Thomas Bonke casually grabs first the fore and then the aft line, gives his boat a gentle push aft, climbs on board and reaches for the tiller. Only then does he start the engine, and with a quiet rattle, the almost 80-year-old dinghy cruiser pushes its way between houseboats and small motorboats through the narrow harbour exit of Rechlin onto the Müritz. The summer heat hangs over the lake, the sun is shining and 3 Beaufort is forecast - a perfect sailing day. Actually.
"Here, hold this," says Bonke, hands over the tiller, takes three steps to the mast and pulls up the mainsail, which is clearly emblazoned with the characteristic "B" of the 30 dinghy cruisers. Immediately there is pressure, a lot of pressure in the sail and at the helm. The owner takes over again, furls the sail wide open and, despite the glorious sailing weather, doesn't necessarily look relaxed. Especially in those moments when strong gusts cause the aged Jolli to heel violently.
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The fear of capsizing on a dinghy cruiser is common knowledge, but for skipper Bonke it seems particularly pronounced. After all, in an emergency - which he has gone to great lengths to prevent - it would overturn an elaborately restored wooden gem with all kinds of technical refinements on board, which the owner has devised and implemented over the past eight years. The hydraulic lifting roof above the cosy cabin, for example, from which a screen for the on-board projector dangles in the harbour, the carbon rigging under a wood-look foil sheathing or the skylight embedded in the cabin roof, which allows additional daylight into the ship's interior.
A dinghy cruiser meets the requirements
"I was looking for a boat that I could rebuild and extend according to my own ideas. One that I can work on myself, also as a balance to my job," says Bonke, tightening the sheet again. Now and again, a smile even creeps onto his face. The self-employed IT consultant from Berlin spends his days in meetings and in front of his computer. The boat is supposed to be a counterbalance to this, to slow down, to challenge his hands more than his head.
Years ago, Bonke, then in his mid-40s, started looking for a boat for the Müritz. He sounded out the market, compared prices of small, new GRP yachts and came to the conclusion that an eye-pleasing wooden boat with a shallow draught for the shallow banks of the Müritz would suit him much better. A dinghy cruiser, in other words. 15s and 20s are too small for him, and he also wants his family to come along. But the market for second-hand 30s is limited, and a new build is out of the question for Bonke.
Meanwhile, at the other end of Germany, in Jemgum an der Ems, there is a '30' for sale that seems to fulfil all the criteria perfectly: classic lines, no significant damage, a friendly seller - and for a few thousand euros to boot. "It was clear that it wouldn't be a financial disaster, even though I was still putting a lot of money into it," recalls Thomas Bonke. The previous owner wants his "Lütje Welt" to be in good hands. He makes boat models in a rooftop workshop - when he promises Bonke a model of the Jolli to go with the original, the decision is made and an agreement is reached.
Optics in original condition plus gadgets
In the 1930s, the dinghy cruiser, which only later found its way to the Ems, was built at the Heidtmann shipyard in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst, which no longer exists today. It was used as a training ship for the navy; the nameplate in the cockpit is still there. Before Bonke took over the boat, it was sailed on the Outer Ems and on the North Sea coast, a challenging area. "This fact alone gave me confidence in the boat," says the current owner, who was looking for a safe ship despite everything.
He approaches his refit project in the same way as the optimisation of IT processes with which he earns his money. "In the end, the boat should look as much like its original state as possible," explains Bonke. "I had a kind of specification in my head for the realisation of my ideas, with criteria that were important to me." On the one hand, he wanted to increase comfort on board, and on the other, safety - including for single-handed trips. And none of this should be at the expense of sailing characteristics and speed.
This is something to be proud of. The "Lütje Welt" pulls away at seven knots on the Müritz. She certainly can't keep up with the speeds of a modern new build. But at a good two and a half tonnes, the Jolli also displaces far more than more recent models and has been consistently designed by its owner for living and travelling rather than racing.
"Always at a crawl, that wouldn't work"
However, Thomas Bonke needs help to realise all his ideas. "I realised early on that I couldn't do it alone. Reports from others who tried for years and gave up in the end were very helpful." Bonke is looking for an expert to guide him in dismantling and reassembling his boat the way he wants to. Someone who could play around with ideas, weigh up plans, discard them and improve them - such as sawing off the cabin roof completely and reinstalling it as a lifting roof.
In a cul-de-sac in Below, Mecklenburg, he finds what he is looking for in the Alte Werft. Master boat builder Pascal Leihs, young and enterprising, specialises in wooden boats of all kinds. "I was impressed by him, his style and the small business," says Bonke, explaining his choice.
Right from the start, he realised that he needed more living space in the cabin. "Always at a crawl, that wouldn't work," he says - keyword comfort. He did some research, was inspired by the lifting roof system of Neptun yachts and VW Bullis, among other things, and finally decided in favour of a technology with hydraulic rams, as used for tables in industry or in medical facilities.
Boat builder Leihs is also convinced by the plan, although not without doubts about what removing the superstructure would mean for the structure of the entire boat. Initially, both sides of the hull are therefore connected inside the boat with a lashing strap, but the concerns prove to be unfounded. At the end of the third refit winter, the "Lütje Welt" has a cabin that can be extended upwards to a good 1.65 metres in just a few seconds. Enough for children and smaller people to stand upright and certainly enough to sit upright.
