Carlos Vidal, yacht designer at the Palma International Boat Show, Mallorca

Carlos Vidal with the yacht in Palma. | MDB

Andrew EdePalma02/05/2023 08:06
TW
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Among the yachts that were exhibited at the Palma International Boat Show, which ended on Sunday, was one designed by Mallorcan naval architect Carlos Vidal. It was a yacht with a story, one directly related to the war in Ukraine.

Vidal was in charge of the design of a new yacht for the German company Sterk. Work started on building the first yacht at a shipyard in Mykolaiv, Ukraine in May 2021.

As tensions with Russia started to come to a head in February 2022, Vidal says that "the Ukrainian partners told us not to worry". "In Crimea there was always this tension. When the war broke out, Mr. Sterk, the other partner Shasha Vlad, and I were in shock for at least three weeks."

The partners called for a halt to production, but the Ukrainians wanted to finish it. "This is our life." In August, with the yacht almost finished, Russian bombs destroyed the shipyard and with it the yacht.

Destruction at a shipyard in Mykolaiv, Ukraine

The schedule had been to exhibit the first yacht in Düsseldorf in January this year. The deadline was met, but only thanks to work around the clock at a German shipyard with materials supplied from Poland.

Vidal says that it is difficult to calculate the losses. "With the collateral damage, more than a million euros." However, there was one great lesson - all things are relative when set against the suffering of the Ukrainian shipyard and the Ukrainian people.