It is impressive what amenities a medium-sized sailing yacht of today's standard design already offers: several cabins with full standing height instead of the previous stoop height. A kitchenette with all the trimmings. A bathroom with running hot water, plus a separate toilet room. Of course, as in the caravan, there is a flat screen for evening entertainment. If the vehicle didn't rock slightly in the harbor, we'd forget to be on board. You can see this on the manufacturers' websites, at the dealer's and at the east pier in Lemkenhafen. There, like everywhere on the coast, such volume models are moored.

This is not Georg Milz's world.

He worked as a thatched farmer on Fehmarn.

Cutting reeds in winter and bringing the cold load into the hall with clammy fingers was no picnic.

You also don't earn so much with it that a comfortable houseboat with all the bells and whistles for the value of a house or an apartment is in it.

Spleen comes from dinghy sailing.

He made his sailing life possible by persistently laying aside 50-mark bills.

The result can be seen across from the modern boat models.

There lies a fleet of flat-edged beauties.

Classic wooden skerry cruiser from Sweden.

They are so sleek that when stepping on the tip of the bow, it is best to be careful not to hit the slender planks at all.

Otherwise you end up between the boats in the harbor basin.

The old archipelago cruisers are floating avant-garde

The antiques still have wooden poles that are curled up at the top, as was common in the 1920s.

At that time, the so-called Marconi rigging replaced the gaff rig.

The winged sails were avant-garde.

You can only keep something like that, repair it from time to time and continue sailing.

The corner by the clubhouse looks a bit like a boat museum.

This is Georg's world.

Two boats are managed by him, another by his brother Hans.

The other of those that Milz has inspired over the past decades for the incredibly sensitive sailing pleasure.

It is his puristic sailor worldview.

He fetched 15-square-meter skerry cruisers, 22s and 40s, prepared them, sailed them and passed them on.

It is well known that you can only sail a boat.

The story of the sleek, slim planks in Lemkenhafen begins in 1974. At that time, the “coat hanger” has been connecting Fehmarn with the mainland for a decade.

This is what the striking bridge is called here.

Volkswagen presents the Golf for the oil crisis.

The Federal Republic of Germany turns 25 and wins the home soccer World Cup.

Vicky Leandros sings “Theo, we're going to Lodz”.

The sideburns are long.

The pants have a huge flare.

The shirt collars turn to sails.

"It was the ship of my wild years"

In the meantime, Milz has at least got the bills for half a boat. Together with a sailing friend he brings "Gisela" to Lemkenhafen. The orange-painted hull will soon be replaced by functional red. This makes it easier to see a sailing submarine on gray stretchers in the Baltic Sea. An elongated cabin, raised in steps at the entrance to the shelter, rises above the low hull. The boat is narrow, long and built in 1936. “It was the ship of my wild years. No wind too strong, no wave too high, ”remembers Milz. After further bravely put aside notes, there is a much longer "Lotus" type of bullet in it. The boat from Sweden offers the usual full stoop height, but also a kerosene stove, four berths plus aft cabin. Georg and his brother use it to ride around the island on Sundays.“Hans works for the Federal Border Guard. This meant that he was automatically responsible for changing wet sails on the narrow bow without rails. ”If the announcement is correct, the younger brother usually does what the older one expects.