The sailing ships return. There are events again. We had to wait two years for it. Now the 41st Rumregatta took place in Flensburg, with everything what goes with it: arrive, look, marvel, gossip, sing and listen to singers, sail around, meet friends, acquaintances and new shipmates.

This year we could not prove the good relations with the god of wind. He initially sent gusts of wind up to force 8. The feeder regatta off the Danish Sønderborg was consequently cancelled. About 60 of the approximately 80 registered ships made it to Flensburg. On the Saturday of the regatta, still about 40 sailing ships dared at the start. The wind eased throughout the day but safety comes first in the Rumregatta and saw reefed sails and very cautious crews!

There were some of the old friends. Thank goodness, or better thanks to the self-sacrificing care provided by the ship's operators and crews, they're having survived the lean pandemic years and now hope for better times. How happy I was to see them on the water: "Bodil", "Ryvar", "Eye of the Wind", "Nobile", "Albin Köbis", "Sampo", "Seestern" and the small but professionally their ships handling fleet from Holland "De Albertha", "Pegasus" and "Stella Maris".

And new sailing ships, so for the first time at the Rumregatta?
The cutter "Elbe" coming from Arnhem/Oosterbeek had a long journey and had not yet been seen at the Rumregatta. Probably there for the first time too was Colin Archer "Penguin Café". And the "Westenwind" schokker had been missing from the Rumregatta for more than 20 years and has now appeared again.

Regatta for small fishing boats

"Lüttfischer", so the small fishing boats without a deck are called at the Rumregatta. These are mostly replicas of former work boats used by fishermen on the Baltic Sea coast. Traditional handicrafts of the fishermen becomes experienceable during the regatta. It begins with a sailing course along the Flensburg harbour, although due to the wind the sailing was shortened this year. Then there is rowing and finally a finish with fishing of a "message in a bottle", which contains the own boat name. Later the bottle can be exchanged for a rum filling. There were torrential rain showers every half hour, but they couldn't spoil the fun for the participants.

Lüttfischer - Arbeitsboote der Fischer

Regatta for small fishing boats Flensburg

Rowing and fishing

Since the Flensburg Fjord Regatta had to be cancelled, I finally had some time to watch the hustle and bustle of the Lüttfischer boats. "Tradition is not the worship of the ashes, but the passing on of the fire." It's great that the Lüttfischer tradition is being preserved at the Rumregatta and is apparently being carried by younger shoulders. By the way, the boat with the furthest journey to the Lüttfischerregatta was the "Knipdul" from Poland, has been there several times and has also been spoiled by success in sailing.

Despite the adverse weather conditions, no ships were damaged or any of the sailors were injured during the regatta. The "Guardian Angel Prize" havn't been awarded at the famous awards ceremony this year. This is a great result, for which I, as a regatta observer, can only say thank you to everybody. The motto: "Better safe and second than broken!" was implemented. But because in the end one of the sailing ships in each class had to cross the finish line first, there was the usual good mood at the award ceremony. But then I was already on the train on my way home. My job forced me to leave in a hurry. I missed a lot, such as the mooring beer with the regatta management (thanks to the "A"-team, the crew of the tugboat "Flensburg" and our "Gesine"), the "coffee in the morning with a lot of time" in the museum shipyard and the blasting of the ship's typhoon to say goodbye when leaving the port.