Dear readers,

Last weekend, two sailors lost their lives on Lake Constance. They capsized in their 15-metre dinghy cruiser on a feeder to the traditional "Regatta der Eisernen" event off the coast of Constance for as yet unexplained reasons. The two sailors could only be rescued dead from the eight-degree water.

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The regatta was cancelled immediately, the sympathy and grief were great, the registered participants want to donate their entry fees to the bereaved.

As was almost to be expected, there were immediately voices on the well-known social channels questioning the purpose of such regattas. Or rather, the sense of the timing.

Winter regattas are being sailed everywhere in Germany. But isn't the risk too high in view of the low water temperatures? Are the participants willingly accepting this risk, risking costly rescue operations and, in case of doubt, their lives? And all this just to get back on the water. As if the summer wasn't long enough.

Anyone asking such questions can only do so with one consequence: To ban regattas from a certain point in the year, or from certain water temperatures. Or even sailing itself. After all, the accident did not happen directly during a regatta, but during a quasi-private trip to take part in it, where there was no external protection.

It is not known whether there are more accidents or even fatalities in this type of regatta than in summer regattas. But logic says that if this were the case, these regattas would probably no longer be sailed.

In addition, regattas in winter should be just as, or even more, secure as those in summer. In other words, with support boats that are quickly on hand in case someone goes overboard or the boat capsizes. And with appropriate clothing, such as a neoprene or dry suit, you can drastically extend the time until hypothermia sets in.

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The risk of racing on cold water is therefore not as high as it might seem.

The sense of it, on the other hand, is debatable. I can still remember almost four decades ago when I was training with the Finn dinghy in winter, how I first had to put the frozen mainsheet on a heater in the morning to get it moving again, how icicles formed under the rubbing strake when sailing from the spray, from Baltic Sea salt water, mind you. How we sat in a boiling hot bathing pool with several boys after training and could have screamed in pain when our frozen hands and feet thawed out. I doubt that such training sessions were useful. And to this day, I'm still not drawn to my home turf during the cold season.

But to get back on topic, everyone is welcome to decide for themselves. For me, a call for a ban on winter sailing, which is what the whole discussion would amount to, is once again a typical example of the rampant safety mentality. As if we didn't already have enough rules and bans. I always think of the sign on the hob: "Be careful, the hob can get hot".

Winter regattas are well-intentioned leisure activities. Nobody is forced to take part in one. As with summer regattas, everyone signs up to take part at their own risk. And that's how it should be, isn't it? Self-determination, free decision.

Lars Bolle

Editor-in-Chief YACHT Digital

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