The news came out of the blue at the beginning of February: the NfS announced the closure of Damp marina until 31 December 2024. For over 300 owners with permanent berths and the local businesses in the charter and service sector, this was a blow to the bottom line. The closure came very late; other harbours that were similarly affected, such as Maasholm, had already closed their facilities much earlier, but initially until the start of the season, i.e. at the beginning of April. Damp closed late, but then for the whole year, mainly to prevent ships from entering the harbour.
Bad news for the owners. "The harbour operators' communication with the permanent berth holders is a real problem. We only received a letter for the first time at the beginning of February, in which only the closure of the harbour for the whole year was communicated," says Mathias Metzger, Chairman of the Yacht Club Damp. Of course, the club is aware of the extent of the damage and understands the difficult situation, but "it would simply help if the operator had sought dialogue and informed us earlier. So now many are faced with the question of what to do? A few have managed to find another berth, but these are currently in short supply on the coast." Of course, everyone had realised that it would be difficult to open at the start of the season, but they had hoped for at least a later start or a partial opening. Some members who are already retired are now planning to simply crane later and then go sailing for two or three months. But many of them can't do that.
According to Damp's mayor Barbara Feyock, one reason for the closure was that it had not yet been clarified whether there was still debris at the bottom, and there was even talk of two missing containers. In addition, the commissioning of the repairs is taking a long time, as the state has not yet published the funding guidelines from the storm surge fund and the municipality of Damp and the tenant of the harbour, Ostsee-Resort Damp, have not yet been able to agree on how the approximately four million euros, which according to an initial expert opinion are necessary for a restoration, will be shared. She also emphasised that the closure could be lifted again as soon as a repair schedule was in place.
Now there is movement in the matter
Mayor Feyock told YACHT today: "We have a promise from the state that the details of the funding will be published this month. There will also be a municipal council meeting on 20 February where we will decide how to proceed."
And possible creative partial solutions are emerging, as Martin Janssen, Managing Director of Yachtzentrum Damp and the charter company Real Sailing, who is directly affected by the closure with his company, explains. "For us, it's about 20 jobs in the yacht service that depend on the harbour. We were able to bring all of our winter berths into the harbour, but if we can't use the crane and some of the jetties for craning in and setting up the masts in the spring, we will have real problems. How will we get the ships back into the water? And how will we get new orders for next winter?"
He was also caught off guard by the lockdown, as nobody had spoken to him about it before publication. They are therefore working flat out to find a solution. "I have commissioned a sworn harbour construction expert, who has already been here, to investigate whether a partial opening is possible. The report will be available to us in a few days and I will make it available to the municipality."
However, the inspection had already shown that it should be possible to partially operate the jetties behind the harbour master's building, which have little to no impact, if some manageable damage is repaired at short notice or a few metres of some bridges are closed. "Partial operation with around 150 berths should be possible," says Janssen.
Of course, there is still the problem of the partially sagging stone breakwater that protects the harbour. In some areas, it is only 70 centimetres high. However, the inner area of the harbour behind the crane is the best protected, according to Janssen. The expert opinion he has commissioned will probably also include a swell simulation.
Janssen also has an update on the municipality's statements that two missing containers are probably still in the harbour basin: "We were out in the harbour with the salvagers and divers for days after the storm. The sea rescuers told us that parts of the containers had washed up just outside Damp." And during the dives, they also fished fridges with drinks that were in the containers out of the harbour basin. But it can't be that difficult to map the harbour basin once, as this was already done in Schilksee shortly after the storm. He is optimistic that something will happen in the next few weeks so that the season in Damp can at least partially take place.
