Hanse Sail

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The Hanse Sail in Rostock is the biggest maritime festival in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and one of the biggest in north Germany.

1 History
2 Today
3 Financing
4 Infrastructure
5 Next Hanse Sails

[edit] History

Hanse Sail 2004

Hanse Sail 2005

The first Hanse Sail took place between July 22 and July 28, 1991 as Hanseatische Hafentage (translated: Hanseatic harbordays). Despite initial skepticism, the first Hanse Sail was a great succes. Mainly because of the enthusiasm of the German reunification where for the first time the see border was felt open. Also the participation of the German Navy school ship Gorch Fock attracted many interested people.

The Hanse Sail is always opened by prominent personalities of the political life such like Hans Eichel, Wolfgang Thierse or Gerhard Schröder. Through this, the special meaning for the tourism and economy is expressed.

Unlike the Kieler Woche the Hanse Sail is more about the fun of sailing and the beauty of the ships.

[edit] Today

The Hanse Sail is a part of the Baltic Sail which heads for many Citys of the baltic area in the summermonths July and August.

About 200 sailing ships, cruise ships, ferrys and big seagoing vessel from many different nations come every year during the second weekend of august to Rostock.
For example the German navy school ship Gorch Fock, "the Alexander von Humboldt" and the "Peace" from Jamaica head towards the harbor of Rostock. Every ship gets an organiser depending on the dimensions and the crew of the ship.
During the Hanse Sail many cruise ships head for the cruise ship terminal in Warnemünde. Most cruise shipping companys think that staying in Rostock during the Hanse Sail is a special high point for their guests.

Every year about 1.5 million visitors (year 2003) visit the Hanse Sail. The folk festival is accompanied by culture and amusements offers. But nevertheless the main interest of the visitors lies in visiting the beautiful boats or sailing with them as well as the regatta with some of the biggest sailing ships of the world in the Baltic Sea in front of Warnemünde

Parallel to the Hansesail a Seaplane festival takes places. Every year about 20 Seaplanes come to the Hansesail and offer the opportunity to fly with them for about 30 minutes.

In the end of the Hanse Sail Saturday a big firework marks the end of the Sail. The four day lasting event ends with the second Sunday of August.

[edit] Financing

The Hanseatic city of Rostock supports the Hanse Sail every year with about 400,000 Euro. Further income is achieved by let of boat parking spaces or places for markets as well as by advertising revenue. Sponsors have been the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the Hanseatische Brauerei Rostock, Antenne Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Volkswagen.

In the year 2003 adverstising cost about 10 million Euros. But this investment is worth it, as the exchanges of the visitors add up to about 38,5 million Euros. Further 25 million are exchanged by close quarters or inns.

The hotels have got during the Hanse Sail a utilisation of 100 % and afterwards of about 68 %. The use for Rostock is particularly the indirect advertisement. It is worth about 10 million Euros. In addition, about 50 % of the visitors want to return.

[edit] Infrastructure

Extended push-pull trains between Rostock and Warnemünde

During the Hansesail the public transport is highly extended. The Rostock S-Bahn drives every 7 1/2 minutes between Rostock Hbf and Warnemünde with up to five Bilevel cars. Also many chartered trains come to Rostock. Some even steam powered. Further trains are driven as needed by the Deutsche Bahn. The RegionalExpress line 5 drives during this time from and to Warnemünde and is extended too. The so called WarnemündeExpress, a special train driving every week-end from Berlin to Warnemünde in the morning and back in the evening is driven with 8 Bilevel cars and offers seat places for about 1,000 passengers. The other lines such as the RE 8 (Tessin - Rostock - Wismar), S 3 (Rostock Hbf - Rostock Seehafen Nord) and RE 9 (Rostock - Stralsund - Sassnitz) are extended (drive for example in double traction) or in a compressed timetable.

The tram and busservices in Rostock operated in a special timetable and operate some nights without a pause. Also a shuttle service with busses is offered to bring the people to Warnemünde, as there are already in the early morning no parking spaces any more.