baltic 50 sailboat

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• Sailboat Guide

Baltic 50 is a 50 ′ 0 ″ / 15.2 m monohull sailboat designed by William H. Tripp, III and built by Vismara Marine and Baltic Yachts starting in 1998.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

Shown here is fractional racing rig. Also available with a masthead rig. I: 67.00’ J: 19.36’ P: 60.00’ E: 22.24’ Tot. SA.: 1316 sq.ft.

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The Baltic 50 is a 50.0ft fractional sloop designed by Tripp Design and built in carbon fiber or composite by Baltic Yachts since 1998.

11 units have been built..

The Baltic 50 is a light sailboat which is a very high performer. It is very stable / stiff and has a low righting capability if capsized. It is best suited as a fast cruiser. The fuel capacity is originally small. There is a short water supply range.

Baltic 50 for sale elsewhere on the web:

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Review of Baltic 50

Basic specs..

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

The boat is equipped with 250.0 liter fresh water capacity.

The boat has more than one rig. One option is a fractional rig. A fractional rig has smaller headsails which make tacking easier, which is an advantage for cruisers and racers, of course. The downside is that having the wind from behind often requires a genaker or a spinnaker for optimal speed.

The Baltic 50 has been built with different keel alternatives.

Unknown keel type

Baltic 50 can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.99 - 3.09 meter (9.81 - 10.11 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 3.33 - 3.43 meter (10.93 - 11.23 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

The boat is typically equipped with an inboard Yanmar diesel engine

The fuel tank has a capacity of 129.0 liters (34 US gallons, 28 imperial gallons).

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Baltic 50 is 2.03, indicating that this boat would not be accepted to participate in ocean races.

What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?

The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 8.8 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Baltic 50 is about 377 kg/cm, alternatively 2114 lbs/inch. Meaning: if you load 377 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2114 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

What is Displacement Length Ratio?

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

Maintenance

When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy. The surface of the wet bottom is about 72m 2 (775 ft 2 ). Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Baltic 50 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us . Criticism helps us to improve.

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BALTIC 50 built by Baltic Yachts (FIN) Vismara Yachts (ITA) and designed by Tripp Design. Her first hull was built in 1998 with an overall lengh of 15.24 m or 50.00 ft long

BALTIC 50 Sailboat Specifications​

Performance

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1990 Baltic 50'

Description

Crazy Horse is a custom offshore racing sailboat designed by Judel/Vrolijk and built in 1990 by Baltic Custom Yachts in Finland. The boat is an exceptional example of Finnish craftsmanship in a competitive offshore racer. Since acquiring the boat in 2012, the current owner, (a shipyard owner) has been meticulously upgrading and maintaining the boat to a very high standard. A case in point: the boat has been "dry-sailed" since the current owner acquired her.

Unlike many of her stripped out racing competitors, Crazy Horse has the added feature of a proper main salon, minimal galley and a private cabin and enclosed head. Being built by Baltic, the quality of the joinery rivals that of any luxury cruising yacht. Weights of these cruising amenities are in the middle of the boat so as not to compromise the sailing performance of the boat. The ends are kept spartan and light as you would expect in a world-class racing boat.

Starting in the bow, the forepeak is virtually empty with the exception of two folding pipe berths. These would be appropriate for mooring / dockside use or while underway downwind in light to moderate conditions. There are also storage cubbies, port and starboard, at the aft end of the forepeak for crew gear, equipment tools, etc. (If anyone were interesting in increasing cruising capabilities, the forepeak has plenty of room to be retrofitted with a forward cabin and head)

Aft of the forepeak, is the main salon with a comfortable L-shaped settee to port and a straight settee to starboard. There are folding pipe-berths above and outboard of both settees. all settees and berths have lee cloths for comfortable offshore sleeping.

On the port side, aft of the main salon on the port side is a modest L-shaped galley with an Alpes stainless steel 3-burner propane stove with oven and electric propane solenoid, a single basin stainless steel sink and a stainless steel lined ice box. (The ice box previously had a cold plate and could be reconfigured to have refrigeration).  

Aft of the galley on the port side is a proper nav station with full electronics, navigation and communications equipment (See Electronics list for details)

Aft of the nav station is a double berth which can be configured as two single berths with a lee-cloth separator. Above the double berth is a folding pipe berth for racing.

On the Starboard side, aft of the main salon is the head with sink, toilet and plenty of storage. The head has doors opening inboard to the main cabin as well as aft to a private cabin

Aft of the head, is a private cabin with a double berth which can be configured as two single berths with a lee-cloth separator. Above the double berth is a folding pipe berth for racing. The cabin also features a small settee for sitting as well as a hanging locker and storage shelves. The cabin has direct access inboard to the main cabin and forward directly into the head.

The deck layout is what you would expect in a competitive ocean racing sailboat. The cockpit is wide and open and utmost consideration is given to efficient sail handling. All halyards, reefing lines and boom vang controls are lead aft to new Harken winches either side of the main companionway. New Harken primary winches are powered by a new Harken pedestal in the forward end of the cockpit. Secondary winches aft of the primaries are likewise new and by Harken. At the aft end of the cockpit is a large elk-hide wrapped steering wheel. Steering is comfortable whether sitting to weather on the side-deck or standing aft, going downwind. Running backstay winches are aft of the steering wheel clustered near centerline.

