Flying Clipper sold as Golden Horizon

Golden Horizon, formerly Flying Clipper, has been sold by the struggling shipyard in Croatia. 

The ship, which was originally ordered for Star Clippers under the name Flying Clipper, can accommodate 300 guests and was built at the Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia, but was never delivered. The ship, which was renamed Golden Horizon, served briefly with the start-up Tradewind Voyages, but has been laid up in Croatia for most of the past five years. Brodosplit has now reached an agreement to sell the ship for 110 million euros to an unnamed company. A Croatian website reported that, due to contractual obligations, the shipyard cannot disclose any further information, but that the buyer is a Swiss company that “operates around 100 ships”.

“We have finally signed a contract for the sale of the Golden Horizon. The expertise, the infrastructure and the people are still there,” said Tomislav Debeljak, CEO of DIV Group, Brodosplit’s parent company.
He added that the shipyard is currently facing difficulties due to a lack of funding resulting from “the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the slow response from Croatian institutions”. “The sale of the Golden Horizon is the first step towards stabilisation. We want to complete the ships, bring the staff back and show that Brodosplit has a future,” Debeljak added.

The Golden Horizon is a five-masted barque with a steel hull, intended to serve as a sailing cruise ship, but the vessel has hardly ever been in active service. The luxury vessel was designed by the Polish naval architect Zygmunt Choreń for the Swedish company Star Clippers Ltd. and built by the Brodosplit shipyard in Split, Croatia.  The design was based on the France II, a famous French five-masted windjammer dating from 1911.
Due to a dispute with the shipyard, the ship was never delivered to Star Clippers. Instead, it was chartered by Tradewind Voyages and renamed the Golden Horizon. The ship entered service in May 2021. However, on the morning of its maiden cruise, it was seized by the British authorities due to an ongoing financial dispute with Star Clippers. Following the withdrawal of funds by the Croatian owner of the Golden Horizon, the company ‘Tradewind Voyages’ ceased operations. The ship is now moored in Split, where it was sold to raise funds following the bankruptcy proceedings of the owner’s Croatian company.

Source: Bairdmarine

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