Now that the northernmost federal state has surprisingly taken the first major step towards a significant easing of restrictions, the ball is now in the court of the other federal states. Apart from a few exceptions, there are still massive restrictions in place everywhere. The current situation for sailors in Germany as it stands today, Monday:
Schleswig-Holstein:
The harbours are open, local and foreign owners are allowed to sail on their boats and from harbour to harbour along Schleswig-Holstein's coast. Fehmarn: The harbours there are only open to islanders.
Lower Saxony, Bremen/Bremerhaven:
The harbours on the coast are open, local and foreign owners are allowed to board their boats and sail, but not from harbour to harbour. In addition, the island harbours are still closed. In the inland area and also in individual districts on the coast, different regional regulations apply in some cases.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania:
The harbours are open, local owners are allowed to board their boats and sail, but not from harbour to harbour. Regional regulations apply in some inland areas.
Berlin, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia:
The harbours may be used if the jetties could already be deployed before the outbreak of the pandemic. Local and foreign owners are therefore allowed to board their boats and sail in such facilities, but often not from harbour to harbour. Different local regulations may also apply to individual waters.
All other federal states, including Hamburg, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg:
The harbours are mostly still closed, regional exceptions are possible for individual inland waters. This means that sailing there is usually only possible for those owners who have their boat moored at their own jetty or buoy or who can launch their dinghy at a location outside a harbour, for example.
Sailing schools and charter centres are still closed nationwide.
Changes to this list could be made on Wednesday when the Federal Chancellor talks to the ministers of culture and sports of the federal states about further easing of restrictions. Merkel has announced that "very clear decisions" will then be made for sport. It remains to be seen to what extent this will affect sailing.
Behind the scenes, sailing and industry associations as well as individual clubs and companies and also individual affected boat owners are trying to take action against the closures, where they still exist, by means of complaints, petitions, letters of protest and appeals.
Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
