Dear readers,

I am envious. Last weekend the new sports school in Warnemünde was opened. Warnemünde. That's my old home, where I lived, spent my youth and received my sailing training. In a Finn dinghy, at competitive level. Our base was the sports school on the Mittelmole. I can still type in the office telephone number off the top of my head today.

What a time it was! Out of school at lunchtime, children's and youth sports school, which supported sailing, on the train from Rostock to Warnemünde, a quick lunch, a change of clothes, rigging up and out on the water.

I am envious of what has now been created on the central pier. An ultra-modern sports school with a gym, fitness centre, apartments, conference rooms and a boat hall. When I see the pictures, it almost brings tears to my eyes. The apartments alone! There used to be up to four beds in one room, these worn-out things that you could fold up to store your bedding. For washing and showering, we went to the large communal rooms.

Or the fitness centre. It used to be something like a cross between a garage and a boat shed, with just one piece of equipment in it, I think we called it Tantalus. It was a multifunctional piece of equipment where several people could do their exercises at the same time. If all the wires connecting the weights to the pull bars were intact and the rust hadn't eaten away too much at the pulleys. The room was unheated, but it didn't matter, we were warm in winter anyway.

In the former regatta corridor, where a new multi-storey building now stands, we sat on cycle ergometers, even then with a panoramic view of the lakes breaking at the pier. We each had a lake beneath us.

Sports hall? There wasn't one. We travelled a few kilometres, mostly by bike, to the traditional ship, the first merchant ship in the GDR, which had a sports hall in its belly as a museum ship.

Of course, the conditions were very good by GDR standards, but not comparable to what is now available to sailors and other athletes.

The new sports school is said to have cost around 37 million euros. That sounds like a lot. And the new building took three years, a long time, longer than planned. No matter. What is 37 million in view of the billions that politicians are currently juggling with? What's three years? I live on a feeder road to the "new" A26 coastal motorway, which will eventually run from Stade to the A7 motorway to Hamburg. The first section of the motorway was opened in 2008 and the route currently ends somewhere in the moor behind Buxtehude. Will I live to see the connection to Hamburg before I retire? What's three years for a sports school?

I am proud of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for sticking with Warnemünde and building this gem with state and federal funding. That's what I mean by proper, and as is always said now, important, sports promotion. Especially as it could increase the chances of an Olympic Games. The area in any case, with the open Baltic Sea directly in front of the harbour, is one of the best for competitive sport in Europe and ideally suited for the Olympic Games. Especially with the modern infrastructure now in place.

Lars Bolle

Editor-in-chief watersports digital

Recommended reading from the editorial team

• Click here for all previous "YACHT Week" columns