With the news that Golden Horizon has been put up for sale for £100million, I look back on the ship’s troubled history…
She’s an impressive ship. With 35 sails flapping in the wind, Golden Horizon commands the seas, slicing through waves and creating a spectacle of another age.
But the world’s biggest square rigger has weathered a number of storms over the years. The string of bad luck started almost as soon as work began…
2015: The ship is ordered by Monaco-based Star Clippers from the Brodosplit yard in Croatia as Flying Clipper.
2017: In the year the 300-passenger vessel was originally due to set sail, Star Clippers founder and CEO Mikael Krafft announces ‘some delay in construction’ but says ‘the resulting quality of build will be excellent when Flying Clipper is delivered in 2018’. In October 2017 the hull is launched down a slipway.
2018: The year passes with no sign of the ship going into service.
2019: In August, Brodosplit declares Flying Clipper is finished but because of a dispute with Star Clippers it is putting the ship up for sale. Star Clippers insists the ship is still theirs.
2020: In June, the yard announces that the ship, now known by its construction title Brodosplit 483, has found a home at Tradewind Voyages, a UK-based operator, though it will retain ownership. Tradewind Voyages is a subsidiary of Brodosplit. Star Clippers again claims the vessel.
March 2021: Tradewind Voyages moves back the world debut of Golden Horizon in Harwich, UK, from May to July 1, to fit with the government’s new timetable out of Covid lockdown
April 2021: Star Clippers is awarded ‘substantial damages’ in the legal row over the ship.
June 2021: The ‘dress rehearsal’ voyage of Golden Horizon in Portsmouth is scuppered by new government rules limiting cruise ship capacity. Initial round-Britain itineraries are also canned when the Scottish government bans calls from cruise ships at its ports.
July 2021: Golden Horizon begins a maiden season of cruises from Dover – but is briefly arrested during a stopover at the port in the continuing row between Star Clippers and Brodosplit. Following the incident, former Tradewind Voyages CEO Stuart Mcquaker says he has ‘lost all confidence’ in Brodosplit’s owner Tomislav Debeljak delivering Golden Horizon to the required standard.
October 2021: Tradewind Voyages cancels Golden Horizon’s inaugural Caribbean season over ‘guest concerns about travelling in bubbles’ due to Covid rules.
March 2022: The ship’s 2022 season is put back from May to July for a number of reasons including the Ukraine war. Brodosplit is forced to halt production at its shipyard because of international sanctions against a Russian-owned bank which lent it money for Golden Horizon and another ship.
May 2022: Tradewind Voyages’ head of sales Mark Schmitt and business development manager Rachel Healey leave the company. CEO Alan McGrory resigns as a director and is replaced by Tomislav Debeljak.
June 2022: Tradewind Voyages pauses cruise sales and warns of cancellations following the sanctions on the Russian-owned bank that lends to Brodosplit.
July 2022: Tradewind Voyages cancels sailings on Golden Horizon until October.
August 2022: Brodosplit confirms the ship is up for sale for £100million. Tradewind Voyages cancels sailings up to October 2023. Golden Horizon is chartered to house Croatian fans at the World Cup in Qatar.
September 2022: Former Tradewind Voyages marketing manager Maddie Taylor says she and other employees are owed five months money.
November 2022: Brodosplit says the charter of Golden Horizon to house football fans has been cancelled ‘due to non-payment’. Reports in Croatia say bailiffs could be sent in to force the sale of the ship. In the UK, Companies House issues a first notice for compulsory strike-off of Tradewind Voyages, giving the company three months to file annual accounts or it will cease to legally exist. The action is then suspended.
July 2023: Golden Horizon is being offered for charter from €910,000 a week from superyacht brokerage firm TWW Yachts of Monaco.
Read my review of Golden Horizon here
any more news on Golden Horizon? Have they got funds will they sail in Augvust?
There’s been no update recently
They have now cancelled until October
I am proud to be the first hotel director on the vessel, bringing it from split for the UK season and delivering a great voyage experience between July and September. We had a great crew who were dedicated to her success, unfortunately the actions of others, the pandemic and world affairs finally took its toll. I hope she finds a good home and I for one will miss her charm and grace
Steven Adamson
Hi Steven, Thank you for your message. It is a beautiful ship and had a great crew, it’s such a shame what’s happened. I, too, hope she finds a good home.
I’m a little confused. Who has put the ship up for sale? If it sells, who gets the money?
Hi Suzanne, it’s Brodosplit, the yard that made it and still own it.