page_title: Croatian patrol boat Šolta (OB-02)
section_title: Service
hierarchical_section_title: Croatian patrol boat Šolta (OB-02) / Service
caption_attribution_description: Hrvatski: OB-02 Šolta u Lori.
context_page_description: Šolta is a Mirna-class patrol boat in service with the Croatian Navy. Completed during the 1980s as Mukos, it was the sixth ship of a class that was being built for the Yugoslav Navy in the Kraljevica Shipyard.
  During the Croatian War of Independence, Mukos was part of a tactical group tasked with enforcing a naval blockade of the city of Split. On 14 November 1991, Croatian Navy commandos disabled the vessel with an improvised torpedo, leaving the vessel drifting and abandoned by her crew. The crippled ship was then tugged away by Croatian locals to the nearby island of Šolta. She was subsequently repaired and entered service with the Croatian Navy as Šolta. As of 2014, Šolta remains in service with the Croatian Coast Guard, an integral part of the navy.
context_section_description: During its service in the Yugoslav Navy, Mukos was part of the border patrol detachment. In November 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence, Mukos was part of the "Kaštela" tactical group that was tasked with enforcing a naval blockade of the port of Split and the surrounding islands. On 14 November, at around 17:30, while on patrol in the Split strait between the islands of Brač and Šolta, Mukos was hit with an improvised torpedo launched by special forces of the Croatian Navy (HRM), effectively starting the Battle of the Dalmatian Channels. The HRM command constructed the torpedo from a small outboard motor boat loaded with explosives. A former missile technician from the Yugoslavian navy had, while receiving training on Saab missiles in Sweden, picked up some remote control plane parts in a hobby store. Handed over to HRM, the gear yielded the ability to remotely control the unmanned vessel. The explosion ripped a hole in the forward section of the hull, causing the bow to flood and killing three crew members. The remaining crew was rescued by a Shershen-class torpedo boat Pionir II (TČ-224) while Mukos itself was left adrift.
  During the evening of 15 November the ship was tugged away by a Croatian fishing ship to the nearby Nečujam cove, where the vessel was beached to prevent her from sinking. In the early hours of the same day, the remaining JRM ships opened fire in retaliation for damaging Mukos. As Yugoslav forces left the area, the ship was towed to an overhauling shipyard in Šibenik on the night of 17/18 November, after being salvaged by HRM divers with the help of Brodospas. The ship was repaired and renamed Šolta, entering service with the HRM on 15 May 1992 with Mile Tomas in command.
  The Croatian Coast Guard was formed in October 2007, and Šolta was assigned to the 1st Division, based in Split. During the same year the ship underwent a modernisation that included the installation of a new Sperry Marine radar, gyrocompass and GPS.  A second refit that occurred sometime between 2007 and 2013 included the deletion of the Strela launcher and the stern 20 mm M-75 gun to create space needed for a RHIB and a hydraulic crane used to lower it into the sea. The pennant number was changed from OB-62 to OB-02.
caption: Ship's bow with the 40 mm Bofors gun and the ship's bridge visible
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-H70", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2011:08:04 10:51:41", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "328", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Manual", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-H70", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Rotated 90 CCW", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2011:08:04 10:51:41", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "10894", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11040", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:08:04 10:51:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:08:04 10:51:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight fluorescent (D 5700 - 7100K)", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "17/4", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3456", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4608", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}