January
Croatia will join the Schengen area at the beginning of the year. This eliminates border controls at the land border with Slovenia. Furthermore, owner and charter crews no longer have to clear in and out when crossing the sea border in Croatia, Italy or Slovenia.
At the age of 85, King Harald V wants to give up sailing for good. The Norwegian monarch successfully took part in international regattas until the very end. Now it's over.
At the beginning of the year, changes to the Recreational Craft Driving Licence Ordinance come into force. Among other things, the limit for the licence requirement for electric motors will be lowered to 7.5 kW, which corresponds to around 10 hp. Owners of boats with more powerful electric motors will therefore need a licence from now on. Or they will have to switch to a smaller motor.
Ready for a thrilling Ocean Race: spectacular images right at the start of the legendary team regatta off Alicante. The first sprint over 1,900 nautical miles leads to the Cape Verde Islands for the first time. Germany is once again cheering Boris Herrmann and his team Malizia on. The man from Hamburg and his crew are aiming for the top.
After a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic, the boot trade fair in Düsseldorf is opening its doors again. One common denominator is unmistakable among the cruising yachts on show: maximum space.
Pavlo Dontsov is Seamaster of the Year - the 29-year-old Opti coach from Odessa in Ukraine is honoured for his commitment to sailing in times of war as part of the Flagship Night at boot Düsseldorf. While the war rages in his homeland, Dontsov looks after a group of young sailors stranded in exile and distracts them with regatta sailing.
After Europe's Yachts of the Year were repeatedly honoured online due to the coronavirus pandemic, the big party with an audience will finally take place again in January 2023. The boatbuilding Oscars will be awarded at the boot trade fair in Düsseldorf. For 20 years now, the best of the best have been selected and honoured following an elaborate testing procedure.
Insolvency proceedings are opened for the long-established water sports outfitter A.W. Niemeyer. The reasons given for the financial difficulties are the coronavirus crisis, cost increases, the war in Ukraine, delivery problems and a general reluctance to buy on the part of customers.
The hoped-for comeback of para-sailing at the Paralympic Games has been cancelled for the time being. This means that the 2028 Games in Los Angeles will take place without sailing competitions. Nevertheless, the World Sailing Association wants to maintain its commitment and is banking on new opportunities for para-sailing in the future.
february
Jessica Watson's solo sailing adventure made into a film: Netflix is filming the 16-year-old Australian's circumnavigation of the globe. Alone at sea for 210 days, she braved storms and loneliness to secure the record as the youngest non-stop circumnavigator on her return.
Storm shock before the second day of racing at the SailGP in Sydney. As the fleet of F50 foilers stands on land, a storm strikes and wreaks havoc. Nobody is injured, but the racing calendar is thrown into disarray.
The last maritime weather report programme on Deutschlandfunk radio will be broadcast at the end of February. With the advent of the internet, smartphones and numerous weather apps, the marine weather report on the radio has already become a nostalgic side note in recent years - now it is history.
March
Hamburg entrepreneur Harm Müller-Spreer is getting even more involved in the 52 Super Series. The "Platoon" owner and two-time TP52 world champion becomes a co-partner of the leading keelboat racing series for professionals, also known in sailing circles as the "little sister of the America's Cup".
Pure drama and high tension in the Ocean Race. First Team Malizia's Dutch sailor Rosalin Kuiper injures her head, then Boris Herrmann's team wins the Ocean Race leg around Cape Horn with a lead of just 18 nautical miles over the Swiss team Holcim - PRB.
April
After the initial great excitement surrounding the new small craft licence, considerable simplifications for the commercial operation of recreational craft are published. Among other things, the transition period is extended until 2027.
In spring, torrential rain falls over Croatia and Italy for weeks on end, causing severe flooding and numerous deaths. Researchers suspect that the persistent stationary lows are caused by climate change.
