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Dear readers,

What a week. The 2023 sailing season is slowly picking up speed. Malizia is the second ship to arrive in Newport. We ourselves took our catamaran into the water for the first time on Monday and began an 8-week break in the Mediterranean.

But then, on Monday evening, we received news that rocked the sailing world: Wilfried Erdmann, the pioneer of German sailing who was respected throughout Germany for his sailing achievements, appreciated for his great books and also very popular thanks to his down-to-earth personality, succumbed to his serious illness.

Last September, I had the privilege of visiting him once again with Jochen Rieker at his home in Goltoft an der Schlei. One last big interview with YACHT, the magazine in which each of his small and big sailing adventures had taken place, which had accompanied his entire sailing life. This time, however, our visit was on a sad occasion, as the article was intended as a final report on his sailing career. Wilfried told us about a serious illness that had been with him for some time. He announced his retirement from sailing.

A difficult decision, because since Wilfried set foot on the first "Kathena" in 1965, sailing had dominated his life. Saying goodbye to this life is not news that passes easily. His readers were also deeply moved by this news. Because no-one in Germany - and I'm sure of this - brought more people to sailing over many decades than Wilfried Erdmann.

The relationship with his readers and fans is therefore a very special one, one that doesn't happen very often. Not only because of the admiration for his achievements and the many miles that Wilfried has left in his wake - that too, of course! Plus his inspiring books and fantastic lectures. In the many comments on Facebook about Wilfried's death, there was always a great sense of gratitude from his fans. Thanks for living a life at sea. Wilfried was a role model. A trailblazer for many.

For this reason, many of his fans also felt a particularly strong and intimate relationship with Wilfried, as if they had known him personally for years. Many read his books at the very beginning of their sailing careers and accompanied him on board during his adventures. And in all the decades of sailing, Wilfried was always there: whether on land on the bedside table, on board in the locker or in everyday life on board in many actions, views and decisions that they had learnt and internalised from Wilfried's books.

What's more, Wilfried Erdmann was a man you simply had to like, who never seemed aloof because of his achievements, but was always modest. A man you could meet on his boat and have a beer with him sitting on the jetty. Or ring his doorbell unannounced in Goltoft on the Schlei - countless fans seem to have done this - and all reported that Wilfried and his wife Astrid always made time for them.

A commenter on Facebook posted a picture from his cockpit at anchor in the Mediterranean the day before yesterday. "I'm only here now because of you," he wrote underneath.

I feel the same way.

My story with Wilfried began at the age of 11, in the spring of 1997, in the cold, grey and dreary time between New Year and the beginning of spring, which is always so long. Nobody in my family had anything to do with sailing back then. But then I came across a few copies of YACHT. I thought what it described was pretty cool: Travelling on the water, gliding quickly over the waves. It described how to build a segger dinghy yourself and how a roll tack works in a dinghy. So I probably would have become a dinghy or even a regatta sailor if a book hadn't intervened ...

In the school library, there were about one hundred metres of shelves, densely packed with books. Between them was a thin shelf labelled "Sailing". There was a book on dinghy sailing and another on the basics of navigation. And then there was a book with the title "My destiny is called Kathena". A book for young people published by Oetinger. "Hmm. But who is this Mrs Kathena - and why is it on the sailing shelf? Well ... there's a boat on it after all. And written by an earthman". Of course I was interested. I also found sailing "quite funny" somehow. But for an eleven-year-old schoolboy, the idea was still a bit further away than a dinghy.

Nevertheless, I borrowed it. I wanted to know what the man had experienced. And at first I was amazed that such a thing was even possible: sailing around the world on a boat that is as long as our living room. After reading the first few pages, I carried the book home in my rucksack like a hot stone. It was literally burning inside, I could hardly wait to unpack it again. That same evening I had already cracked the first 100 pages of the book. I don't think I've ever held a book in my hand for so long. After school the next day, I headed straight to the local bookshop, where I ordered "My destiny is called Kathena". That wasn't really necessary as I had borrowed it for a fortnight. But that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to own a copy. I had to have it.

I had already realised within the first 100 pages that the book would change my life. Everything that Wilfried experienced there ... the great sea passages with the small boat, the distant countries and the great adventures. That was what I wanted to experience one day.

To this day, it is the book that has influenced me the most. I'm sure that many sailors can tell a similar story about the book. When I open it, I am suddenly the eleven-year-old Johannes again, discovering the sailing world through Wilfried's eyes. Everything I have experienced in the almost two decades since my first Atlantic crossing is then momentarily gone. I marvel, dream, pause and savour every page. I am on board the small, wooden Kathena, whose wormholes Wilfried pragmatically patched with toothpicks. I smell the damp wood, taste the salt on his hands, hear the flapping of the old cotton sails.

Today I am considerably older than Wilfried was back then. At my current age, Wilfried had already sailed around the world twice and was on parental leave for three years with his wife Astrid and son Kym. That also connects us. Because we are also currently on board our boat with our two sons. But "only" for eight weeks on a loop through Greece, while Wilfried sailed with his young family from New Zealand to France on a 10-metre boat.

