A European-level yacht service center is already operating at Jūros vartais

A European-level yacht service center is already operating at “Jūros vartais”.

 

From now on, crews of pleasure boats arriving in Klaipėda will be welcomed by the first European-standard yacht service center in Lithuania, located on the territory of the Klaipėda Ship Repair Plant. It features a port reception, modern showers and a self-service laundry adapted to the needs of sailors, as well as free internet access.

 

The restaurant-pizzeria “Kakadu”, which will begin serving guests on Tuesday, will be the final highlight of two years of work. This restaurant with a design reminiscent of the sea will feature an outdoor café and a separate children’s play corner. According to the restaurant’s owners, brothers Gediminas and Vytautas Juškai, the dishes here will be oriented not towards Lithuanian, but towards European cuisine, because “foreigners usually look abroad for the kind of food they are used to at home.”

 

The yacht service center is the first building of the “Jūros vartai” consortium of the companies “Eika” and “Achema” to open its doors to the public. During the reconstruction of this 18th-century architectural monument, most of the surviving authentic elements of the building and the facade of the house were preserved, and the restored authentic beams were integrated into the modern interiors of the office buildings and restaurant.

 

It is hoped that the improved service conditions will attract even more guests to the Pilies Yacht Harbour, which served over 350 ships last year. According to the captain of the yacht harbour, Kastytis Bartusevičius, at least six ships visit here every day, traditionally arriving from Germany, Poland and other countries in the Baltic Sea region, and occasionally even sailors from landlocked countries – Ireland and Switzerland – stop by.

 

Late at night on July 26, the Baltic Sprint Cup regatta will finish at the Pilies Yacht Harbour, with thirty yachts participating, and the next morning another regatta, the Baltic Sail regatta, will start here, with eight larger vessels up to fifty meters long.

 

The four-story, 1,000 square meter yacht club building has already housed a marine goods store of the WATSKI brand, well-known to European sailors, a representative office of the company “Varitechna”, which sells ship paints, cleaners, spare parts and equipment, and the Klaipėda district office of the real estate development company “Eika”. The logistics and forwarding company “Ahlers Klaipėda” will also move here. The company’s employees will start working in the new offices in ten days.

 

Two more buildings of the “Jūrų vartai” complex that are being completed will house hotels. A three-star hotel is being built in the Rice Mill, and a four-star hotel in the Ferryman’s House, belonging to the company “Baltijos Dorė”, which manages the “Navalis” hotel in Klaipėda. It is planned to have 46 rooms that will be able to accommodate about 90 guests at a time, two restaurants with approximately 100 seats, and two conference halls with a total of 160 seats.

 

The value of the ongoing reconstruction project of three buildings is more than 13 million litas. It is planned that the total cost of the implementation of the “Sea Gate” project will exceed 750 million litas.