the works are proceeding according to schedule and are expected to be completed by the start of the tourism season
Specifically, the Port Authority said that the works, which began in early October 2022, are currently on schedule. The project is being realized within the framework of various programs aimed at improving port infrastructure and improving competitiveness, it said. In total, the Rab Port Authority has been allocated the equivalent of 4.85 million euros (HRK 36,530,000.00).
Nenad Debelić, director of ŽLU Rab, confirmed that the works would proceed at a “satisfactory pace” according to the basic plan. After the construction ground on the coast had already been homogenized by so-called jet grouting, work on the foundation of the new breakwater has been underway since the end of January.
In coordination between the Rab County Port Authority, the contractor, the construction supervisor and the site manager, it is planned that all structural work will be completed by the start of the tourist season, says Nenad Debelić.
Planning for better coastal protection has been underway since 2008, and some of the damage to coastal facilities was significant
He said that initial analyses of the impact of sea and tidal waves on the water area of Rab harbor had been prepared as early as 2008. After a review of the proposed solutions, the variant with the most favorable impact on the port was then selected, ZLU Rab writes on its website.
The banks in the port of Rab are already very old, he said, and some of them date back to the Austro-Hungarian period. The long-term influence of the sea, waves, tides and low tide had left traces in the underwater part of the coast, so that over time there was “considerable damage to the coastal walls, washed out foundations, deterioration of the foundation slopes and thus a deterioration of the entire coastal situation.”
In the past, the sea and waves “did not leave much of a mark,” ZLU Rab said, but today it is fundamentally different: the damage is increasing day by day. For this reason, intervention to protect the coast and the port has become “urgent”.
The aim of the construction work, he said, is to repair the facilities and prevent further destruction of the coast of the port Rab by wave action, by reducing the height of the waves to then a maximum of 30 centimeters.