Specifications

• Engine Make: Yanmar
• Engine Model: 4JH2E
• Engine Year: 2009
• Engine Type: Inboard
• Drive Type: V
• Power HP: 50.00
• Power KW: 37.29
• Fuel Type: Diesel
• Hours: 1329.00
• Engine Location: Middle

Full Details

Recent upgrades/improvements.

• 2022- various running rigging upgraded for second time.
• (All running rigging has been replaced at least once)
• 2018 - New EPIRB 
• 2018 - new antal halyard clutches 
• 2018 - replace all main sheet blocks
• 2017 - new harken traveler and blocks,
• 2017 - new track and car for outhaul in boom 
• 2017 - 6 new harken winches and harken pedestal for primaries 
• 2017 - All running lights changed to LED LOPOLIGHTS 
• 2017 - Mast painted and rod rigging replaced 
• 2017 - Topsides painted 
• 2017 - New aere inflatable fenders 
• 2017 - Deck painted 
• 2017 - Rudder removed and all parts replaced 
• 2017 - X2 mastervolt 12/5000 li/ion batteries, 
• 2017 - new alternator to support batteries,
• 2017 - mastervolt charge master 12-100-3, mastervolt monitoring. 
• 2016 - new holding tank, toilet and toilet plumbing 
• 2016- lifesling
• 2016 - B & G H5000 
• 2016 - B & G autopilot 
• 2016 - forestay load cell installed 
• 2016 - All new interior lighting red/white
• 2015 - bow sprit added
• 2015 - bottom job done, boat always dry sailed since ownership 
• 2015 - Sailor fleet one sat phone, new terminal 2022 
• 2014 - ICOM VHF 
• 2014 - Jonbuoy 
• 2013 - Lifesling
• 2013 - Bilges painted
• 2013 - Keel removed inspected and bolts torqued back to spec
• 2013 - Engine removed serviced and painted 
• 2013 - Keel faired bottom faired
• 2023 - floor boards replaced  

Mast and Rigging

• Mast is a three spreader masthead rig by Hall Spars.
• Mast was repainted in 2017
• All rod rigging replaced in 2017
• Boom repainted and new hardware in 2017

Electronics

• Simrad Chartplotter on B&G Display
• Complete B&G sailing electronics
• Alpine Stereo 
• Xantrax Freedom HF Inverter
• Raymarine Autopilot
• KVH FleetOne TracPhone (satellite)

Sail Inventory

All Sails are by North

• Mainsail 3DL  2017
• A-1 Asymmetric spinnaker superLite/ Kote SL50  2017
• A-5 Asymmetric spinnaker Maxi Kote 150P  2016
• Future Fibre Cable  2016
• A-0 Asymmetric spinnaker CZ 60Aramid  2015
• A-3 Asymmetric spinnaker 700Airex  2015
• A-4 Asymmetric spinnaker Norlon 150  2015
• Karver KF 1 Furler w/ snap  2015
• Karver KF 5 Furler w/ snap  2015
• Spinnaker Staysail  2015
• Heavy Genoa 140% 3DL  2014
• Jib Top Reacher 140% 3DL  2014
• Light Genoa 155% 3DL  2014
• A-1 asymmetric spinnaker Airex 650  2014
• A-2 Asymmetric spinnaker Airex 700  2014
• J-4 Heavy Weather Jib 3DL  2014
• J-3 98% 3DL  2013
• Mainsail 3DL  2013
• Med Hvy Genoa 3DL  2013

Hull and Deck Construction

• Kevlar/R-glass over Divinycell sandwich, utilizing vacuum bagged poxy resin
• Differing density Divincell utilized depending on load characteristics in different areas of the hull and deck. 
• White hull painted with AWL-Grip (snow white 2017)
• New keel designed by Judel/Vrolijk in 2002
• 1200 lbs of internal ballast was removed and 900 lbs of lead added to base of keel in small bulb,
• Lead fin keel, min. 4-6% antimony in keel
• Bronze spacer between keel and hull,
• Balanced spade rudder
• Light grey non-skid decks

Recent Racing Record

2022 - Newport Bermuda race 4th in class 

2018 - Block Island Race 2nd place IRC 5 

2018 - Newport Bermuda Race 1st in class 

2018 - NYYC annual regatta ORR 1st place 

2016 - Block island race, team race winners 

2016 - Newport Bermuda Onion patch winning team 

2016 - Newport Bermuda Race 5th to finish overall  

2016 - NYYC annual regatta ORR 3rd 

2014- Ida Lewis distance race 2nd PHRF Division, best elapsed time PHRF 

Miscellaneous Equipment

• 12 man valise style liferaft 
• 6 spinlock inflatable lifejackets
• Winche handles
• X4 Inflatable Fenders
• Most sheets needed for sailing
• Spare battens
• Various spares, boat specific parts.  

