As a long-standing partner of Travemünde Week, boot Düsseldorf invited friends of the trade fair and young enthusiasts to the traditional “Klönschnack” on the four-masted barque ‘Passat’ on Saturday evening. In his speech, Wolfram N. Diener, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf, thanked the volunteers who helped make the 136th Travemünde Week a success and emphasised the importance of voluntary work for society. He also presented a large donation to the ‘Rettet die Passat’ association.
Düsseldorf Trade Fair CEO Wolfram Diener (second from right) and boot Director Petros Michelidakis (left) presented a cheque, which was spontaneously increased to €5,000, to Lübeck Mayor Jan Lindenau (right) and Gerd Grothe from the ‘Rettet die Passat’ association. Photo: Christian Beeck/TW
Jan Lindenau, mayor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, expressed his gratitude for the long-standing support for Travemünde Week. He thanked the ‘Rettet die Passat’ association for its efforts to preserve the ship and at the same time announced the upcoming comprehensive renovation of the four-masted barque. ‘The next Travemünde Week is still safe on this ship, but after that at the latest, we will probably have to weigh anchor, set sail and head for the shipyard with this wonderful ship. We are currently collecting funds for this. We are talking about a double-digit million euro sum that this will cost. But we are nevertheless determined to see it through,’ said Lindenau.
Motivated by the mayor’s remarks, Wolfram Diener spontaneously increased the amount on the annual cheque from boot Düsseldorf for the ‘Rettet die Passat’ association by another 2,000 euros to a total of 5,000 euros, earning himself much applause. Around 370 guests enjoyed the ‘Klönschnack’ (informal chat) on board the “Passat” in summery weather with music and a buffet themed ‘Lisbon – City of Eternal Light’ until late in the evening.
Data fishing for science: Sailing for Oxygen
Sustainability is a top priority at Travemünde Week. The ‘Sailing for Oxygen’ project contributes to this theme during the event. A probe mounted on a start boat during the regattas measures the oxygen and salt content in the water, as well as the temperature and depth, thereby contributing to marine research. After Travemünde Week, the measuring device can also be borrowed by sailing crews at the Rosenhof marina in Travemünde. This allows many people to participate in the research.
Holger Ambroselli, sustainability consultant for Travemünde Week, shows the crew of the Seebahn launch boat how to use the measuring probe. Photo: Katrin Heidemann
With the boat moving as little as possible or at a standstill, the probe is lowered to the seabed on a line and retrieved shortly afterwards. Within a few minutes, the device measures the data as it descends and creates a profile. The data is forwarded via an app to the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel and displayed on an interactive map. Researchers worldwide can access this data to draw conclusions about risks to fish and other marine life based on oxygen levels, for example, which is important for fisheries management in the Baltic Sea.
This form of research is also known as citizen science. The citizen science project focuses on the following questions: How much oxygen does the Baltic Sea contain at different water depths, and how does the concentration of this vital gas change over the course of a summer? In order to obtain as many accurate measurements as possible, Geomar, in collaboration with the Trans Ocean association, is enabling sailing crews to become actively involved in marine research and collect data on living conditions in the western Baltic Sea from their boats. Interested parties can borrow a measuring device set with a probe from selected ports in the region, such as Travemünde, and then return it to another port in the network or hand it directly to another crew.
This is an easy way for crews to make an important contribution to environmental protection while sailing by helping to gather up-to-date knowledge about the state of the oceans. Anyone who, like the Startschiff crew, would like to participate in monitoring the Baltic Sea can register and find further information about the project at Messgebiet und Sonden (Measuring area and probes).
Woman from Lübeck wants to row across the Atlantic with her crew
There are many ways to get to the Caribbean. The most strenuous is probably by sea, especially if you rely solely on muscle power to propel your vessel. This is precisely the route that the German-Austrian team ‘Offshoare’ has chosen. The four-woman crew will be taking part in the ‘World’s Toughest Row’ this winter. The world’s toughest rowing competition covers around 2,800 nautical miles from the Canary Island of La Gomera to Antigua in the Caribbean. Around 40 teams in various constellations will be at the start. At the 136th Travemünde Week, the four rowers will present their project in the TW Forum Talk, christen their boat and take it for a spin on the Trave.