Newly laid, completely replaced, installed for the first time - the refit is extensive
At the touch of a button or by operating the crank in the starboard aft locker, the cabin superstructure glides quietly upwards at anchorage on the Müritz. Light enters the interior through 16 portholes and a gentle draught of air passes through the deck hatch installed at Bonke's request; Bonke had often seen these on large classic yachts. In general, he was heavily inspired by solutions on other boat types, did a lot of research, searched the internet and ultimately adapted them for his dinghy cruiser.
However, it is not only the cabin superstructure that is removed during the refit phase, but also the entire deck. At some point, only the bare hull remains in the shipyard hall in Below. The keelson and some planks are renewed. Bonke takes the opportunity for further comfort upgrades and has the hull raised by one plank - in favour of a higher freeboard and more volume in the cabin.
The deck will also be completely relaid in larch, as will the cockpit floor. The interior fittings will be completely replaced, including a small galley and a wardrobe. A separate wet room with toilet - which did not originally exist - will also be installed for the comfort and convenience of the family.
The children who occasionally come along are one of the reasons why safety plays such an important role for Bonke. "I wanted to move the centre of gravity further down for better stability," says the sailor. The old rig consists of a mast and a boom made of oak wood - weighing around 200 kilograms in total. They will be replaced by a much lighter carbon rig - the mast now weighs around 50 kilograms, Bonke estimates. The mast and boom as well as the new, extendable jib boom are sheathed in a wood-look foil.
The lower weight of the rig also favours the plan to be able to lay the mast alone. A jib boom is discreetly positioned on the foredeck for this purpose, and last winter the latest tinkering came on board in the old shipyard: a holder for the mast with two hydraulic supports that can be raised on either side of the companionway at the touch of a button. When lowering the mast, they hold it in the cockpit and make the task easier when you are alone.
Arrived at the optimisation phase
Below the waterline, a new, almost two-metre daggerboard from the Christen boatyard in Waren, which specialises in dinghy cruisers, is used - one of the type used on regatta dinghies, with additional ballast at the bottom of the daggerboard. However, when the centreboard is raised, for example on the shallow eastern bank of the Müritz, it no longer looks out of the open centreboard box in the cabin. Instead, it now also functions as an elegant cabin table with elements that can be folded out to the side.
Bonke has known the area where he steers the "Lütje Welt" in flip-flops and shorts since he was a child. His father had motorboats here and the family used to come here at weekends. However, the 53-year-old didn't start sailing until much later and was really infected in his late 30s during a trip to Sweden.
"That's when the desire to have my own boat arose," explains Bonke - even though he had to realise that he is not seaworthy. The Berliner says of himself that he's not really the "windy type" - and meticulously scans the summer sky for clouds that could herald a thunderstorm and suddenly turn the Müritz into a nasty spot. "Sometimes it's on the edge of fun here," says Bonke and gives the sheet another shake to be on the safe side.
Words that are rather surprising given the amount of time and money he has invested in his boat. He has collected the bills for all the fixtures and fittings for the finesse he has thought up and installed. "But I don't want to know exactly what the bottom line is," he says and laughs. He probably only kept to his initial budget of around 60,000 euros if you don't take into account the many special requests. Each item quickly added up to between 10,000 and 12,000 euros. "Others spend 10,000 euros on a holiday, I spend 10,000 euros on a new rig," he argues - clearly satisfied. "I wouldn't have wanted to spend 80,000 euros on a new boat and end up unhappy."
He did a lot of things twice, it had to evolve. For example, the installation of the bilge doors in the cockpit, the laying of around 70 kilograms of copper cable for his electrical concept or the exact position of the roof hatch in the cabin ceiling. "But now I've reached the optimisation phase," muses Bonke.
Room for improvement
He is not yet satisfied with the performance of his lithium batteries, he still needs to upgrade them. And he also wants to work on the electric motor again. It has proven to be too weak for the two and a half tonnes of boat weight with the wind on the nose - he has already thought about installing a diesel engine. "There are things that don't work out, and the electric experiment is one of them." He has a light wind sail in mind for his jib boom and an automatic roller blind for the companionway to protect against mosquitoes.
"And a remote control would be ideal for the lifting roof," he says. Such details are indeed gradually finding their way on board: the dinghy cruiser has its own Wi-Fi network, and sensors on board allow Bonke's mobile phone in Berlin or elsewhere to sound the alarm if there is water in the boat or it is moved without authorisation.
The owner himself would also like to move it away from the Müritz, put the "Lütje Welt" on the trailer and tow it behind his car. Finally, after all these years of tinkering and spending money, he would like to enjoy the advantages of a trailerable boat. Or travelling Wilfried Erdmann's route across the lakes of Mecklenburg. Thomas Bonke has plenty of ideas again. Perhaps the time will come when he no longer realises them in the boatyard, but on the water.
Technical data 30 dinghy cruiser "Lütje Welt"
- Model: 30 dinghy cruiser
- Torso length: 9,00 m
- Lüa: 9,30 m
- Width: 3,00 m
- Depth: 0,30-2,00 m
- Weight: 2,5 t
- sail area: 30,0 m²
The article was first published in 2018 and has been revised for this online version.