Miscellaneous

For a boat of this age, the joinery and varnish is in remarkable shape. There are only two areas on noticeable wear in high traffic areas:

• Companionway

See photos.

Mechanical Disclaimer

Engine and generator hours are as of the date of the original listing and are a representation of what the listing broker is told by the owner and/or actual reading of the engine hour meters. The broker cannot guarantee the true hours. It is the responsibility of the purchaser and/or his agent to verify engine hours, warranties implied or otherwise and major overhauls as well as all other representations noted on the listing brochure.

For more information about this yacht, please contact Sean Fawcett.

For more information about this yacht, please contact Sean Fawcett . We look forward to working with you!

Sean Fawcett

Yacht broker.

East Coast Yacht Sales 17 Ashland Avenue

Manchester MA 01944 USA

1-978-744-7070

Baltics, like Nautor's Swans, have tried to walk the line between racing and cruising boats. This has produced a series of hybrid boats that, in my opinion, generally compromise both sides of the equation too much. Baltic has used a number of different designers; this time, they went to Bill Tripp's office for the dual-purpose 50-footer. The styling and interior design work was done by R&J Design, Baltic's in-house designers.

Based upon an IMS-friendly shape, this 50-footer attempts to combine race-boat speed with cruiser comfort. I know, everybody says that. Tripp has produced some very fast boats, and I would think that you could be competitive in this boat in most fleets.

The hull is typical of what we see on race boats today. Displacement is low with a D/L of 113, indicating a long and light boat. It will take some doing on the builder's part to ensure that this weight is met. The gear required to make any boat a cruiser is fixed in its weight and that weight can add up quickly. Think: genset, inverter, roller furling, heating, etc. The keel and rudder are deep, high-aspect-ratio blades. Draft is 9.9 feet, but we can call it 10 feet.

The interior is where the builder is going to have to get very creative with materials and methods if the target weight is to be met. There are three layouts offered. Layout No. 1 appears to be the cruisiest with shower forward and a wrap-around dinette. Layout No. 3 appears to be the raciest with straight settee/berths and a starboard quarter cabin that is converted to a pipe berth crew area. All these layouts are fine, but I just can't find the sparkle or "Wow!" quality in them that distinguished previous Baltic interiors. This might be evidence of a weight-saving design and the use of one-off composite panels. Maybe there's a new interior design team.

The SA/D is 27.6. You will need this horsepower on the race course but cruising is a different matter. Think about the amount of time you will spend sailing in light air. If you motor a lot you may want to give away light-air speed for the ability to carry full sail in a breeze. It's a personal, sailing-style decision. If you have a boat full of teenage boys, go for the big rig. If it's just the two of you, maybe you should consider a shorter rig. With this rig height, you could cruise very quickly without overlapping headsails. Note the roach overlapping the backstay. I'm doing that with my new mainsail. I'll let you know how I like it.

The profile shows a sleek, racy-looking boat with more cabintrunk than the typical racing boat. Baltic's deck detailing is always beautifully detailed and sculpted. The big cockpit opens up to the transom. There are convenient bun-cheek chamfers in the cockpit coaming so the helmsman can be comfortable while heeled. The cockpit seats appear to be too short for sleeping and I can't see why they weren't extended an extra 24 inches.

This is a touring sports car, like the new Jag convertible. It will give you the impression you are cruising on a thoroughbred. "Time for a spinnaker peel, dear."

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New Listing – 2003 Baltic Yachts 50

Posted Friday 3rd February 2023

Utterly unique Bill Tripp designed single-cockpit Baltic 50 in carbon/epoxy with just 3,000Nm sailed since a complete refit and upgrade at Baltic Yachts in Finland.

FURTHER BROKER’S COMMENTS:

SPIRIT is hull no.8 of the semi-custom Bill Tripp designed Baltic 50 performance cruiser range. One of the few with a single-cockpit arrangement, and with all control lines led aft to her cockpit, she holds her own against the very latest designs in the market. Also unusually, SPIRIT is constructed in carbon composite with Corecell sandwich and epoxy resins, creating an extremely light and stiff hull structure.

Delivered to her first owners in 2003, SPIRIT was sailed lightly in Scandinavian waters, always wintered ashore, rig-out and under cover. In 2009, she sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, remaining there for the 2009/10 Caribbean season before being shipped back to Europe and on to Sweden.

Over the winter of 2011/12, and 2012/13 with her owners deciding that SPIRIT would be their ‘forever boat’, she was taken back to the Baltic Yachts shipyard in Finland and subjected to a comprehensive 4,000hr refit costing in excess of Euro 460,000. The refit ‘brief’ was to “rebuild SPIRIT to how you would build her today”. Following her relaunch in 2012, she was sailed lightly again in the Baltic before being brought ashore in the Autumn of 2013 for completion of the refit works and then immediately decommissions and laid up ashore, under cover and with her rig out until 2021.

