Welcome to the 20th Hanse Sail Rostock

In the year 2010 there will be two reasons for the Rostocker and their guests to celebrate. On the second weekend in August the 20th Hanse Sail Rostock in the 20th year of the German Reunification takes place.

This “double anniversary” is not a coincidence because the Hanse Sail would not exist without the fall of the wall in 1989 and out of it the German-German reunification in October 1989. Only a few months afterwards a maritime festival was born through visionary organisers. From the beginning on it was characterized by warm hospitality, curiosity for crews from all over the world and cosmopolitanism.

Today the maritime festival on the Warnow and ahead of Warnemünde is part of the big meetings of windjammers worldwide. Annually it attracts more than 250 sailing ships and traditional ships plus more than one million visitors. Partner country of the 20th Hanse Sail is the republic of Lithuania.

Since 1991 the Sail developed its programme variety and quality continuously. However, the main attractions remained the same in the manner of the Sail-premiere in the summer of 1991: Besides the lively folk festival ashore which is crowned by a firework on Saturday night, the cogs or barquentines as well as traditional ships without sail, like the Dampfeisbrecher STETTIN, which participated together with the Schonerbrigg GREIF every single Hanse Sail.

A maritime-optical delectation are the regattas of the traditional sailing ships in front of Warnemünde or the act of sailing or entering port of the ships while days of events. Here the traditional sailers are facing the cruise liners, the ferries or the grey ships of the German Marine. The continuing fascination of the ships is not only caused by changing sailing impressions offshore but also by the enormous power of the ship owners and crews who keep these maritime witnesses of the sailing age “in the wind” and thus in action.

The oldest ships derive from the last third of the 19th century and have experienced the heyday of sailing navigation. Every Sail is an anniversary celebration for some veterans. At the 20th Hanse Sail several “hundreds” will be saluted, like the Ketschen BERTA (Germany) and NEERLANDIA or the two mast clipper SKYLGE, both from the Netherlands.

Hanse Sail – the title chosen two decades ago is by no means label, but programme. The Hanseatic city Rostock joins in manifold activities in the Baltic area: The Baltic Sail, as well as the organisation of international sailing trips with youngsters and handicapped persons and a squadron way which connects the old German Hanseatic cities Rostock, Wismar and Lübeck are breathing the new spirit of the Hanse.

Welcome to the 20th Hanse Sail!