sailing with German Navy longboats...

[martin schulz]

a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T56ZiCNilRU&feature=player_embedded

[skuthorp]

Thanks Martin, my old sea scout troop and the local Sea Cadets sailed similar craft 40 years ago but neither organisation seems to have any now.

[Bob Triggs]

Thanks Martin, my old sea scout troop and the local Sea Cadets sailed similar craft 40 years ago but neither organisation seems to have any now.

Here's a few Sea Scouts who still do it the old way:

LINK HERE: www.woodenboat.org/news/News_Detail.aspx?processID=91 (http://www.woodenboat.org/news/News_Detail.aspx?processID=91)

[skuthorp]

We used to have an annual regatta with sailing and rowing races, boat handling competitions, tug-of-war, semaphore instructions to direct boats through a course etc. All finished by the boat jousting events and a glorious sea battle involving hand pumps, flour bombs and a villianous mix of porridge and tomato sauce thrown from a catapult. Sadly these pursuits seem to have gone by the board as well.
Over summer holidays several troops would sometimes combine for a sailing camping expedition.

[martin schulz]

Thanks Martin, my old sea scout troop and the local Sea Cadets sailed similar craft 40 years ago but neither organisation seems to have any now.

Yes :(

Over here back in the 50s a yacht-club in Hamburg designed a special kind of Navy-Longboat. A bit lighter with smaller oars and easier to handle centre boards.

Those boats, called Jugendwanderkutter (Youth Hiking (in the sense of moving about) cutter) were a big sucess and after a couple of years almost every yacht club had a couple of those and the kids used them to learn sailing, to do regattas or to even spend weeks on longer trips on them.
Now they are getting really scarse and the Musumharbour very often is offered wooden JWK by Yacht clubs.

I find this is a pity, because sailing and rowing with those 2-masted slow heavy cutter required real teamwork, a strong hierarchy and dedication.
Nowadays kids will rather sail fast small boats and since the Optimist is the 1st step into sailing, Kids have troubles to work in a team.

But I guess I see it this way because I am getting old and already start talking about the good old days...

[62816inBerlin]

Well, Martin, there is still quite a lively class that holds regattas every year, here's the schedule:
http://www.tsv-berlin.de/pdf/kalender2010_2.pdf
Not all the boats are wood, though. GRP (frozen snot) is also widespread.

I became aware of this when I met them on the local lake some years ago. Now a family in our neighbourhood is involved there. They sold their old Star and are now on the TSV team.
Greetings...
...from snowbound Berlin (I guess Flensburg is frozen in and snowed under too!)

Gernot H.