The call by the Berlin Sailing Association to its members to vent their displeasure with a de facto ban on the use of the jetty has obviously had an effect: the sailors concerned had sent over 500 protest letters to the authorities to the responsible offices. Now there is good news for the sailors from Berlin-Spandau.
As Jürgen Lucht, chairman of the Spandauer Yacht Club (SpYC), whose jetties are affected, explained to YACHT online, the association was able to agree with the responsible district and environmental and nature conservation authorities to keep the club's jetties on the basis of the to continue operating the previous water authority approval: With electricity, lighting and water supply on the jetties. It was precisely these factors that had been questioned by the authorities during the recently pending extension of the operating license for the jetties and had triggered the wave of protests. Because other Berlin clubs should have feared that they would encounter the same restrictions if their approval were to be extended.
"For the time being, a truce has actually been concluded," says SpYC chairman Jürgen Lucht. "But we are in a modus vivendi, a kind of limbo. It can take months and years before a new regulation is enacted. We are now waiting for a new water authority permit with conditions."
Lucht and his club members are now looking excitedly at a meeting of the Unterhavel district of the Berlin Sailing Association, for which city councilor Andreas Otti has also been announced. "Maybe there will be new information then," says Lucht. "We would like to resolve the whole matter amicably. But if that doesn't work, we'll raise the alarm again."