Purchased by her current (second) owner in July 2021, SPIRIT was then fully recommissioned and further upgraded, although with very little left to do after her Baltic Yachts refit and no usage since, she was still in essentially ‘as new condition’. Having left Scandinavia, SPIRIT was then sailed down to the Mediterranean and to her new home in Sanremo with her owner enjoying 3,000Nm of problem-free, exhilarating cruising. Having fallen very firmly in love with SPIRIT and the ‘Baltic Yachts family’, her owner is now offering her for sale with a plan to move upwards into a larger Baltic.

With Baltic Yachts universally regarded as the very best of composite yacht builders, and with their focus now very firmly towards larger custom builds, SPIRIT represents an unique opportunity to acquire what is arguably one of the finest 50ft performance sloops in the world today.

SPIRIT’s specification highlights include:- • Carbon fibre construction with epoxy resins and Corecell foam including carbon and Corecell internal bulkheads • 3-cabin, 2-heads interior layout with offset double berth forward and forepeak heads creating a genuinely usable sea-berth thanks to head adjacent to mast as opposed to in forepeak area. • Classic teak interior joinery • Modern single cockpit layout • Exit Millennium carbon helm wheels • ‘Zero-houred’ Volvo D2-55hp engine with updated Saildrive gearbox • Spectra watermaker • Custom carbon fibre bowsprit designed and fitted at Baltic Yachts • Practical 3.00m draft bulb keel with stainless steel fin • Hall Spars carbon fibre mast and boom • Hall Spars carbon fibre standing rigging • Harken winch package with electric winches • New North Sails 3Di mainsail and genoa • Furling staysail • Code 0 and A-sails • B&G Hydra 2000 instrument package with new Zeus plotter • Sailor Iiridium sat phone (requires contract) • Sea-water cooled custom refrigeration plus freezer • Microwave oven • LCD TV with DVD • Eberspacher diesel heating • Tender and Torqeedo electric outboard

2011-13 BALTIC YACHTS REFIT HIGHLIGHTS • Topsides repainted silver metallic. • Hull sand blasted and new epoxy + antifouling treatment. • Teak deck fully refurbished. • All white on deck and cockpit area repainted (with Awlgrip white). • Mast and boom painted white. • Construction of Bow spirit with integrated anchor installed in favour of spinnaker equipment. • Fitment of carbon standing rigging from Hall Spars. • Fitment of new electrical Main halyard winch. • New pulpit. • All cockpit FFDs changed. • Deck hatches serviced. • New anchor windlass. • Entire interior re-varnished. • Floorboards re-varnished. • New leather upholstery in saloon. • New fabric in all cabins. • All ceilings new. • All hinges replaced. • New electrical toilets. • New TV and stereo with DVD. • Cockpit and sailing lockers repainted inside. • All pumps serviced or replaced. • Engine out of boat and completely overhauled. • New Volvo MD 130 S-drive. • New A2 Gennaker from North. • New 3Di jib from North. • Old Gennakers recut to fit bow-spirit. • Barber hauler for jib sheet installed. • Clutches upgraded and old ones replaced. • All running rigging new. • All canvas new. • New Exit Engineering Carbon wheels. • Mooring lines new.

DESIGNER’S COMMENTS:

Sailors will recognize in the Baltic 50 the continuation of the Baltic tradition, the combination of quality, style and commitment to performance. The profile in a glance has the dramatic Baltic heritage yet reveals something of an advanced hull form.

Baltic yachts have always distinguished themselves as being not only very high quality yachts, but as high performance, racing and cruising yachts. By utilizing top materials, construction techniques, and equipment it is now possible to design a strong, light, sophisticated design with a nicely appointed interior that has all of the polished sailing characteristics of a top grand prix boat.

Modern sailboat design is in continual development, and the sport has witnessed tremendous improvements in speed and sea keeping. The performance is by virtue of subtle hull shaping and a balance of power. The band of their performance is widened. A modern hull is far different than anything that has gone before, and the fine bows and broad transoms do not dive by the bow, nor get excessive helm as we have learned the best shapes for speed and balance. The really modern boats are superb boats to race and sail, and can take any weather, as the improvements in the boats have directed more toward performance than rating. The boats are no longer digging holes in the water as they heel or increase speed and then falling into them. Our new boats sail on the water not through it.

The carbon rig and bulb keel combine for a very low centre of gravity, giving the satisfaction of sail carrying capacity on a light boat. The light boat eases the forces needed to go forward. The boat slips along rather than dragging the ocean. The large sail plan makes the boat very easily driven in light air, as a large amount of racing is in these conditions.

For the cruiser/racer the rig is a masthead rig with swept spreaders. The advantage of this is that the boat handing is very easy. The rig is high-performance yet foolproof without the complication of runners.

2003 Baltic Yachts 50 – SPIRIT – Asking Euro 490,000 EU VAT paid – full details here

Do you have a yacht like this to sell? Grabau International are always looking for new high quality cruising yacht listings both in the UK and internationally. For further information about our tailored brokerage services, please  look here  or feel free to  contact us

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• Service & Refit
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OUR YACHTS MULTI-ROLE YACHTS

A comfortable cruising experience has always been a key sales pitch and driver in our designs. We want to make complex yachts easy to sail. We put great emphasis on user-friendliness in our technical design process and seek maximum comfort in our interior design.

