Anniversary: 25 years of "Peter von Seestermühe"

The steel ocean-going yacht "Peter von Seestermühe" who is celebrating her 80th birthday this summer, will be celebrating another very special anniversary in the 2016 season. It was exactly 25 years ago that the then 25-year-old Christoph von Reibnitz signed the purchase contract for the 18 metre long Yawl.

Sailing, lots of sailing

The plan of the young man only knew a rough objective. "It was clear that the ship should continue to sail, sail a lot," says von Reibnitz today. He still remembers the farewell speech at the Academic Sailing Club in Kiel, under whose banner "the Peter" once circumnavigated the world.

"High waves and calm lulls, roaring storms and gentle breezes are 'Peter's daily bread. Clammy fingers and sunbathing on deck, Nordic glaciers and palm-fringed beaches are all part of it," says von Reibnitz. "Busy shipyard times and top-class sailing events, harbour metropolises and quiet bays are on his course. Countless sailors have signed on and off, friendships for life have been made."

25 years later, von Reibnitz is happy to say that the time under his ownership has left a lasting impression. marvellous history of the yacht to tie in with this. Because the task that the young man once set himself was a big one. "Back then, nobody knew where the journey would take us," says the owner looking back. "Only a few very good friends believed in the project at all." And so the new start as a charter yacht was under the same star as the construction for the transatlantic feeder regatta in the year of the launch.

Built for the ocean

Students from the Danzig Academic Sailing Club were quick to take action at the time. In cooperation with the Gdansk shipyard, the Technical University and a few patrons, they managed to organise the construction in just 52 days. The hull was completed during shipment overseas, from where the regatta was launched.

The ASVers often sailed across the Atlantic with the "Peter", and Christoph von Reibnitz also continued this chapter after taking over the yacht. "When we sailed into Cuxhaven from New York on the North Atlantic Regatta, I wrote in the logbook: '...that closed a circle for us! How nice that circles have no end."

Day-to-day business of superlatives

To mark the anniversary, the owner has compiled a collection of figures from a quarter of a century of "Peter".