‘Lumme’: A 20er dinghy cruiser for families, cruising and trailer transport
Stefan Schorr
· 08.08.2026
A dinghy cruiser with no fixed home port, but with ever-changing summer sailing grounds: that is precisely what makes the ‘Lumme’ so special. The 20er dinghy cruiser is only launched when a longer family sailing trip is planned, and otherwise remains safely stored in the boathouse. In this way, the boat combines what many cruising sailors are looking for: manageable effort, varied sailing areas and a high degree of independence.
“It has proved to be ideal for us,” explains the 53-year-old architect. A wooden boat that is usually kept in a shed: this conjures up horror images of a dried-out hull in one’s mind’s eye. However, as the “Lumme” is laminated, there is no such risk.
How a dinghy cruiser became a cruising boat
The boat was built in 2003 by the Fricke & Dannhus shipyard. The client was a naval architect who worked at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg. He had a considerable amount of mahogany and teak at his disposal, as well as plenty of his own ideas and requirements for his dinghy cruiser. To this day, this special client is still remembered at the shipyard in Hüde on Lake Dümmer. He wanted a more seaworthy and comfortable boat, having spent many years sailing with his wife in a 470 dinghy in the Wadden Sea. The dinghy cruiser was designed to allow them to sail to Heligoland under their own steam. Hence the boat’s name, ‘Lumme’: Germany’s only offshore island is home to the Lummenfelsen. Many species of seabird breed in this small nature reserve, including the guillemots that give the island its name. “In the end, the original owners never actually sailed to the Lummenfelsen on Heligoland,” says Rekowski. In 2012, he came across the advert for the dinghy cruiser online and snapped it up. For Bernd and Hilgrid Rekowski, it is their second family boat.
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The first one was bought in 2005, when their son Benedikt was just one year old. For seven years, they sailed the BM dinghy on Lake Unterbach near Düsseldorf. Their daughter Mara joined them from 2007 onwards. However, as the two children grew older, their desire for a larger cruising boat grew.
Why the ‘Lumme’ offers more than the standard model
A dinghy cruiser quickly emerged as the object of his desire, a feeling reinforced by a sailing trip in Brandenburg on a borrowed ‘Jolli’: ‘not too big, and preferably moulded rather than built from wooden planks on frames, because that requires less maintenance’. But it has to be made of wood. Rekowski: “I can walk around the boat show in Düsseldorf and not a single one of the mass-produced yachts touches my soul.” The moulded cruising boat, on the other hand, captivates the self-employed architect. Especially as ‘Lumme’ is fitted to a significantly higher standard than the standard version, thanks to the client’s extensive ideas and requests: wooden boatbuilding in a class of its own.
The design template used by Fricke & Dannhus to build its R-Yollet cruisers “with harmonious lines and an optimal underwater hull” was drawn up in 1999 by the internationally renowned design firm Van de Stadt in the Netherlands. “We build the modern, laminated hull using positive moulds under vacuum pressure,” says the shipyard, describing the manufacturing process. “We carefully select the longitudinally veneered mahogany and finish it with a high-gloss two-component varnish, which we apply seven times.” “The hull of the ‘Lumme’ consists of four layers of three-millimetre-thick mahogany veneer. The superstructure, including the cabin roof, is also mould-glued,” explains shipyard manager Jens Dannhus.
It’s the many extras that make the ‘Lumme’ so special
“This boat has many special features,” continues the shipyard manager: “The hull is reinforced with a laminate so that it can safely run aground in the mudflats. The centreboard case has been reinforced to allow the use of a ballast centreboard.” The hull was built around 30 centimetres higher than in the standard version, and the superstructure was raised even further. This takes away some of the boat’s elegance, but creates plenty of space below deck. “There are probably not many 20-foot dinghy cruisers that, like ours, have a separate toilet compartment with a pump-flush toilet and a waste tank,” says owner Rekowski with delight. Passers-by have often mistaken his boat for a larger 30-foot dinghy cruiser. Four full-size berths, storage space including the spacious wardrobe on the port side, and the galley in a pull-out unit complete the cruising specification. Around the self-draining teak cockpit, large lockers hold lines, fenders and other equipment.
The ‘Lumme’ weighs 350 kilograms more than the standard touring version, and its minimum draught increases from 20 to 25 centimetres. The easily adjustable draught, thanks to the retractable centreboard and rudder blade, and the mast that is easy to lower, open up a wide range of sailing areas for dinghy cruiser crews.
At home in ever-changing haunts
The Rekowski family’s first summer sailing trip aboard “Lumme” took them to Lake Müritz and Lake Nebel. They spent four weeks exploring this varied inland sailing area. “We were the only boat out on Lake Nebel,” recalls Bernd Rekowski. “We tied the mooring lines round trees and had a campfire on the beach in the evenings.” During their first storm, the dinghy cruiser novices still opted for the tactic of “sails down and outboard motor on”. “Later on, we often just sailed away from the menacing dark clouds.”
