The implementation of the " Water tourism concept s" is already threatening to bring painful restrictions to water sports. However, implementing the latest attack on water sports, which also originated in Berlin, would be a shot to the heart. Only this time, it wasn't fired from the top floor, but rather from the ground floor.
The Environmental and nature conservation office of the Spandau district authority informed the Spandau Yacht Club on 4 November 2016 that it would only approve the club's application for a water authority permit for a jetty facility subject to the following conditions:
▶ Overnight stays and even temporary living on the boats while they are moored in the facility is not permitted.
▶ The facility may only be occupied by boats from 1 March to 30 November each year. No boats may be moored in the facility in the period from 1 December to 28/29 February.
▶ Electricity, water and sewage pipes may not be installed on the jetty, nor may boats be supplied with electricity in any other way.
▶ Illumination of the facility is not permitted. The same applies to indirect lighting, for example via the boats.
A prank? How does the district authority envisage the function and purpose of a modern sports boat facility? Or should the person in charge possibly not have thought about it at all? That is to be feared: Obviously driven by the questionable motive of restricting "the currently increasing use of moorings with so-called houseboats" at all costs, the clerk is adopting mind games from a judgement (not yet legally binding) by the Berlin Administrative Court ( Ref. VG 10 K 336.15 of 28 June 2016 ), in which a neighbourhood dispute concerns an allegedly obstructive houseboat at a jetty.
As this "nuisance" cannot be dealt with on the basis of existing legal regulations, the Administrative Court is speculating about a completely new concept for recreational jetties:
The previous licence for the jetty facility does not contain an explicit ban on living and staying overnight on the boats as long as they are moored at the jetty. However, such a ban for all boats would be conceivable as a condition, as a recreational jetty - similar to a car park - is used for mooring boats and has not been approved as a campsite on the water.
Absurdistan in Berlin! The administrative court's mind games, which were described by an experienced administrative judge as "quite ill-considered and completely superfluous", seem to have fallen on fertile ground in the Spandau district office. And so the question arises as to whether Berlin will once again become the forerunner for a completely new generation of pleasure boat moorings: without water, without electricity and without light, but with a ban on overnight stays. That's not on!
What is also not acceptable, however, is that the clubs want to "clean themselves up" at the expense of the houseboats, as can be seen from a letter from the Spandau Yacht Club to the district office:
According to our findings, the district authority's aim is more likely to be to limit the number of stationary houseboats in Spandau. However, this should not conflict with the aims of the Spandau Yacht Club.
Water sports solidarity looks different!