Our expertise in building advanced composite yachts is based on nearly half a century of experience starting with many smaller production yachts and evolving into the custom superyachts we see being launched today. We are world leaders in this field of building, which is in so much demand today by clients looking for a multi-role yacht providing a platform for luxury living and a performance to win on the race course.

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Baltic Yachts has launched an eco-friendly 68-footer for semi-series production and the first hull was delivered in summer 2021. This yacht embodies the latest eco-friendly building materials and a low emission propulsion unit. Hydrogeneration, solar panels and sustainable cork decks to dramatically reduce her environmental impact are among features reflecting a yacht to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

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Commissioned by an experienced yachtsman, Baltic 80 Emma is a particularly sleek and sporty looking yacht and could be regarded as a ‘new generation 80’ capable of fast offshore cruising and an excellent performance on the race course.

Baltic 175 Ravenger – Refit

Originally launched in 2017, the largest full carbon composite sloop in the world Baltic 175 Ravenger (originally named Pink Gin VI) has undergone a 9-month refit during 2023-2024 with streamlined exterior styling by the owner’s team including Finnish designer Jarkko Jämsén. Refit works included major upgrades to her rig, sailplan and sailing systems, a complete interior restyle by Design Unlimited, and some significant enhancements to her already world class levels of onboard comfort.

BALTIC 68 CAFÉ RACER-03

The third hull of the popular Café Racer will be optimised for racing while staying true to her concept of easy and effortless day sailing. Her advanced carbon composite hull and deck are from the same moulds as the first boat, Pink Gin Verde and the second Café Racer Open Season, which has had huge success during her first season on the Mediterranean regatta circuit.

Baltic 111 Raven

Designed for fast coastal and offshore sailing, the Baltic 111 Raven has taken full advantage of Baltic Yachts’ ability to build an advanced composite structure to the most exacting standards, creating a modern, stylish living platform within a high-performance design envelope.

Baltic 110 Zemi

This 110ft all carbon sloop was commissioned by an experienced yachtsman who required a yacht for global family cruising adventures at pace.

BALTIC 46 QUEEN ANNE – REFIT

The first yacht built by Baltic Yachts was designed by C&C Design in Canada with the interior layout and styling done by our own in-house design team. The Baltic 46 was designed for comfortable living on board and was aimed at the racing fraternity as well as the cruising minded.

Baltic 68 Café Racer Open Season

Commissioned by an experienced owner who is familiar with the Mediterranean regatta circuit, the second Baltic 68 Café Racer is from the same mould as Pink Gin Verde with characteristics optimised for racing.

BALTIC 67PC-03 FREEDOM

The judel/vrolijk-designed Baltic 67PC was conceived as a robust, fast, easy to handle long distance cruising yacht able to sail well in light to medium airs downwind conditions and maintain high daily mileage averages without recourse to the engine.

BALTIC 117 PERSEVERANCE

This yacht is an advanced composite 117ft (35.8m) Custom Classic sloop from the board of renowned Dutch designers Dykstra Naval Architects.

Baltic 68 Café Racer Pink Gin Verde

Designed to deliver an electrifying performance in more ways than one, this easy to handle Day Sailer is boosted by green power. Her un-plug and go electric propulsion and generation system is super eco-friendly and she’s finished to a luxurious standard on-deck and below.

Baltic 146 PATH

When she was commissioned this was the third largest yacht by volume Baltic Yachts had ever been asked to build.

BALTIC 67 PERFORMANCE CRUISER

A fast, easy to handle cruising yacht benefitting from the highest quality carbon fibre construction, 48 years of seamanlike design experience and the opportunity for owners to customise layout.

This new performance bluewater cruiser is designed to meet the demands of owners looking for a fast, easy to sail, good looking, long distance cruising yacht displaying seamanlike design throughout and benefitting from the carbon fibre engineering and building skills perfected by Baltic Yachts over 48 years.

What people say about our yachts

Liara is a complete level above anything else I have built in the past and I don’t know any yard that could deliver a yacht of this complexity virtually on time and to that extremely high quality.

Owner, Baltic 112 Liara

For me, Baltic means a fantastic team of people that is challenging itself all the time in order to build more advanced, more sophisticated, faster and lighter "high performance" yachts than any other yacht builder. They never say no as an answer, they come up with solutions!

Owner, Baltic 112 Nilaya

When I was making my choice of builder, I concluded that the Baltic 67 had been far better thought through than similar yachts. A key requirement for my new yacht was high quality of build.

Owner, Baltic 67 Manyeleti

OUR AWARD WINNING YACHTS

In total our yachts have amassed thirty-three awards by various organisations including the ShowBoat Design Awards, the International Superyacht Society Awards and the World Superyacht Awards. Each yacht’s ability to perform equally well in cruise and race mode, together with Baltic Yachts’ ability to bring design alive, have consistently impressed the judges.

