Our home is Lake Ratzeburg. Our playground is Europe.
Lake Ratzeburg lies in the Lauenburg Lakes Nature Park in the south-east of Schleswig-Holstein; its north-eastern shore borders Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Around 14 square kilometres of water, up to 24 metres deep, divided by causeways into the Great Lake, the Domsee and the Küchensee. The town of Ratzeburg sits on an island in the middle.
In the club’s first 25 years we sailed every winter but three – on Lake Ratzeburg or at our fallback venues in Mecklenburg; in 1996 the ice was 35 centimetres thick, in 2012 still 25. Today the lake rarely freezes thick enough. When it happens, we are there. Otherwise, we travel.
At almost 1,500 metres, the reservoir on the Reschen Pass freezes more reliably than the lakes of northern Germany. Against the backdrop of the Ortler Alps, ice sailors from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy meet here.
Big lakes, long winters, black ice: Scandinavia and the Baltic states are home to the big ice sailing regattas. When Germany stays green, we head north.
The Masurian Lake District in Poland is considered the central meeting point of European ice sailors. Closer to home are the Mecklenburg Lake District and the lakes of Brandenburg – often the first chance of the winter.
For land sailing we head to the Danish North Sea coast. The kilometre-wide beaches of Rømø and Fanø are among the best land sailing venues in Europe.
Which lake bears often only becomes clear midweek. Then the phones start ringing: scouts report ice thicknesses, the fleets compare notes, and on Friday the trailers roll. There is no fixed rigging site – we rig wherever we sail. As a member you are on the mailing list and travel with the group.