Competing alongside their teammates Clara Düntsch and Christiane Kienl in the World’s Toughest Row: Jana Golz from Lübeck (left) and Jana Stahl from Berlin. Photo: Katrin Heidemann
‘I’m rowing across the Atlantic. Want to come with me?’ ‘Sure!’ That was the conversation between Clara Düntsch (26) and Jana Stahl (31) after they met at a beginner’s rowing course. And so a third member of the team was found.
The idea of rowing across the Atlantic had previously come to Jana Stahl and Jana Golz (33) after watching the TV documentary ‘Four Mums in a Boat’ about a crew of women who took part in the ‘World’s Toughest Row’ at the age of 50. ‘We’ll do that too when we’re 50,’ the two Janas, who had met during their studies, decided. Shortly afterwards, however, they decided that they didn’t want to put the project on the back burner.
With Clara Düntsch already part of the trio, Christiane Kienl from Graz, Austria, joined the team after seeing an online call for participants. She was the only one of the four women with extensive previous rowing experience. She has already competed in rowing eights in Great Britain. Her three teammates have only been rowing since 2022. The team name ‘Offshoare’ was quickly found and is a play on words combining ‘offshore,’ meaning away from the coast, and ‘oar,’ the English term for a rowing oar.
After deciding to take part in the race, the four women spent many hours together in their boat gaining rowing experience. “Once a month, we met in Travemünde to row and were out on the water in all kinds of conditions, sometimes for 52 hours at a stretch. The race organisers stipulate 200 hours of training. We’ve long since achieved that. We also prepared intensively for emergency situations with courses on safety, survival training and first aid at sea. Since officially registering for the race, we have been training five times a week with a mix of strength and endurance exercises. We also have the support of a sports psychologist to help us with the mental challenge,” says Jana Golz.
The ocean rowing boat, built in 2021 and purchased by the women’s crew for around 70,000 euros, has a lot of rowing expertise under its belt. The unsinkable boat has proven itself in the ‘World’s Toughest Row’ races on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In the Pacific race, a women’s crew even took third place. ‘The boat is equipped with all the technology of a sailing yacht, such as GPS, AIS, shortwave radio, satellite phone, Starlink, life raft, survival suits and other safety equipment,’ explains Golz. However, the most important safety measure at sea is a very simple one: ‘Going overboard is not an option. That’s why we wear a harness at all times – even when sleeping – and clip ourselves to the boat as soon as we leave the cabin.’ The boat’s equipment includes two small sleeping cabins, a gas stove, a water purifier and a bucket toilet. The course is maintained by foot steering.
Otherwise, fixed routines will determine the women’s daily life at sea. During the day, they row in two-hour shifts: two hours of rowing followed by two hours of rest. At night, they swap every three hours to get a little more sleep. It is also important to eat enough. “We have to consume around 4,000 calories a day, mostly in the form of astronaut food. But we’ll also eat a lot of snacks – after all, it should be fun,‘ says Golz.
’We expect to be underway for between 40 and 50 days. Our goal is to stay under 50 days. But we’re not in racing mode; we want to enjoy the Atlantic crossing and take breaks when we encounter whales or dolphins. Basically, though, the goal is to keep the boat moving at all times,” explains the Lübeck native. During the Atlantic crossing, the team will also collect data for research using special measuring instruments.
The Offshoare team’s rowing project will cost around 170,000 euros. In addition to private funds, donations and sponsors are helping to finance the project. The rowers are grateful for further donations and support. Any funds not required for the project will go towards a shark project and a breast cancer project. All information and updates on the rowing project can be found at: www.offshoare-rowing.de and on Instagram @offshoare.
Anyone who would like to see the Offshoare team in action will have two more opportunities to do so at the 136th Travemünde Week. Today, 20 July, the team will christen their boat at 4 p.m. in front of the Marina Restaurant on the Travepromenade and row on the Trave after the Trave Race. On Friday, 25 July, the women will be guests at the TW Forum Talk on the König Pilsener stage at the Nordermole.