PASSION FOR INNOVATION

HYDROGENERATION

Using an electric motor for a yacht’s auxiliary propulsion has become popular as the need for more environmentally acceptable power increases. A great advantage of using an electric motor is that it can work as a generator by harnessing energy from the ‘free-wheeling’, controllable pitch propeller when the yacht is sailing. The electric motor becomes a generator, which charges a battery bank and in turn supplies power to the sailing systems and services aboard the yacht.

MEET OUR YACHTS

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Sailing the Baltic Sea: where to go

• Rachael Sprot
• October 13, 2022

Is the Baltic the new Mediterranean? Rachael Sprot takes a closer look at this underrated cruising ground

Knowing how to tie up to a rock is a vital skill when sailing the Baltic Sea. Credit: Martin Leisborn Credit: Martin Leisborn

Sailing the Baltic Sea: where to go & the skills you need

‘Showers are destroyed,’ pronounced a workman, gesturing towards the dilapidated marina building at the Riga Yacht Club. I had no Latvian and he spoke very little English but valiantly explained the futility of my search.

We’d arrived in Riga at 0500. It was the end of April and according to the pilot charts the ice in the Gulf of Riga may have only just receded.

The generator, our main source of hot water, had packed up somewhere off Gdansk. So we were all a little crestfallen at the news. ‘WiFi?’ asked a crew member before hurriedly retracting it with, ‘just joking!’ as I glowered at him.

But I remember it now because it was the low point in an otherwise magical tour of the Baltic that inspired me to return and sail there again and again.

Sailing the Baltic Sea: Culture, history, wilderness

History and geography make the Baltic a rich and rewarding place to sail.

Hanseatic trade routes once crisscrossed the sea and a group of states grew around these maritime connections. As such it is uniquely suited to exploration by water.

Sunset at a bustling eatery on Bohuslän. Credit: Frank Chmura/Alamy Stock Photo

The concentration of beautiful cities, many of them capitals, which you can sail right into is unrivalled.

It also played a pivotal role in some of the defining events of the 21st century: the first battle of the Second World War and the fall of the USSR began on its shores. But there’s wilderness too.

Sail out of Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo or Gothenburg and you are soon surrounded by nature in tranquil archipelagos.

At its widest point it measures 150 miles across – far more compact the Mediterranean and a summer cruise could be done entirely day-sailing, especially since the days are so long.

At the height of the season there’s a festival atmosphere as everyone heads to the coast, but before July or by late August you’ll have it largely to yourself.

How to get to the Baltic Sea

The main challenge in sailing the Baltic Sea is getting there in the first place.

It’s 350 miles from Dover to Brunsbüttel, the start of the Kiel canal. There’s an Inshore Traffic Zone along the Dutch and German coasts keeping yachts clear of the busy shipping routes, but it’s a busy stretch of water and you’ll need to keep a careful lookout.

Sailing boats on the Kiel Canal, Baltic coast, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

The Friesian islands make for lovely places to stop along the way, Vlieland has a good marina, easy access and picturesque scenery.

The duty-free island of Helgoland in the German Bight is also worth paying a visit if you need to top up on ‘essential’ supplies of the alcoholic kind.

The 53 miles of the Kiel or Nord-Ostsee canal is an event in itself. Sharing the narrow waterway with large ships is intimidating.

Yachts must keep clear by staying well to starboard and following instructions and light signals. Navigable during daylight hours only, the transit can be completed in a long summer day.

Riga, the capital of Latvia. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Alternatively spend a night in the marina at Rendsburg or one of several anchorages along the way and take a break from ship dodging.

Exiting the locks at Holtenau, you enter the large waterway of Kieler Förder, with excellent facilities and several good marinas.

From the north it’s just under 440 miles from Hartlepool to Skagen on the tip of Denmark. This route has different challenges.

Dense concentrations of shipping isn’t one of them, but there are wind farms to negotiate and oil rigs breathing fire into the night.

It can feel as though you’re crossing a construction site at times. Most rigs have a 500m exclusion zone and a patrol boat on standby.

Check the North Sea navigation warnings before departure and keep a listening watch on Channel 16.

For those with time, there are two alternatives to the Kiel canal: the Limfjord which cuts through the north of Denmark; and the much smaller Eider canal which runs north of the Kiel canal before joining it towards the end.

Both are lovely diversions if you have time.

Navigating the Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea’s cruising grounds. Credit: Maxine Heath

The Baltic is a straightforward cruising ground compared with British waters.

There’s no tide as the body of water is too small to generate the oscillations which fringe the major oceans.

Instead, there’s a steady outpouring of water through the Kattegat, powered by the net input of freshwater from rivers.

Streams can reach a couple of knots in pinch points such as the Øresund between Copenhagen and Malmö.

In other areas, there are noticeable wind-driven currents. These are most pronounced after prolonged periods of the strong wind from the same direction, and they have the effect of changing the water levels too.

An open pulpit, and bow ladder, will make Baltic mooring easier, whether in a marina or to a rock. Credit: Martin Leisborn

Consistent NE winds can cause a SW setting current which ‘drains’ the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland, reducing depths by more than 1m in extreme scenarios.

Further south a combination of high pressure and wind-driven currents causes fluctuations of 0.1 – 0.3m.

