Today, Friday, August 27th, the Yacht Club Bad Wiessee will be 50 years old.
A reason to celebrate, but the festival has to wait.
Bad Wiessee - The cranes, slipways and jetties of the Yacht Club Bad Wiessee include around 100 berths on water and on land, the club area offers around 6000 square meters with 200 meters of shore length.
So there is enough space to celebrate a birthday.
Because 50 years ago today, on August 27, 1971, the Yacht Club Bad Wiessee was founded.
At that time, a handful of sailing enthusiasts met in the Berggasthaus Freihaus, today's Freihaus Brenner, and founded the third sailing club on the lake after the Yacht Club at Tegernsee and the Tegernsee Touring Yacht Club. The founding chairman was Anton Kathan, the father of today's chairman Peter Kathan. A short time later, Anton Kathan signed the lease agreement for the site with Bad Wiessee's mayor, Paul Krones. “You were in the right place at the right time,” says Peter Kathan about the first members of the yacht club. Because the site developed rapidly, also due to a lease agreement with the ducal head office. After five years there was already the western jetty, the clubhouse and a dinghy jetty.
What has been clear since it was founded: The club's grounds were built over the community's old sewage treatment plant. What nobody knew: There were remains of the same underground. That only came out in 2018 with the barrier-free renovation including renewal of the sewer and all supply lines. “An excavator driver found parts of an old septic tank. He couldn't dig that out with his mini excavator, ”remembers Kathan with a smile.
This measure does not, of course, complete the work on the site, the lease contract for which was extended on time for the birthday.
Just this year, the association signed a new lease agreement with the community for the “southern access” to the police boat house, the crane basin will be renewed, the land berths for dinghies will be renatured, and the renewal of the jetties is planned for the next few years.
So much to do.
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During the construction of the first pier, the crane hung halfway in the water.
With the upcoming renewal, a different picture is likely to emerge.
© Yacht Club
In addition, it is important to comply with the requirements of the “Blue Flag” environmental award, which Wiesseer received in 2017 as the first sailing club in Bavaria.
"Since then, the amount of waste in the club has halved," says Kathan.
Yacht club with a young age structure
Even if it sounds different up to now: Membership in the Yacht Club Bad Wiessee does not only consist of work, but above all of having fun with sailing. "We don't want to be elitist, keep sailing affordable," emphasizes Kathan. The enthusiasm of the members can be seen in the fact that he was never allowed to welcome fewer than 50 participants at the twice-yearly meetings.
Another proof: the age structure. With 334 members, the number is at an all-time high, a quarter of them (83) are no longer than 26 years old, three quarters of the members are under 60 years of age. "We are a young club," says press officer Florian Flach (43). According to the association, around 100,000 euros have been invested in young people since 2005, in 2008 the yacht club received the youth advancement award of the Bavarian Sailing Association, and since 2017 there has been a cooperation for youth training with the sailing center at Tegernsee. The age difference between the oldest member at 94 and the youngest at four is exactly 90 years.
The high-class sailing sport has not been neglected in the past 50 years.
As early as 1974, the Bad Wiessee Yacht Club hosted the German youth championship Korsar and in 1976 the German championship in the 470 class.
In addition to a few regattas, the International German Championships in Korsar, Finn or Dyas were added.
There is a lot going on in terms of sport
The top-class events only really picked up speed after the turn of the millennium.
"Since 2003 we have included a sporting highlight every three to five years," explains Kathan, who has been chairman since 2009.
The absolute highlights included the BMW Sailing Cup 2007, the International German Championship in Match Racing 2010 or 2015 the International German Best Determination as well as the International Austrian Championship in the Topcat catamaran class.
“There were almost 100 catamarans on site,” says Kathan, not without pride.
And he himself had some impressive sailing successes, in 1999 he was runner-up in the European championship on the Traunsee and German runner-up in the joker class on Lake Constance.
"As a bow.
I don't want to adorn myself with false laurels, ”Kathan clarifies directly.
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The management duo: Chairman Peter Kathan, like his deputy Gudrun Legeland, has just been re-elected.
© Thomas Plettenberg
Also this year the yacht club should have hosted a real highlight: an IQ foil surf regatta of the Olympic class.
However, this had to be canceled in May due to the still applicable Corona restrictions.
"Making a decent event is important to us," says Kathan.
The regatta should be rescheduled in 2022.
Then the big anniversary party should also start: on the first weekend in July, the traditional date of the yacht club's summer festival. There will be two major holidays in Bad Wiessee. Because on the weekend, the community celebrates the 100th anniversary of the “Bad” title. “A lucky coincidence,” says Kathan. It has also been agreed with other local clubs that they will then catch up on their unusual anniversary celebrations.