Guardian
August 4, 2011
In the Halkitis shipyard in Perama, the Azul dwarfs everything. Four decks tall, it is just five metres shorter in length than the 3,000-tonne cargo ships that were once the staple of the Greek yards that line the shore.
But the Azul is no cargo ship. Nor is it a ferry to shuttle tourists and workers back and forth to the islands. Instead, it is a €20m (£17m) pleasure yacht being constructed for a Croatian businessman. His brother is having a twin built, identical in all details.
In a town where unemployment last year hit 60-70%, according to a survey by the University of Piraeus, and may now be nudging 80%, it is toys of the super-rich like the Azul that are keeping a handful of shipbuilders still in work.
Apostolos Kivachelis, aged 53, the foreman on the Azul, clambers down from where a dozen or so men are rubbing down the yacht's steel.
"I've worked six months in the last two years," he says. "But I'm lucky. I know lots of other people who have not worked at all." When he does get work he helps others in his family who are unemployed – just as they help him if he is out of work. "What else can we do?" he asks with a shrug. "Sometimes the bills don't get paid for two months at a time."
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