For shallow passages you’ll need to take account of recent weather patterns and ask for local advice before committing.

Weather conditions are generally more benign than on our tempestuous Atlantic shores. In many areas there’s little fetch for a seastate to develop, although when it does it can be short and sharp.

The climate feels more continental than maritime, with colder winters and slightly warmer summers than the UK.

At the height of the season temperatures often reach 30°, and sea temperatures can be 20° in the archipelagos.

You might be pleasantly surprised by the cost of sailing the Baltic Sea. Although alcohol is considerably more expensive in the Nordic countries, you can stock up in Germany and Poland en route.

Berthing fees are generally fairly modest: even in Scandinavia they tend to be cheaper than those charged in the south coast of the UK, so the increased cost of other things tends to even itself out.

Berthing is often paid on an app and reserved in advance, which is a good idea in the height of season (July – mid-August).

It’s rare to see the harbour master doing rounds: they tend to rely on an honesty system. Many of the marinas are on a much smaller scale than the UK.

Facilities are admittedly much simpler but spotlessly clean.

It’s a breath of fresh air compared to more commercialised cruising grounds that are so popular elsewhere.

Continues below…

An expert guide to box berthing

Dutch boatbuilder Eeuwe Kooi has been box berthing all his life. He shows Chris Beeson how the pros do it

Navigating wind farms: The dos and the don’ts

Wind farms want to restrict where yachts can sail around them. The RYA is fighting for freedom of navigation. Stuart…

Sailing Sweden: dodging the rocks

Phil Woollam and his family weave their way through the islands of Sweden’s east coast on their Cornish Shrimper

8 uses for a kedge anchor

Is your kedge anchor lying forgotten in its locker? Vyv Cox outlines 8 ways you can put it to good

Southern Denmark, Copenhagen and SW Sweden

Credit: Maxine Heath

Denmark and southern Sweden are easy to access and make an excellent introduction to Baltic cruising.

Many people pass through quickly on the way to the archipelagos further north, but gentle landscapes and pretty towns reward those hopping along the coast.

Copenhagen is the jewel in the crown of the southern Baltic. Tie up in the bustling old Nyhavn and be part of the action or one of the large marinas further north for a quiet night.

Though Danish, the island of Bornholm actually lies closer to Sweden. It’s known for its picturesque harbours, pristine beaches, round churches and traditional smokehouses.

Colourful Copenhagen as seen from the Nyhavn Canal. Credit: Kim Petersen/Alamy Stock Photo

But it’s the tiny, fortified island of Christiansø, just east of Bornholm, which is a truly special spot.

The harbour feels as though it’s barely changed since the 1600s. The Swedish coast is low-lying here, with long stretches of beach flanked by some of the country’s best farmland.

There are few anchorages until you reach the SE corner, but the gorgeous town of Ystad, with its medieval timber houses, and Karlskrona, the UNESCO listed naval port, more than make up for it.

The ultimate stopping off point when heading to or from the east coast is Utklippen, a tiny fishing station formed by blasting a gap between two rocky islets.

North Denmark, Bohuslän Coast and Southern Norway

The fjords of southern Norway, such as here in Berefjord, are smaller than those further north, but are still dramatic places to explore

Heading north from Copenhagen into the Kattegat, most yachts have their eyes on Sweden’s Bohuslän coast.

The Skärgård, a tapestry of pink granite islands, fringes the mainland coast from Gothenburg up to the Norwegian border creating an inexhaustible cruising ground.

It’s a place where the locals moor alongside the rocks and cook crayfish on the BBQ.

There are lots of natural harbours, many of them former fishing stations, with timber huts painted in distinctive rust-red paint.

Navigation is intricate and challenging, but you’ll be rewarded with exhilarating passages in flat water.

A natural harbour at Bogen Island, Bohuslän, west coast of Sweden. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Keep heading north and you’ll cross the border into Norway and eventually arrive in Oslo.

The skärgård continues but there’s added interest as we enter the land of the fjords. Although less dramatic than the deep fjords of the west coast, Oslofjord has lots of good cruising and it’s a great introduction to a country with the most spectacular coastline in Europe .

The topography of the Danish side means that harbours tend to be man-made, with sleepy fishing ports and rural landscapes.

The islands of Anholt and Læsø are both worth a stop for their beautiful beaches and Læsø’s seaweed-roofed huts.

The windswept dunes of Skagen form the northern tip of the country. It has a strong artistic heritage and is a busy holiday destination for the Danes, who often gather on the sandy strip where land turns imperceptibly to sea.

The coastline may not hold the same intrigue as the Swedish and Norwegian side, but you might find the elusive quality of hygge and decide to stay put instead, which would certainly save a few miles on the summer cruise!

Eastern Sweden and Finland

For me, the big decision is whether to aim for the east or west coast of Sweden. Both routes have beautiful archipelagos, lots of interest en route and wonderful cities.

If there were no real-life variables, Stockholm and the coastline south of it would clinch it for me. Stockholm is a waterside city in the truest sense.

The perfectly preserved wreck of the Vasa , a 17th-century warship which sank in the harbour on its maiden voyage, is now a museum on one of the city’s many islands.

