Wilfried Erdmann

Wilfried Erdmann (born April 15, 1940 in Scharnikau , Reichsgau Wartheland , today Poland ) is a German single-handed sailor and non-fiction author.

Life and sailing achievements

At the age of 17, Erdmann moved from Karstädt (Prignitz) in the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany after completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter . From 1958 to 1959 he rode a bicycle alone across southern France , North Africa and the Middle East to India . There the thought arose in him of sailing, but for financial reasons he could not start until 1965. In the meantime, he made his living as a sailor in the merchant shipping .

From 1967 to 1968 Erdmann was the first German to circumnavigate the world alone in the sailing boat Kathena . He had bought the boat used from a British sailor in Alicante in 1965 . He had never one from the German Sailing Association issued sailing license purchased, but was it in Alicante of Bernard Moitessier in the practice of celestial navigation was inaugurated. The stops of the first world tour were the Caribbean , Panama , Tahiti , the Cape of Good Hope . 421 days after his departure from Gibraltar , Erdmann docked in Heligoland on May 7, 1968 , where - in view of his ship, which is only 7.62 meters long - the circumnavigation of the world would not be believed. Among other things , he was able to prove his voyage through tropical vegetation on the ship's hull and through his logbooks , whereupon his ship was chained for untaxed imports. He was also denied the Schlimbach Prize . This seems all the more ironic in view of the fact that the Briton Francis Chichester was knighted for his one-handed circumnavigation (1966 to 1967) and was honored with a postage stamp in 1967.

Kathena Nui in Søby on Ærø , 2015

In 1969 Erdmann and his wife Astrid went on their honeymoon on the yacht Kathena 2 for another circumnavigation of the world that lasted 1011 days before they both arrived in Cuxhaven in May 1972 . From 1976 to 1979 he went on a trip to the South Seas with his wife and their initially three-year-old son Kym.

From 1984 to 1985 Erdmann sailed non-stop around the world alone in a west-east direction, ie in the same direction as the prevailing westerly winds around the world. He passed the Shetlands, the Cape of Good Hope, Tasmania, Cape Horn. It took him 271 days with his ship Kathena Nui , an aluminum structure (type Nordsee 34) from the Dübbel & Jesse shipyard ( Norderney ). The Schlimbach Prize , which was almost certainly believed by the sailing experts , was refused to Erdmann after his return because, for personal reasons, he did not want to submit all the documents to the award committee.

In 1989, Wilfried Erdmann carried out a double Atlantic crossing on the North Atlantic route for Stern magazine . The crew members were winners of a Stern competition and without any deep sea experience. Erdmann was in some cases heavily criticized for this undertaking. He described the experiences in his book An Impossible Trip .

In the summer of 1990, Wilfried Erdmann sailed 99 days from Goltoft with his son's sword-drawn bird Kathena Schlei, the Baltic coast of the German Democratic Republic . The inner-German border , which had been closed for many years, was opened after the fall of the Wall , and Erdmann saw the introduction of the DM and the football world championship there on July 1, 1990 . His course took him along the Baltic coast around Rügen in the Peene . From there he crossed over to the Feldberger Seenlandschaft and the Mecklenburg Lake District . From Lake Schwerin he took a truck to Wismar and across the Baltic Sea back to the Schlei . In his book My Limitless Seascape , he reports on the journey.

From 2000 to 2001 he was the fifth sailor in the world to sail around the world non-stop and alone in an east-west direction, ie against the prevailing westerly winds. For the 343 day trip he used his yacht Kathena nui . This makes him the only sailor in the world who has sailed around the world non-stop in both directions on the same ship. He refused the Schlimbach Prize that had now been offered to him on the grounds that he had achieved everything and no longer needed any prizes.

Wilfried Erdmann is the author of numerous books, some of which have achieved bestseller status. He publishes reports from his travels and basic articles about blue water sailing as a guest author in the sailing magazine Yacht .

Erdmann now lives in the small village of Goltoft an der Schlei .

Awards

Erdmann was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf in 1986 , the highest sporting honor awarded in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Trans-Ocean Prize was awarded to Erdmann three times (1979, 1985, 2001) for his travels.

Publications

Erdmann has written, among other things, the following books, almost all of which have been reissued in several and in some cases expanded:

• My fate is called Kathena. As a single-handed sailor around the world. (Edited by Ortwin Fink.) Oetinger, Hamburg 1970. New edition Delius Klasing , 1999, ISBN 3-7688-1091-7 (about Erdmann's first circumnavigation).
• A thousand days of Robinson. The adventure of a circumnavigation. Kiepenheuer & Witsch , 1973. Extended new edition 2003, ISBN 3-462-03238-0 (about the circumnavigation with his wife from 1969 to 1972).
• Headwind in paradise. Sailing adventure in the South Seas. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1980. New edition Delius Klasing, 2000, ISBN 3-7688-1161-1 (about the South Sea journey with wife and son).
• The blue dream. Living and sailing in the South Seas. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1983, ISBN 3-462-01558-3 . Paperback edition Ullstein , Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-548-20844-4 .
• The magical route. As the first German alone and non-stop around the world. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1986. 3rd edition Delius Klasing, 2001, ISBN 3-7688-0787-8 (about the non-stop circumnavigation of the world 1984/1985).
• Sailing with Wilfried Erdmann. Views and experiences of a circumnavigator. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1988. 4th edition Ed. Maritim, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-89225-506-7 .
• An impossible trip. Transatlantic with GATSBY and winners. Delius Klasing, 1991. New edition 1996, ISBN 3-7688-0924-2 .
• My limitless seascape. Sailing in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1991. New edition Delius Klasing, 1997, ISBN 3-7688-0986-2 .
• Baltic Sea views. A sailing summer with “Kathena 7”. Delius Klasing, 1994; 3rd edition: A German sailing summer . Delius Klasing, 2004, ISBN 3-7688-1544-7 .
• North Sea views. A sailing trip in the tidal sea. Delius Klasing, 1997. New edition 2006, ISBN 3-7688-1780-6 .
• Alone against the wind. Around the world non-stop in 343 days. Delius Klasing, 2002. New edition 2004, ISBN 3-7688-1503-X .
• Sailing time. Delius Klasing, 2006, ISBN 978-3-7688-1852-0 .
• A German sailing summer. Delius Klasing, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-1972-5
• From the desert and from the sea. (together with Achill Moser), Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-4555-0268-8
• I grab the wind. Memories. Delius Klasing, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7688-3769-9
• Sailing: headwind in paradise. In: GEO November 1979, pp. 112-132. "Three years of farewell to European civilization ... through the South Seas ... But by no means just a dream trip." ISSN  0342-8311

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilfried Erdmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of Wilfried Erdmann
• Ranga Yogeshwar : Alone Against the Wind , in Quarks & Co from July 16, 2013 (old. YouTube )
• Documentary film by Christoph Felder : Der Solinsegler (2007)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Website: Wilfried Erdmann - Curriculum Vitae. Accessed June 27, 2009
2. ↑ A Thousand Days of Robinson. The adventure of a circumnavigation. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, extended new edition 2003
3. ↑ Website: Wilfried Erdmann: All reports from the route around the world. Accessed on June 27, 2009
4. ↑ Presentation of the successful yacht buildings by Dübbel & Jesse ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 8, 2009. 
5. ↑ FAZ January 12, 2014