Seesegelgemeinschaft Leipzig e.V.
Seesegelgemeinschaft Leipzig e.V. (SSGL) is a non-profit sailing club rooted in Leipzig and the home waters of the Elster reservoir, organising offshore sailing on the Baltic Sea and the Bodden waters around Rügen and Usedom for decades. At the heart of club life is the club-owned yacht Lipsia, a Hanse 341 that is seasonally sailed and maintained and enables crewed trips for beginners and experienced sailors alike. The programme includes one- and two-week cruises departing from Stralsund, in-club further training, and a monthly sailors' Stammtisch in Leipzig; guests and interested sailors are welcome. Founded in 1990 from the Trainingsgemeinschaft Hochsee Leipzig and with a tradition dating back to the 1950s, the club currently has 43 members and is organised among others in the German Sailing Association and the Saxony Sailing Association.
History
The history of Seesegelgemeinschaft Leipzig goes back to the 1950s. From 1956, Leipzig sailors whose home waters were the Elster reservoir at Knauthain sailed as guests on Berlin yachts on the Baltic Sea and took part in major Bodden and Baltic regattas. In 1968 a Free Training Group Sea was formed; a Leipzig sailing yacht was laid down at the Brandenburg shipyard, with interior fitting by a Leipzig boatbuilder and extensive member volunteer work. In 1970 the Trainingsgemeinschaft Hochsee Leipzig (TGHL) was founded with 67 members and the yacht Wappen von Leipzig – an RORC-class keel-centreboard cruiser of the Ilsebill type based in Stralsund – entered service. With twelve skippers, crews were reassembled each year; from 1971 foreign cruises to Poland and the then Soviet Union followed. The cruise plan included Baltic regattas such as Round Hiddensee, Round Rügen, the International Baltic Week in Warnemünde including Round Bornholm, Round Oie, Baltic Race, the buoy race from Greifswald to Warnemünde, and Bodden stages. In 1981 Wappen von Leipzig sailed a long cruise from Stralsund to Riga. Membership continued to grow (TGHL had 92 members in 1980); in 1984 a second ship was ordered. In 1985 the Lipsia of the Sund type (hull number 5 of the Volkswerft Stralsund) was christened and commissioned. In 1990 TGHL was dissolved; Yachtclub Leipzig e.V. and Seesegelgemeinschaft Leipzig e.V. (SSGL) were founded. The then 41 SSGL members realised that two yachts were no longer sustainable. After a final youth cruise in summer 1990, Wappen von Leipzig was handed over to Leipziger Seesportclub e.V.; the remaining Lipsia was thereafter sailed mainly on cruising trips. By 2002 the Sund-type Lipsia had covered about 45,000 nautical miles – roughly twice around the globe – and was decommissioned and sold. In 2003 SSGL ordered a Hanse 341 from HanseYacht AG Greifswald and started the 2003 Baltic season with the new ship, financed from savings, the sale of the old Lipsia, interest-free member loans and donations. By 2015 the new Lipsia had completed ten to twelve one- and two-week Baltic cruises each year (Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland) and about 37,676 nautical miles in total. Notable eight-week voyages were Stralsund–Stockholm and back in 2009 and Stralsund–Oslo and back in 2012, each with crew changes. Today SSGL has 43 members and continues the offshore sailing tradition with the club yacht.