The Manning Man – meet Sinisa Andelic

As General Manager of Wilhelmsen Ship Management’s Marine Personnel's Split office in Croatia, Sinisa "Sina" Andelic has spent 18 years making sure the people who keep world trade moving are treated with the dignity his father's generation rarely saw. In the run-up to Day of the Seafarer 2026, we sat down with him to find out more.

"A hobby gone terribly wrong!"

That's how Sina describes the craft brewery he helped to run for a decade alongside his day job – meaning that what started as a weekend interest grew into something much bigger than he expected. But it also says something about his energy, curiosity and inability to do things by halves. This defines everything he turns his hand to – not least the maritime career he fell into by accident.

Action during the World Championships 2025

A "Split boy through and through", Sina's youth was shaped by the sea just like his home city. Like many of his contemporaries, his father was a seafarer sailing worldwide – and often under tough conditions. For example, in the early 1990s during the Croatian war of independence, he was 26 months at sea on back-to-back contracts. "The days before he left were always very emotional," Sinisa recalls. "Which speaks volumes about the reality of seafaring."

On leaving school Sina had no idea what he wanted to do. But when he announced he was planning to enrol in the maritime academy at the University of Split, his father was far from overjoyed. "He was always supportive of my decisions, but said he'd always wanted a better life for me. It wasn't encouragement."

Wilhelmsen snares the cadet
Sina went anyway – although fate had other plans for him, on land. During his final year in college, his father helped him secure a volunteer placement at the Wilhelmsen office. He started coming in for a couple of hours a day, doing the "boring work people were happy to hand over". Little by little he took on more. After graduation when the time came to join a ship as a cadet, he was asked to stay on a few months to help with an incoming client. Three months became six, six became nine. By that time he had developed a genuine interest for crewing; now it's been almost 18 years.

Hearing from his father and other relatives about less reputable manning agencies, he formed a clear view early on of how things should be done. "Some agencies treated seafarers as numbers. They would ask you to join very early, cut your leave very short, promise a short contract – then extend it. If you said no, you'd got blacklisted. That leaves a bad taste." So he made himself a promise: "I'll always do the best I can for both customers AND our seafarers – and that's basically what's given us our strong reputation in the market."

The Split office sources senior officers for all vessel types and is about to launch a cadet programme, including a target of 10% females. Sinisa describes what his team does in characteristically grounded terms: "You could translate what we do to any HR department. We recruit and hire people, work towards developing their careers – from first walking through the door through to, hopefully, retiring – maintain the pool and strike a balance between what the seafarers want and what's possible within the constraints that owners impose."

Big boots to fill
He has had good mentors along the way, notably Capt. Dennis Dude, the first General Manager of the Split office, now with TMS Cardiff Gas. "Attitude, honesty, integrity – that's Capt. Dude in a nutshell. He was the standout person who kickstarted all of this for me." A later turning point came around 2012, when the aftershocks of the 2008/9 financial crisis of eventually hit Croatia. His wife Nives lost her job and the pressure on the family was acute. Rather than go to sea as he'd once planned, he was offered a position in Wilhelmsen's Lysaker office in Norway. "I stayed a bit more than a year, got to know colleagues very well and developed a trust and bond that has been strong ever since."

Sina now leads a team of 12 – half men, half women. He is proud of that diversity but mostly of their independence. "I genuinely wouldn't be disappointed if any of them became my boss tomorrow." His leadership philosophy is simple: lead by example, no blame culture, one cohesive team. "If I ever found myself looking over someone's shoulder, it'd be either a leadership failure or a recruitment failure on my part."

Sailing focuses the mind
Away from the office, Sina can often be found competing in a Star class yacht — a technically demanding two-person boat that attracts former Olympians and world champions. He came back to competitive sailing two years ago after a long break, and describes it as a second youth.

 
Skipper with a red cap is Toma Stipanovic, I’m the one ‘hiking out’ with light blue cap.

Being on the water, he says, does something to him that nothing else matches. "Once I'm in the boat the stress just melts away. It's a hard reset." Sailing as a sport is very physically demanding, but also character building, he adds. "Every success comes with a lot of hard work, sacrifice and dedication – which can easily be translated into any business environment nowadays."

The brewery enterprise, LAB Split, producing beers under the Barba trademark, started the way these things often do: a friend introduced him to home-brewing in Oslo and he read a few books. Back in Split he found four others with the same interest, they formed an association and then one day his uncle suggested: "Let's open a brewery – how hard can it be?" 

The brand that made it big

"Very hard, it turned out. And intense!" Sina jokes. After 10 years as a family business, they merged with a brewery from Zagreb that had grown nationally but couldn't crack the Dalmatian market. "We were already a household name down here. Coming together worked well for both sides." Sinisa sold his stake last year but remains an advisor.

He and Nives have been together 20 years now with two children, Luka (11) and Eni (8). Luka is a talented guitar player while Eni loves to dance and perform on stage. Sina is proud that both are also showing a growing enthusiasm for competitive sailing. 

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Family photo (Nives, Luka, Sina & Eni)

The spoils of seafaring are hard won
On Day of the Seafarer 2026, what does he think people most misunderstand about the seafaring profession? The answer is immediate. "People, certainly here in Croatia, look at seafarers and only see the easy life – the nice car, the nice apartment. The biggest misconception is that it's an adventure on the high seas then you come home and enjoy the rewards." The reality is more gruelling, he says. Money enough to get a mortgage doesn't come until eight or nine years into a career. "By the time you're earning well as a Chief Officer, your friends are married with children and you've spent 60% or 70% of your time at sea." Personally and family-wise, it's a sacrifice. When you're 50 and driving a BMW, everybody will say you had it easy. But it's very far from the truth."

He is, nonetheless, optimistic. AI will certainly bring disruption, but he doesn't think it will hit seafarers as hard as some fear. "Planes have been capable of flying without a pilot for decades, yet there still hasn't been a pilotless commercial passenger flight. Experience will still be what counts in shipping, well into the future."