I have spent enough time near harbours to know that shipyards are not romantic places. They smell of salt, oil, wet wood, and patience. They are not museums. They are working spaces where tradition survives because someone still shows up every morning.
That is the context in which Deputy Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Stefanos Gikas addressed the General Assembly of the Panhellenic Association of Shipyards and Tarsanades, which the Technical Chamber of Greece hosted.
No slogans. No nostalgia for the show. Just the quiet acknowledgment that something old is still doing real work.
More Than Heritage—Still a Living Craft
In his address, Gikas described the Association as a structural pillar safeguarding the continuity of Greece’s maritime tradition and the demanding craft of wooden boatbuilding.
At the Ministry, he said, preserving and highlighting maritime and cultural heritage is not optional—it is an obligation. And in that obligation, shipyards and tarsanades sit at the center, not at the margins.
Anyone who has watched a wooden hull being repaired knows why. This is not a skill you can easily outsource.
What Has Been Done
Beyond the words, the Deputy Minister outlined a series of concrete interventions already underway. Not promises. Measures.
Among them:
- Formal legal recognition of shipyards and tarsanades, defining how they operate
- Resolution of long-standing environmental licensing issues, which have stalled the sector for years
- Creation of a National Registry of Shipyards, allowing for proper oversight and documentation
- Clear regulations for land and coastal zone concessions, replacing ambiguity with workable rules
- Training and education initiatives aimed at new craftsmen in ship repair and traditional wooden boatbuilding
These are the unglamorous details that keep workshops open and tools in use.
Gikas stressed that, under Minister Vassilis Kikilias, the Ministry supports the sector not as a relic, but as a functioning part of the economy.
The benefits ripple outward:
- local employment
- skills that stay in place
- tourism rooted in authenticity rather than decoration
- real contribution to the national economy
Ports are not postcards. They are systems. When one part collapses, the rest feels it.
A Meeting With Lasting Consequences
On the sidelines of the Assembly, the Deputy Minister met with TEE President Giorgos Stasinos to discuss the creation of the “Repository of Preserved Buildings of the Aegean”, an initiative recently agreed upon.
It sounds technical. It is. But it matters.
Because preservation only works when it is organised, documented, and treated as infrastructure—not sentiment.
I have seen enough abandoned slipways to know what happens when nobody plans ahead. This time, at least, the conversation is happening before the tide pulls everything away.