Hidden signatures at the bottom of the Atlantic. History of the construction of SV "Concordia" sailboat

SV Concordia was one of the most unusual projects in the history of the Szczecin shipbuilding industry. The Canadian school sailboat was built in the early 1990s in Szczecin, and one of the participants of this construction is mentioned in the scene.

When in February 2010, the world news of the sinking of Canadian School sailboat SV Concordia off the coast of Brazil, most people saw only dry news about the disaster and miraculously saving 64 people. For me, this moment had a very different dimension. Somewhere there, deep down at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, there was a ship whose birth I followed from the first cut sheet – a ship that shaped me professionally.

Because even though I've been involved with the Tri-City for over thirty years, this sailboat is 100 percent Szczecin History. Not many people remember that today, but Concordia was established in Szczecin – and so far is the only modern sailing ship of this class ever built in this city. This is a story to remember, especially today's Szczecin marine environment.

This oceanic barkentine was born in the turbulent realities of the Polish systemic transformation in the early 1990s. Official sea reports reduce this story to one sentence. However, the reality was full of challenges, logistical improvisation and above all – meetings with people of a great format.

For the reasons yet to be mentioned, this ship has never become a business card for the city and its shipbuilders. The more time passes, the more clearly you can see that it is a story worth restoring to Szczecin – a bit uncomfortable politically, but extremely proud technically and organizationally.

From Oder to FAMABUD: Turbid Beginnings

COLOD, headed by Mr Adam Wojnarowski – previously, during the period of the Polish People's Republic, the director of Odra Shipyard – was created with a view to building the SV Concordiaand the original site of the project was to be the Odra Shipyard. At that time it finished building the last three of the series of 14 tugs for Vladivostok – H12, H13 and H14 – and the hull work on these units was carried out by COLOD, which actually managed the hull division of the shipyard.

That's where I got my first cut by building them, preparing and directing the lateral launching of these hulls from the ramp. SV Concordia was intended to be a natural continuation and a good marketing start for cooperation between Polish-Canadian company COLOD and Odra Shipyard.

The reality of a hot systemic transformation then verified these plans almost immediately. Shortly after the start of work on SV Concordia in Odra Shipyard the "wage revolution" broke out – I lost my seat at the Workers' Hotel. Mr Janusz Lepczyński, then director of the shipyard, lost his position as director in 1991 as a result of the union's shares, and the new director, regardless of the consequences, broke off the contracts with COLOD, which had to find an alternative location and organization to continue construction. That is how the hull of the ship went to the rented hall of FAMABUD, right next to Warski Shipyard. In retrospect, it can be seen that the changes that took place at that time in Odra Shipyard were one of the steps on the road that in the near future led to this shipyard to fall.

The people who made the sailboat Concordia

The main designer of the boat was Richard Lange. Next to it, as a key figure from the point of view of management and design, Jacek Szafranski – a graduate of Gdańsk University of Technology, formerly the head designer and builder at Szczecińska Shipyard, was responsible for the big series of commercial ships. He was coordinating. sailboat design with the team of the main designer and organized shopping with foreign.

The second management pillar of the project was Mr Janusz Lepczyński, an outstanding Szczecin engineer and manager, a graduate Institute of Shipbuilding of Szczecin University of Technology, which in later years led, among others, the Szczecin Shiprepair Yard "Parnica".

Master's lessons: cards at 6:00 a.m.

As a young engineer, I had the honour of working as an assistant to a legendary Szczecin shipship – Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski.

He was a man of extraordinary résumé. Soldier of the National Army and Warsaw insurgents, holder of the War Veteran Badge 1939-1945 and the Action Badge "Burza" of the AK – from that period were its strong, personal ties and direct contact with Warsaw. It was this dual identity – a respected veteran of the AK and an influential long-term employee of Warski Shipyard, decorated with the title of Deserved Shipyard of the Polish People's Republic – that in the 1970s and 1980s, during periods of political unrest and labour strikes, he served as a key link between Szczecin and Warsaw.

At work, he was a walking institution with a giant authority. I use "Sławka" in my professional life to this day. He used to come to the construction site an hour before everyone. Each day began the same way: from handing each of the handwritten cards with precise tasks per day. It was old, pre-war school reliability, planning and responsibility – there was no room for chance.

