Berlin Sailing Vessel Walross IV Visits Sister City Los Angeles on route to Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games

Sailing Ambassador: Walross IV's crew (brown polo shirts) with guests on board - German Consul General Christian Stocks (in red), Goethe Institut's director, Bernd Desinger (in blue), LABSCC's Rosemarie Reisch (in white) and Chinese Vice Consul Chen Yue (in pink and white stripes). (c) German Consulate

The Walross IV, the Nissen 55 sailing vessel from the Academic Sailing Club of Berlin, on a 43,000 mile circumnavigation, arrived in Los Angeles for a week-long layover from March 9 – 14 for maintenance, provisioning and crew change.

On Sunday, their first day in L.A. , the shipper and crew were invited to a barbecue in their honor by Rosemarie Reisch, chairperson of the Los Angeles-Berlin Sister City Committee, to meet with LABSCC’s board members and other distinguished guests.

Rosemarie Reisch and Walross IV Skipper Hans Christoph Schimmelpfennig
(c) German Consulate

The crew’s planned harbor sail with Friends of Berlin in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 13th, had to be cancelled due to repairs to the mast and was replaced with a get-together on board the Walross IV at its mooring in Marina Del Rey. Among the guests were German Consul General, Dr. Christian Stocks, Vice Consul Chen Yue from the Chinese Consulate, Bernd Desinger, director of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and LABSCC's Rosemarie Reisch.

The academic sailing club, founded in 1886, with a worldwide membership of 300 present and former university students from Berlin, is dedicated to teaching blue water sailing (ocean sailing). On this trip alone over 100 students will have the chance to crew on the Walross IV.

The teaching vessel, also functioning as a sailing envoy for the city of Berlin, embarked on its approximately one-and-a-half year journey in October 2007 with the goal of reaching Beijing, China in time for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In addition to Los Angeles, it will also visit Olympic Sister Cities London, Paris, and Tokyo before returning home in May 2009.

March 14 , 2008

Link

www.walross.org

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