The sight and sound make the hairs on the back of many skippers' necks stand up: Scary, scratchy, metallic noises, then often a bang and the rig comes down. This narrow channel passage between the two islands of Ugljan and Pasman in Croatia is probably the most filmed place in the world for mast breakages. This is because a bridge with a clearance of just 16.5 metres lurks there, which charter crews in particular tend to underestimate and then get stuck.
The nasty thing about the Zdrelac passage is that there is often a lot of current there, up to four knots. If it pushes from behind, you can hardly get away after a crash. Sometimes the mast is so high that the rig crashes directly against the bridge, the ship brakes brutally and the bow rises (see second video below...). Then either the rig breaks or the boat can reverse quickly and prevent further damage. If the rig is only just too long, it is dragged under the bridge with terrible scraping noises, sometimes with a broken mast, sometimes without.
For the charter crew, who were the last to get caught out, things went very badly: the mast tip became wedged in such a way that the cat swung across and got stuck. The whole thing happened at around 12 noon. A ferry captain who witnessed the accident reported it to the relevant harbour office in Zadar, as the Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmatia reports. After it became apparent that the crew was uninjured, the passage was closed and a pan-pan call was made to warn shipping. About an hour later, a boat from the authorities pulled the cat's rigging with a line to pull it out of the passage. A rather hopeless endeavour for a cat as it cannot heel over the side like a mono. And as it happens, the rig breaks with a loud bang. This was probably the worst hour in the life of the charter skipper.
The passage is notorious, many charter companies forbid their customers to pass through, warning them on board with large stickers right next to the steering wheel or in the boat documents in front of the bridge. The only problem is that the marinas of Sukosan are large bases directly behind the passage, and many yachts depart or arrive there. If you want to reach destinations to the west of Ugljan or Pasman, you have to sail around them for about 10 to 14 miles. This seems too long for many skippers, so they come up with the tempting but disastrous idea of taking a short cut. And the charter trip ends with probably the worst sailing experience so far...
