Fifteen years later one can truly say: according to the words of the president of Ars Halieutica Cultural Institute from Komiža, dr.Joško Božanić, it has created “a cultural product named falkuša, and it is not only a boat but it is, above all, a Croatian story of years of living with the sea, on the millennium maritime experience, skill and memory, on the Croatian maritime Adriatic and Mediterranean identity.”
This summer, falkuša will be the queen of two seas: at home, on the Adriatic, where she was made, lived, fed and defended, and when everything was lost, she has revived through the hard work of Ars Halieutica: in Komiža and on the route towards Palagruža.
The renewed oldest historical regatta, the present Rota Palagruzona starts on Friday, 22 June, at the same time as the entire Sea Festival in Komiža, and on the same day a regatta of small boats will also take place on the route Komiža-Biševo-Komiža. It will be a day of various programmes and, among other things, the foundation of the Federation of Associations and Projects for the Protection of the Maritime Cultural Heritage of Croatia.
(Photo: Božidar Vukičević / CROPIX)
On Saturday, falkuša and larger boats will sail to Palagruža, and, weather permitting, the unforgettable year before last Pope’s dinner on the beach will be repeated. The return from Palagruža and the feast on the Komiža waterfront are foreseen for Sunday, and departure is for Monday.
But the falkuša will not remain for long tied in her home port; a long voyage is in store! Once again that „small Croatian boat“, as she is called by dr. Joško Božanić, will be sailing off to the French city of Brest. In the previous Sea and Sailors Festival in Brest, Croatia held a special guest status, again thanks to the hard work of Ars Halieutica that had taken along an entire small fleet, about ten traditional Dalmatian small boats.
Among the boats that have left their mark at the previous five festivals in Brest, held every four years in this prominent French “cape”, this year, at its twentieth anniversary, the special guest will rightly be the falkuša! With his exhibition of photographs, the photographer Ivo Pervan, a man who has been professionally and intimately connected to the falkuša project and the Ars Halieutica Association from the very first day, will evoke and present to the people in Brest the ambience, the birthplace – Komiža and the distant objective in the middle of the Adriatic, Palagruža, its navigation and its people.
Falkuša
- A particular shape of gajeta (fishing boat of rounded hull, spiky stern and bow, with one lateen sail) used for fishing in the Vis, Korčula and Palagruža regions. It can achieve a speed of 8 knots for on the existing gajeta falka (special lateral upgrading up to half a meter high) have been added. It is from 9 to 10 meters long and of 5.5 tonne capacity and built in Komiža.Komiža
- An ancient fishing town on the western side of the island of Vis. It has somewhat more than 1,500 inhabitants. It has acquired its name from the ancient name Com Issa (near Vis), and it was first mentioned in 1145 as Val Comeza in the deed of gift from Prince Peter of Zadar who ruled the central Dalmatian islands...Palagruža
- Offshore uninhabited islands of some ten islands and islets in the centre of the Adriatic Sea, 68 nautical miles south of Split, on the Croatian part of the Adriatic. It belongs to the municipality of Komiža (island of Vis), and consists of the main island, Vela Palagruža (altitude: 92m; length 1400m and width 300m), Mala Palagruža (altitude 51m), rocks Kamik to the southeast, Tarmuntani (29m) to the east and the island of Pupak. Three nautical miles southeast of Palagruža lies the island of Galijula (11m) – the southernmost point of land in Croatia.The Falkuša among ten of the most interesting boats in the world
The organizers of the World Sea and Sailors Festival in Brest have called Ars Halieutica to represent the Croatian maritime heritage at this year’s festival, and the gajeta falkuša Comeza-Lisboa has been given the place of honour. On the occasion of the 20th jubilee it will be the exhibited in „Village of Twenty Years“ as one of the most interesting among twenty thousand boats from all over the world that have participated until now at the Sea Festival in Brest.Jordanka Grubač
Slobodna Dalmacija, 22. 06. 2012.
