Dear readers,

What could be better than anchoring? Simply dropping anchor off a beautiful coastline and making a short stop. What people with motorhomes can only dream of is a reality with a sailing boat. Sure, even on the water there are restricted areas, submarine cables and a lot more to consider. But the freedom is still much greater than on land.

But there is one catch (pun intended): the sharp-edged iron leaves traces on the seabed. My colleague Andreas Fritsch already wrote about this last year wrote a very readable YACHT Week. It is about seagrass beds in popular sailing areas that are ploughed through by the anchors of hundreds of charter yachts. That's why mooring buoys are increasingly being installed in popular bays. A great solution, in my opinion. Mooring is even easier than deploying your own anchor gear and, above all, casting off is much more relaxed than hoisting the anchor on deck. Of course, you have to rely on the quality and regular maintenance of the buoy. With your own anchor, you know where you stand. The condition of the buoy can only be assessed when you go swimming. Of course, the buoy also restricts your freedom to a certain extent; your space is defined by its position.

• Denmark: Muring buoys for members only

The first question that crossed my mind when reading this was: Why do these crews actually anchor on seagrass beds? Perhaps sailors with little experience can be forgiven for doing so, but an experienced crew tries to avoid the seaweed because the anchor doesn't hold well on it. So they look for sandy patches on the seabed where they can drop anchor.

That it is not only anchors, but also the turbidity of the Baltic Sea due to over-fertilisation that can harm the seagrass, stated my colleague Hauke Schmidt in his article. He also noted a discrepancy between the data situation and his own experience of seagrass meadows in bays he had visited. This seems to be due to the very thin data available for the Baltic Sea. It is possible that findings from other parts of the world are simply being transferred.

Nevertheless, it remains undisputed that mooring buoys are good for marine biodiversity. With easier mooring, it's actually a win-win. I have also had very good experiences with the buoys from the Swedish Kryssarklubben. As a member, I regularly receive a members' magazine and a buoy flag once a year in the spring. With this under the spreader, I can moor at the blue buoys on the Swedish coast. Some of these are in places that are too deep for my anchor gear or where the bottom is simply too rocky for the anchor to hold. This even makes it possible to find nice places to spend the night that would be out of the question at anchor. This advantage is definitely worth the membership fee.

Now I'm just wondering: where are the mooring buoys on the German coast? How nice would it be to install some anchor buoys in the Achterwasser or in the Bodden waters of Rügen and Hiddensee, in the Salzhaff, in the south of Fehmarn off the harbour of Orth and also in the Schlei and the Flensburg Fjord? This would certainly be an advantage, especially in murky Bodden waters: no more mud on deck after the anchor has been picked up. Sure, a membership fee or a small charge, paid by app, would certainly be necessary to finance the buoys and their maintenance. But perhaps this would also be a good opportunity to collect data on the condition of the seabed in the area of the mooring buoys. Will anything change if anchors are no longer dropped, at least in this very limited area? I am sure that everyone could benefit here: Crews for whom the convenience of easier manoeuvring is worth a few euros, scientists to obtain data on the condition of the seabed and, of course, the ecosystem itself. Even if the seagrass on the bottom of the Baltic Sea is perhaps not as bad as in popular Mediterranean bays, the mooring buoys would definitely not do any harm.

Michael Rinck

YACHT editor

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