After the trip, “Lumme” will remain in the boathouse of master boatbuilder Jens Christen in Waren an der Müritz. “In the immediate vicinity of our home town of Düsseldorf, we can’t find a sailing area rewarding enough to warrant a permanent berth there,” explains Rekowski. “We like to cover some distance and don’t want to be constantly sailing back and forth from one shore to the other.” They’ve also noticed that friends with moorings in the Netherlands spend a great deal of time in the car, leaving them relatively little time to actually sail their boat. ‘Lumme’ will therefore only be collected from Waren again in the summer of the following year and towed just 30 kilometres further.
“We sailed down the River Peene towards the lake,” recalls their son Benedikt, now 17. “It was a real adventure.” The family sails on Lake Kummerow and spends quite some time on the Achterwasser. The tranquillity of Usedom captivates the Düsseldorfers. As they sail across the Greifswald Bodden, they encounter one-metre-high waves – “that was quite impressive”. The trip ends in Stralsund and remains an exciting memory to this day.
The ‘Lumme’ is a family affair
Since then, ‘Lumme’ has spent most of her time out of the water in a shed at the shipyard on Lake Dümmer, which is around 150 kilometres from Düsseldorf. Six extended summer cruises have been undertaken since 2012. As a self-employed architect and a teacher, the parents are able to make the most of “Bene” and Mara’s school holidays. For their trip to Sweden, the family use a trailer to load the boat onto the ferry that runs between Germany and Trelleborg. Father Bernd remembers the journey along the Swedish east coast from Kalmar to Nyköping as the most beautiful one so far. “We actually wanted to go all the way to Stockholm, but we didn’t quite manage it,” says Mara. On the crossing to the island of Öland, the Rekowskis gain some “ocean-going experience”.
At the start, amongst the skerries, there are two or three instances of running aground, during which the GRP-clad wooden centreboard swings upwards in its centreboard case. But the crew quickly learns to read the wave patterns better and better, enabling them to spot rocks just below the water’s surface in good time. The ‘Lumme’s’ shallow draught once again offers plenty of freedom when choosing a route. In the evenings, we drop anchor and pick blueberries on the shore.
If, before the next summer holidays, the family council votes by a majority in favour of a holiday in the south of France without a boat, everyone knows that ‘Lumme’ will be fine in the shed for a few months longer. The Rekowskis’ “Jolli” won’t be taken out of the boathouse again until all family members are really in the mood for a summer sailing trip together. So, in 2018, they’ll be sailing on Lake Constance. Mara particularly loves the mix of lovely places, the chance to sail longer distances and the excellent water quality. So ‘Lumme’ stays in a local hall afterwards, ready to set sail again on the Swabian Sea in 2019. As Hilgrid Rekowski had previously injured her shoulder whilst skiing, the second Lake Constance trip didn’t take place until 2020. “It was the perfect Covid-safe holiday.”
Small on-board technology, big benefits
When it comes to power supply, ‘Lumme’ is self-sufficient. All the lights (including the navigation lights) have been converted to LED technology. A solar panel charges the lithium-ion batteries. A nice addition now would be an electric outboard motor, which would have less of a negative impact on the boat’s trim than the current 8 PS petrol engine. “The original owner probably chose a rather generously sized engine to have a safety margin in the Wadden Sea.”
The family from Düsseldorf find it interesting how differently their “Lumme” is perceived. “In eastern Germany, we’ve often heard admiring comments about our beautiful wooden boat,” says Bernd Rekowski. On Lake Constance, however, the family of four feels they are being looked at with a touch of pity whilst out on their relatively small dinghy cruiser.
The dinghy cruiser is a real all-rounder
On this late-summer’s day, they’re out sailing on the Steinhuder Meer once again. Father, son and daughter set off from the harbour of the Steinhuder Meer Yacht Club in Wunstorf. However, the sunny weather and favourable wind more than make up for the almost inevitably low water level of the lake west of Hanover. The mainsail rises quickly up the aluminium mast, the jib is unfurled and set out on the boom. The family decides against using a spinnaker. Bernd Rekowski describes the “Lumme” as a three-line boat: “We’ve got the forestay, the mainsheet and the mooring line – that’s it. Rather than sailors constantly trimming the sails, we’re more like wanderers on the water. We travel to discover new things.”
“This boat is and always will be a real hit with us,” says the Düsseldorf-based architect happily. “It doesn’t tie us down too much, and we can use it to explore all sorts of different waters. Fortunately, the whole family is always keen to try something new. Perhaps we’ll go sailing in the Wadden Sea one day. Or in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany.” Or even to the Lummenfelsen.
This article first appeared in YACHT 8/2022.
Technical specifications of the 20er dinghy cruiser “Lumme”
- Designer: Van de Stadt
- Shipyard: Fricke & Dannhus
- Construction method: Moulded laminated timber
- Fuselage length: 7.75 m
- Width: 2.50 m
- Draught: 0.25–1.65 m
- Weight: 1.1 t
- Wing area: 26.0 m²
- Lift-to-drag ratio: 4.9