In the 1990s, when we were building Concordia, Mr.Eugeniusz was already formally on a well-deserved pension, enjoying the status of an outstanding citizen of the city – awarded, among other things, with the medal "Gryf Pomorski" for merit to Szczecin. Nevertheless, he still found time and energy to personally monitor the quality of this unique construction.

When Theory Meets Maritime Practice

The design of the sailing ship was diametrically different from the large commercial ships that had previously been built in Szczecin. Mr. Eugenius spent hours on literature, exploring the specificity of the rigging and its anchorages. Fortunately, we also had the second pillar of this project – the future first commander of the unit, Captain Andrzej Marczak.

This is an extraordinary trio: experienced engineer, brilliant captain-practist and I – absorbing the knowledge of the assistant – jointly decided on technical details. We designed and made a lot of unusual hardware, clout or elements of deck equipment with our own forces, on site.

On the construction site, there were other outstanding professionals, without whom this project would never succeed. Waldemar Chruściński, who was a coordinator-designer, played a special role – he was the one who solved real construction problems on a regular basis, either alone or in consultation with the main designers and suppliers of equipment.

Mr Marian Witko, as the master of the hull, was responsible for building sections, blocks and the entire hull. At his side, the author worked as – hull master and construction assistant, engineer after Gdańsk University of Technology, who gained a unique design experience and later converted them into his own business, creating and managing engineering and design companies (as Naviretech) implementing advanced projects for foreign counterparties.

I remember the day when the powerful new crane of the floating "Gucio" was lifting the fuselage on the belt while passing its overload test. There was lead in the keel ballastwhich we had arranged before, so that the ship would be stable immediately after contact with the water. Everything sounded perfect.

The real show of craftsmanship was the assembly of masts and bulldozers, but in my memory the moment entered especially just before the test cruise. To this day, I remembered how under the supervision of the "Sławka" who ordered the entire operation almost seconds after the second, together with a team of workers, we turned this great sailboat with the other side to kei only using mooring ropes, using the flow of Odra – without the participation of any tugboat. Today, in the days of streamers, such a maneuver seems almost unimaginable.

The Heritage of Builders

Before SV Concordia She left Szczecin to teach young people around the world safely for nearly two decades, and the moment of the installation of the brass plate on the wheelhouse came.

Mr. Eugenius then called some of us. He said the builders who leave their heart and sweat on board, history usually quickly forgets. And he let us sign on the back of that sign.

Today these signatures rest at the bottom of the ocean. Although physically there is no longer a ship, the values I learned when building it – iron discipline, respect for craftsmanship, precise planning and trust in the team – remain the foundation of my daily work to this day.

Good engineering craftsmanship is not just a final product. It's mostly a school of character.

I think about this particularly often today, considering the difficulties faced by the Szczecin marine environment. For years, it functioned somewhat in the shadow of the Tricity, with the feeling that it was there that the "real" Polish happened Industrial shipbuilding, and Szczecin – with its difficult history of the fall of the great shipyards – remains on the sidelines. Meanwhile, the facts are different. It was here, in Szczecin, in the early 1990s that the only such modern sailing ship in the history of the region was created – a project requiring unique competences, precision and craftsmanship, which no other unit built at the time needed.

That SV Concordia never became a business card for the city, not due to the lack of skills or involvement of the people who built it – it was due to the political and economic turmoil of that time that affected the entire Oder Shipyard and eventually led to her fall. But today, from a distance of over thirty years, you can and must look at this story differently. The Szczecin engineers, masters and craftsmen proved at the time that they could build something unique on a national scale – and they deserve this story to be known, reconstructed, appreciated and remembered, both by the city and by the entire marine environment of the West Pomeranian region.

Searched archive photographs

This article was mainly made from memory – my own memories of that unique period. Unfortunately today, I do not have photographs of the construction of SV Concordia or photographs of most people mentioned in the text.

If one of the former employees of the company COLOD, Odra Shipyard, Szczecin Shipyard, FAMABUD or their families has photographs in their archives related to the construction of SV Concordia, I would appreciate your contact.

Each photo is part of the history of the Szczecin ship industry, which is worth saving from oblivion and documenting for future generations.

Artur Nastkiewicz – Ship engineer and manager for over 40 years associated with the shipbuilding industry. He runs NavireTECH, implementing engineering and design projects for the shipbuilding industry. He participated in the implementation of ship and shipbuilding projects in Poland and abroad, cooperating with SOCARENAM, Chantiers Pirou, Kership, the Nauta Group and Chantiers Gdańsk.