The "Rigmor von Glückstadt" is Germany's oldest sailing ship still in working order. This year, the association that operates the traditional ship, which in the past made life difficult for smugglers as a customs cruiser, is celebrating the 170th birthday of the "Rigmor".
A triumphant arrival for Kirsten Neuschäfer in Les Sables-d'Olonne. The South African with German roots wins the third edition of the Golden Globe Race and becomes the first woman ever to win a race around the world. During her 233 days alone at sea, Neuschäfer also manages the spectacular rescue of the Finn Tapio Lehtinen in the Indian Ocean.
Shock at the Ocean Race: on the fourth leg from Itajaí in Brazil to Newport in the USA, Team Holcim - PRB suffers a broken mast. At the time, the team was leading both the stage and the overall classification. The crew remains uninjured.
May
Eight glasses for the silent soloist: the sailing world has reacted with great sadness and sympathy to the death of Germany's exceptional sailor Wilfried Erdmann. His two solo non-stop trips around the world, especially the one against the prevailing wind direction, will be remembered forever. As will his calm and down-to-earth manner, which he never lost. Wilfried Erdmann died on 8 May at the age of 83.
Guyot Environnement - Team Europe has now also broken its mast in the Ocean Race. On the fifth leg, the crew with co-skipper Robert Stanjek is hit around 600 nautical miles east of Newport. Team Malizia meanwhile sailed a record-breaking 641.13 nautical miles in 24 hours, but the official world record was ultimately awarded to the competition from "Holcim - PRB".
Tom Slingsby's Team Australia is simply unbeatable in the SailGP. The Aussis fall off the foils shortly before the finish line at the season finale in San Francisco. But it was only a moment of shock. They quickly pick up speed again and are finally able to collect the fabulous prize money of one million US dollars.
The German Sailing Association decides to create a special fund for Olympic candidates who have children. This fund will be used to finance additional costs for travelling and childcare, among other things.
The sailing coup of the year: In the SailGP, a German team is set to take off in the World Sailing League for the first time in its fourth season. Inspired by four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, helmsman Erik Heil leads his crew from the Germany SailGP Team into the races. Their illustrious opponents include the Australian record winners around Tom Slingsby, the New Zealand America's Cup defenders around Peter Burling and the British team Emirates GBR with Sir Ben Ainslie.
June
In an interview with YACHT, marine biologist Dr Watermann not only describes the desolate state of the Baltic Sea. He also provides exciting suggestions on how the major environmental problems could be overcome.
Just in time for its 90th birthday, the "Gorch Fock I", moored in Stralsund, is undergoing a complete refurbishment estimated at around ten million euros. The aim is to keep the museum ship at least afloat for the next 25 years.
Just in time for the start of the season, fundamentally changed navigation rules are coming into force in the national parks on the German North Sea coast. From now on, the newly designated "Special Protection Areas" may only be navigated in designated fairways from 15 April to 1 October. Anchoring and dropping dry is now only permitted at a small number of specified locations.
The orca attacks on sailing yachts off the Iberian Peninsula continue unabated. In addition to drastic defence measures, an orca pinger is being used for the first time to drive the animals away using acoustic signals.
Kieler Woche, the world's largest sailing event, and Europe's largest water sports brand YACHT are joining forces. As part of a media partnership, the entire spectrum of the sailing festival will be covered on yacht.de. In addition to daily reports, there will be insights behind the scenes, news tickers and video summaries of the individual days. The articles are accessed thousands of times.
At the end of the Ocean Race, the joys and sorrows are so close together that there is literally a bang. Thanks to a show of strength, Team Guyot manages to catch up with the rest of the fleet in Aarhus, Denmark, with its repaired Imoca. At the Kiel fly-by, more than 25,000 sailing fans celebrate Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia and the Berlin "Guyot" sailors. However, there is a crash between Team Guyot and 11th Hour Racing off The Hague, causing both ships to retire for the final leg. For the first time, the Ocean Race is decided at the green table: The US team 11th Hour Racing is the winner of the 14th edition.
