Putting up the masts, coating the hull, installing the shaft system, repairing the engine: the "Gorch Fock" is currently being renovated at the Lürssen site in Berne. The work is now close to being completed. Today the ship was successfully launched again.
The Bremen family company Lürssen took over the repair of the sailing training ship in October 2019 and is planning to hand it over to the German Navy at the end of May. "When we return ships to their element, it is always a moving moment. In the case of the 'Gorch Fock', the joy is particularly great. Countless sailors have learned their craft from scratch on the traditional sailor. The ship was and is the figurehead of our navy, the radiance of this sailing ship has an impact far beyond the navy, "said Tim Wagner, managing director of the Lürssen shipyard. From the beginning, the shipyard management was aware that with the work on the barque they had taken on "a project under very difficult circumstances". Wagner: "Due to the partly incomplete construction documents, we had to make numerous changes to the shipbuilding work. Considerable efforts were required, not least in the coordination of the supplier companies involved in the project, your previous construction stop of several months as a result of the insolvency of the previous contractor in principle equated to starting a new project."
The successful launch today is therefore, so Wagner continues, "something special and the result of a trusting and constructive cooperation with all offices and representatives of the customer. Our thanks go to all of our employees, whose committed commitment despite the Corona conditional adversity made it possible to meet this deadline ". Following the "launch" via the shipyard's own Synchrolift, tugs hauled the "Gorch Fock" to the Lemwerder site in Lürssen. At the pier there, the final equipment - including the further construction of the interior fittings - and commissioning will take place in the coming weeks
Transfer of the sailing training ship to Lemwerder at the Lürssen shipyard there