It took Max Gasser from the Wäschbruck Radolfzell water sports club and Elias Fauser from the Constance Yacht Club 21 hours and 30 minutes to complete their very special challenge. Yesterday morning, they arrived at the Constance marina at around half past seven, having started the day before.
The two 18-year-olds have dared to do what no-one in their boat class has officially done before: They circumnavigated Lake Constance in their Laser dinghies, which are only 4.23 metres long, non-stop. The two athletes spent the 85 nautical miles alone on their boats. A motorised support boat was only used for their safety.
"It was exciting, exhausting and thrilling," reports Max Gasser in an initial reaction. The "Lake Constance Challenge" was not only a great sporting challenge, but also served the purpose of campaigning against the pollution of Lake Constance by microplastics - a growing problem, as Elias Fauser is also aware, who said in the run-up to the event: "We sailors come very close to the water as an element that makes up more than 70 per cent of the earth's surface. You can really feel what a unique habitat it is. When Max and I came up with the idea for the challenge during a lull at the German Youth Championships in the Laser Radial last year, we immediately realised that we wanted to use this campaign to promote the conservation of our local waters."
With their challenge, Max Gasser and Elias Fauser collected donations to support the fight against microplastics in European inland waters. This is the goal of the Global Nature Fund and the Lake Constance Foundation also as part of their joint EU-funded project Life Blue Lakes, which supports local authorities in reducing the pollution of their waters with microplastics.