July
The pufferfish introduced into the Mediterranean from the Red Sea is spreading. After the highly poisonous fish has already become a plague in Turkey and Greece, specimens are now ending up in fishing nets in the Adriatic.
The plans of Tobias Goldschmidt, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of the Environment, for a "Baltic Sea National Park" are causing a stir. There are fears of massive restrictions for water sports, as almost the entire east coast of the federal state is to be placed under protection.
There are increasing indications that the online charter platforms "myrentboat.com" and "Zizoo" are systematically defrauding charter customers of their money. As the season progresses, YACHT receives numerous reports from bruised customers, some of whom are now going to court.
Memories of the 1979 drama - the 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race gets off to a stormy start, forcing more than 100 crews to abandon the race. Numerous boats struggle with breakage, one yacht even runs aground. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink's "Sign for Com" gets off lightly and is the best German boat.
August
After 25 years, the Svendborg Classic Regatta is finally being cancelled. The once largest classic regatta in Denmark suffered from a lack of participants and had to be cancelled in 2022.
The ORC World Championship off Kiel begins with gusts of up to 44 knots. In the final, however, the German sailors on "Outsider" and "Red Bandit" secured silver and bronze in Class A.
Attempt number five of a non-stop circumnavigation of the world by Norbert Sedlacek with his volcanic fibre Open-60 also fails prematurely. Damage to the canting keel put an end to the Austrian's "Ant Arctic Lab" project for good, and he decided to devote himself to other sustainable projects from then on.
This man is simply unbeatable: in Tampere, Finland, Heiko Kröger takes the World Championship crown in the 2.4 mR class for the 13th time. He secured the gold medal just one race before the end of the series.
The seventh day of the World Championships in The Hague is one to forget for the German Sailing Team. Tears of disappointment even flow in the German 470 camp. Breakages and crashes caused upheaval in other classes.
The sailing boys go ashore: after five years of sailing around the world, the sailing boys cross their starting course and arrive in Port-Saint-Louis in France. The youngsters, who started out as greenhorns, end up with 40,000 nautical miles in their wake - and have also built up a considerable fan base on social media. There are now plans to immortalise the trip in a cinema film.
Half a century ago, Germany's sea sailors sensationally won the Admiral's Cup for the first time. The most successful yacht was Albert Büll's "Saudade" in 1973. In an exclusive interview, the 85-year-old from Hamburg looks back on the golden era of yachting.
Sailors marvel at an impressive natural spectacle in the Øresund: a huge school of tuna is on the prowl in the strait between Sweden and Danish Zealand. The large fish frequently jump out of the water. Tuna safaris are organised in response, but hunting the animals is prohibited.
A team of reporters from "Spiegel" and "Frontal 21" set sail on the Bavaria 50 "Andromeda", which may have been used by the perpetrators of the attack on the Nordstream pipeline. The journalists want to reconstruct their journey to the scenes in the Baltic Sea.
September
Out of nowhere, the wing rig of the New Zealand F50 catamaran collapses during the SailGP off Saint-Tropez. The fact that nobody on board was injured when the parts hit the water was nothing short of a miracle.
The news that the charter brands Sunsail and Moorings will in future operate their fleets exclusively with monohulls from Dufour has caused a stir. The older Beneteau and Jeanneau models are being phased out.
With Nico Lunven and Rosie Kuiper, two Malizians are joining the Swiss team Holcim - PRB. Lunven will compete directly against Boris Herrmann for the Vendée Globe 2024. Kuiper's medium-term goal is to build up a crew for the Ocean Race Europe in 2025.
The renaturalisation measures at Darßer Ort begin. The existing emergency harbour will no longer be available as a berth for the rescue cruiser or damaged vessels. After several delays, the long-planned Prerow island harbour is due to be completed at the start of the 2024 season. It is located around 1.5 nautical miles to the east of the existing Darßer Ort port of refuge off the coast at the end of a 720 metre-long pier.
