Classic yachts and their stories: New issue of YACHT classic now on sale
Lasse Johannsen
· 06.12.2023
Skerry cruiser "La Liberté"
We sailed the 55-square-metre warping cruiser "La Liberté" on Berlin's Wannsee. Greta Garbo, the girlfriend of the first owner at the time, once felt at home on board the 16-metre vessel, which was built in 1934 and designed by Erik Salander.
The youth cutter and its history
Author Ulrich Körner dedicates a detailed history to the Jugendwanderkutter, the equally loved and hated training boat on which so many sailors have grown their sea legs. Hinnerk Bodendieck, himself an old cutter sailor, contributed paintings to illustrate the story.
Dinghy cruise in Brittany
Our photographer Nico Krauss took his pen and camera to Brittany, where British dinghy cruiser Roger Barnes lives, and let Krauss in on the secrets of Spartan cruising.
Spitzgatter "Hængi"
Our colleague Morten Strauch reports on a very special restoration project. "Hængi", a cuddly little spitsail with which a cameraman on a business trip falls in love and which is brought back to sailing life after years of painstaking work.
The "Matador" and its voyage of 1886
Marc Bielefeld dug deep into the archives to unearth the story of a student crew that travelled by yacht before such a thing was invented. The "Matador" from the Berlin ASV was an old privateer boat and was sailed from the capital to Bornholm and Königsberg in the summer of 1886.
The life and work of Robert Beelitz
The life and work of Robert Beelitz, who took over the shipyard of the same name in Berlin and ran it in Fehmarn until his death, is another journey into the history of classic yachting, to which we dedicate the current issue.
New old dinghy: the OK dinghy
In the New Old section, author Luisa Conroy compares an original preserved OK dinghy made of plywood in the style of 1956 with a modern example.
The flag manufacturer Fahnen Fischer
The Flensburg flag manufacturer Fahnen Fischer was also worth a visit, and rightly so, as Nico Krauss' insightful company portrait shows. The small, inconspicuous shop hides a family business that is now run by the third generation and sews everything from club flags to the national flag of the "Gorch Fock".
The "poison shack" in Schleimünde
The guest books of the "Giftbude" pub in Schleimünde, which was so popular with sailors, tell many a story from the time when the war was over and sailors went sailing again in their yachts and dinghies, mostly without engines and therefore close to home. Marc Bielefeld has sifted through them and spun a yarn from the most beautiful entries.
The most beautiful pictures of the Havel Classic
And finally, our Berlin photographer Sönke Hucho brought back his favourite impressions of the Havel Klassik. The research revealed that this is Berlin's largest classic regatta, if not the largest inland regatta for classics in the whole of Germany.
Also: Portrait of the designer Uffa Fox, news and projects from the classic yacht scene and the Circle of Friends of Classic Yachts, steamboats in the USA.
