It's a story that beautifully demonstrates what can be achieved if you just do it instead of always complaining: just like Baltic sailor Herbert Schmitz. He recently moved from Munich to the Baltic Sea and moored his small Bavaria in the harbour of Lippe in Hohwachter Bucht. In the last two years, he has witnessed how crews have repeatedly run aground in the harbour entrance of Lippe, which has a strong tendency to silting up, and got into distress at sea. One skipper even suffered a heart attack during the stranding and had to be rescued.
The crews could only be helped by the DGzRS boat stationed there. However, its deployment was repeatedly not possible due to the silted-up approach.
Lippe is practically the only callable harbour in Hohwacht Bay, which, with an east-west extension of around 24 nautical miles, can be quite a blow, especially for smaller boats in bad weather. If there are technical problems or the crew needs a break, crews like to call at the harbour again and again.
Who has to dredge in Lippe?
Lippe's problem is a dispute over responsibility for dredging the access road, which is heavily silted up and therefore has to be dredged every year. For years, the harbour operator had partly taken responsibility for this, although its responsibility ends at the pier of the harbour. Sometimes the state also covered the costs. This meant that the entrance was dredged very late in the year or not at all. Local crews knew this and contacted the harbour master before entering.
Herbert Schmitz started a petition in 2021, which he submitted to the state, in order to resolve the muddled situation. However, after this was delayed in 2021 following the state elections and it was foreseeable that it would not be heard by the start of the 2022 season, he simply took action himself. He contacted the dredging company responsible, which had been carrying out the work off Lippe for years.
"This resulted in a fortunate situation. At the same time, Deutsch-Dänische Wasserbau GmbH (DDW) had the order to fill the sand losses in Schönberg. The management of DDW then decided to take our sand for Lippe at no cost and use it to fill the reservoir," says Schmitz. The 2022 season was thus saved.
The solution for Lippe is emergency harbour status
This year, the state of Schleswig-Holstein organised a public petition meeting on site, which was also attended by representatives of the relevant authorities and the DGzRS. After Herbert Schmitz gave an impressive account of the problem, backed up by photos of a salvage operation involving a stranded yacht, it was agreed that Lippe should be designated as an emergency harbour for regular, annual maintenance dredging in future and that the necessary funds of around 60,000 euros should be registered in the Schleswig-Holstein budget.
The entrance is now regularly dredged to a depth of 2.3 metres, which, according to an investigation, is necessary so that the DGzRS boat can leave the harbour at any time, even in strong winds. This should now put an end to the annual hassle surrounding the entrance to the beautifully situated harbour. The state of Schleswig-Holstein also wants to contact the responsible Federal Ministry of Transport to clarify whether it can contribute to the costs in future. This is because the costs for the provision of sea rescue services are borne by the federal government and those for water rescue services by the state.
Bundeswehr firing exercises in Hohwacht Bay off the coast of Lippe
The German Navy's Putlos warning and firing range is located directly off Lippe. Therefore, frequent closures are to be expected there during the week due to firing exercises. At weekends and in summer, however, there has always been a two-month firing-free period. In 2022, however, this fell victim to the increased exercises associated with the war in Ukraine. We can only hope that things will return to normal once the war is over.
Up-to-date information on shooting times and closures is available from the Lippe Yacht Club at ycl-o.de or by calling the harbour master. You can always call there, the harbour master is easy to reach and is prepared to provide up-to-date information.