The first test of strength before the 37th America's Cup, which will be held off Barcelona in 2024, is won by the US team American Magic with superstar Tom Slingsby. The Australian had already brought the Americans luck in 2013 when they started a spectacular comeback and ultimately won 9:8 against Team Emirates New Zealand.
Harm Müller-Spreer and his team first secure the Rolex TP52 World Championship title on "Platoon" and then win the 52 Super Series season championship a month later. The world championship heart-stopping finale off Barcelona and the championship showdown in the bay of Palma are highly dramatic and are only decided in the final metres. German professional sailor Michael Müller is also part of the international crew.
Max Kohlhoff and Ole Burzinski win the world championship in the former Olympic two-man keelboat. The reigning champion Diego Negri has to admit defeat after winning two titles in a row. The North Germans thus join the prestigious ranks of Dennis Connor, Paul Cayard and Robert Stanjek, who have won the Henkelpott in previous years.
october
The sinking of skipper Martin Daldrup's German yacht "Jambo" has stirred the local sailing scene. Around 900 nautical miles off Brazil, his Bavaria 34 sank after colliding with an unknown object. Daldrup climbs into the life raft. He is later rescued by a freighter.
In the top ClubSwan duel between Italy and Germany's best racing swans, the Azzurri win the world championship final. Marcus Brennecke's "Hatari" takes bronze and secures victory in the season class ranking.
What the footballers can't do, Hamburg's sailors can: the NRV wins the championship trophy for the seventh time in the eleventh Bundesliga season. In their home match on the Outer Alster, the record champions knocked the Münchener Yacht-Club, who had travelled to Hamburg as league leaders, off top spot.
Storm surge of the century on the Baltic Sea: The German and Danish Baltic Sea coasts are hit by a catastrophic storm surge, the likes of which have not been seen for 120 years. Dykes break, harbour facilities are completely destroyed and countless boats sink directly at the jetties or are totalled. Strong winds blowing from the east for days, which developed into a hurricane-force storm, combined with a water level that was already significantly higher than normal, led to the event of the century. Although the storm surge had been predicted by meteorologists, the extent of the damage exceeded the imagination of most people.
November
After a furious race to catch up, Boris Herrmann and Will Harris finish seventh in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink, by far the youngest crew in the Class 40 field, reach Martinique in 13th place, while the Imoca team of Fabrice Amedeo and co-skipper Andreas Baden also cross the finish line.
The President of the German Sailing Association, Mona Küppers, and blue water sailor Burghard Pieske are honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit. Küppers receives the order primarily for her commitment to gender equality, Pieske for his services to socially disadvantaged young people with whom he goes sailing.
After 2010 and 2021, Tom Slingsby is once again voted World Sailor of the Year by the World Sailing Association. Kirsten Neuschäfer wins this award for the first time with her irresistible victory in the Golden Globe Race.
The yacht photo of the year was taken by Samo Vidic from Slovenia on board Alinghi's AC75. The adrenalin-fuelled picture shows the crew exposed to enormous forces at speeds of more than 40 knots.
A whole issue of sustainability: In our Special edition 24a we deal with 100 pages of topics relating to the question of how sailing can be better harmonised with the protection of the environment and nature in the future. From the eco-balance of a sailing yacht to sustainability in boat building and the recycling of disused sports boats. Efforts to rethink professional regatta sport are also highlighted, as are marine conservation projects under sail.
December
Scientists at the Universities of Copenhagen and Victoria are using wave data and artificial intelligence to develop a formula for predicting monster waves. This discovery could make shipping safer.
Yoann Richomme wins, Boris Herrmann proves his strength with fourth place in the Transat-Solo Retour à La Base. The Hamburg native wants to fight for a podium place at the Vendée Globe 2024/2025.
The 78th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race starts on Boxing Day with 113 boats on the entry list. Among them is Christian Opielok from Hamburg with "Rockall 8".
YACHT wishes all readers a good start to a successful 2024!
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