After "My destiny is called Kathena", I devoured the entire book series in the years that followed and almost ran my nose over the pictures, I soaked up all the details. When Wilfried invited us on board his Kathena in the summer of 2018, I was able to list exactly what had changed there since 1985. That's how well I knew the boat from the pictures.

As a teenager, I devoured the book "Sailing with Wilfried Erdmann", a guide to long-distance sailing, like a novel. His teachings in it have shaped me. No matter what I do on board here and now. Many things remind me of him. From the colourful Liros sheets, which he also had on board on Kathena Nui and which I of course tie to the clew, not shackle, to the packet of spaghetti that Wilfried loved so much. For our wedding, Wilfried gave us a barometer that we will always treasure.

Then came the year 2000, Wilfried's website and the second non-stop journey around the world against the wind. Throughout the journey, I recorded every position report on a large world map above my bed. At the beginning of the journey, we didn't have an internet connection at home and I had to bribe a classmate with a Snickers every week so that he would print out the latest report for me.

"We have to go to Cuxhaven," was my only argument as his arrival approached. Just like with the first book. A necessity. I convinced the family to go on a trip. Excited, I walked up and down the pier all morning. Someone from the other fans had news that Wilfried had been spotted in the Elbe estuary. The tension grew. Then "Kathena Nui" was suddenly spotted in the middle of a group of other yachts. Clearly recognisable by the green and white genoa. The rest is a blur in my memory. Wilfried in the mast. Crowds of people. Foghorns. Kathena Nui. The arrival was simply phenomenal.

After the press had backed up their stories on tape and Kodak film, the rows on the jetty thinned out and I dared to take a step closer to "Kathena Nui". Years later, Wilfried and Astrid were sitting on the IKEA sofa in my student flat in Kiel and we were reminiscing about the arrival when Wilfried suddenly asked: "Don't tell me you had a book signed back then" - one reach into the shelf and there it was. Signed on 23 July 2001, like from a bookshop. I bought it especially for the reception and never read it afterwards. But there was a second reading edition on the shelf.

I already had my signed book under my arm back in Cuxhaven, but I wanted to linger a little longer and savour the closeness to my hero Wilfried and his boat. I held on to the second railing support from the front and tried to soak up as many details and impressions as possible. Wilfried talked about how well his "Kathena Nui" had done again, putting his own performance in the shade. That's how he was. The ship also looked like it had just come out of the shipyard. The strong, beautifully shaped aluminium hull, the colourful Liros lines, the snow-white, sanded deck. The most beautiful ship in the world.

The reception came to an end much quicker than I would have liked. Wilfried, Astrid and Kym wanted to make their way into town, Wilfried spoke of a steak the size of "wind force 10", which was now due. Next to me, I recognised YACHT editor-in-chief Jochen Rieker, my future boss at YACHT.

A job that Wilfried later also gave me.

I can't believe how much he has influenced my life.

I am asked again and again - and even more often it is taken for granted - whether we are related. Sure, both long-distance sailors, both write books, both are called Erdmann. At some point, Astrid started to introduce me as her "foster son". What an honour. And it's true: Wilfried has not only instilled the dream of the sea in my heart through his books - and his love of books - but has also repeatedly given me a helping hand in everyday life on land.

Wilfried and Astrid proofread my first book, arranged some of my first lectures at sailing clubs, with which I also managed to finance a boat as a student. Finally, my job at YACHT, my sailing career.

Wilfried was not only my great role model in terms of sailing and journalism. Above all as a person. A role model in every respect. And my friend.

At home in our living room, there is an old Optimist dinghy upright on the wall. Two years ago I told Wilfried that I wanted to build a bookshelf out of it for my sailing books and reserved a particularly wide shelf for his books. One floor below is a row of books that Wilfried has given me over the years. Not all sailing literature. But almost every book has a short note on the first page about where he read it. One book, for example, says "December 1984". That was not only a good year before I was born, but also at a time when Wilfried was battling his way through the Southern Ocean for the first time with "Kathena Nui" on his "Magical Route".

Wilfried has won many such journeys, such battles against the sea and against loneliness. He has now lost the last one, against his serious illness. But he will remain unforgotten.

Johannes Erdmann,

Editor YACHT

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The week in pictures:

Recommended reading from the editorial team:

The Ocean Race

Always up to date- Daily updates

The fourth leg of The Ocean Race is in the books with a win for 11th Hour Racing, the crisis management at "Holcim-PRB" and now also "Guyot" is in full swing. Last week's mast breakage forced the crew and co-skipper Robert Stanjek to abandon a leg for the second time, and the future of the team is uncertain. As always, yacht.de provides daily news, background information and updates on the race!

Wilfried Erdmann

Germany's exceptional sailor is dead

The gap he leaves behind is actually impossible to fill. After a serious illness, the only German to have sailed solo non-stop around the world, both east and west, passed away on Monday afternoon

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