The incredible story of how it was painstakingly raised and preserved is as astounding as the ship itself.

The surrounding archipelago is equally gorgeous and unlike the west coast the islands are clad in pine trees whose scent wafts out to sea.

Islands of the Stockholm archipelago in autumn. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

The large offshore islands of Gotland and Oland are fascinating places to stop en route. Both feature on the UNESCO list, Oland for its ancient agricultural landscape and Gotland for Visby, the hub of the Hanseatic League in medieval times and its 13th-century walled town.

Visby’s ramparts and winding lanes certainly rival Tuscany for atmosphere.

Before arriving in the Stockholm archipelago , the Blå Kusten or Blue Coast could easily distract you from your target.

It’s another long skärgård with wild islands, narrow sounds and total serenity. Often overlooked, it is just as beautiful as the better-known archipelagos.

The autonomous Åland archipelago between Sweden and Finland is a hallowed cruising ground for locals and visitors alike.

Many islands in Finland are privately owned. Seek permission before mooring. Credit: Katy Stickland

However, the fringe of skerries continues right along the coast of Finland to the Russian border, with Helsinki as a useful and attractive stopping point along the way.

Most islands are privately owned, so beware of encroaching on people’s privacy. A respectful crew are normally warmly received and often invited to use the sauna.

After a few days in Finland you realise the Swedish archipelagos were merely a warm-up act.

In some areas the islands are so densely packed that there’s more land than sea. By the end of a two-week cruise you’ll have an advanced diploma in rock-dodging, and much shorter fingernails.

The Gulf of Bothnia is a rather long cul-de-sac for foreign yachts, although the Finns, Swedes and Germans head up there to get away from it all.

It’s 350 miles to the top, which is also the border between Finland and Sweden. Head up there for solitude and wilderness.

Germany & Poland

If the Scandi-chic of the northern Baltic is a bit too much, or the price of beer has begun to wear thin, don’t miss a trip to the southern Baltic.

Many of the former Hanseatic towns along this coast have been painstakingly restored after damage in the Second World War.

Lubeck, Wismar and Stralsund all have UNESCO world heritage status.

With inexpensive marinas close to the centre of town, cobbled streets and town squares, you could easily while away a fortnight on this beautiful coastline.

Inside the beech-forested island of Rügen are the intriguing waterways of the Boddensee.

The Hanseatic town of Stralsund has UNESCO world heritage status. Credit: Iurii Buriak/Alamy Stock Photo

Take a detour through the reeds to Peenemünde, the factory where the V1 and V2 rockets were developed. It’s now a museum with a poignant message about the relationship between science and war.

The Polish coast is challenging, with long sandy stretches and ports which are often inaccessible in onshore winds.

Cruising takes the shape of long passages, followed by a few days in port to explore the surrounding area, rather than the island hopping of the north.

It’s worth taking the time to explore though, whether heading inshore to the extensive national parks, or beachcombing for nuggets of amber which wash up after gales.

Although out on a limb, Gdansk is unmissable.

The chalk cliffs of Jasmund National Park on the island of Rugen make a striking backdrop. Credit: Aleksandr Ugorenkov/Alamy Stock Photo

The approach takes you past the Westerplatte, the peninsula that was attacked by the German warship Schleswig-Holstein on 1 September 1939, initiating the Second World War.

The route continues for a further 4 miles up through the shipyards, some derelict, some in use, which were the birthplace of the Solidarity Movement that was pivotal in the fall of the USSR.

In the heart of the city though, it’s the imposing medieval wooden crane which dominates the harbour.

Once the largest cargo crane in Europe, it was damaged in 1945 when 80 per cent of the city was destroyed in the final throes of the war.

Now restored, it’s a spectacular sight and a reminder that the city’s identity stretches much further than recent history.

Baltic States

A very different kind of adventure can be found on the coasts of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Riga and Tallinn are beautiful cities with UNESCO status and good marinas.

Cruising is cheaper here than it is in Scandinavia but English is not as widely spoken.

The lighthouse on the tip of Sorve Cape, Saaremaar, Estonia. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Despite this, foreign yachts are given a warm welcome and most people will generously engage in marina charades as you try to act out a washing machine.

The main cruising ground is the Estonian islands at the northern end of the Gulf of Riga. It provides plenty of opportunities for intricate pilotage and there’s often a sauna ashore for weary sailors.

Latvia has several commercial ports which are accessible to yachts, including Ventspils and Liepāja, both of which are about 90nm from Gotland.

Lithuania’s coastline is dominated by the Curonian Spit.

Stretching for over 60nm, the tree-clad sand dunes don’t offer much shelter to sailors but Klaipėda, Lithuania’s main port, is a pleasant town.

The magical approach to St Petersburg is currently a no-go. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

There are two Russian coasts in the Baltic: the Gulf of Finland from about 27°E, and Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania.

Even before this year they had a strong military presence.

In happier times, St Petersburg was the adventurer’s ultimate prize. Each year a few dozen yachts would apply for visas and make the approach via the TSS to this mesmerising city.

For now it is probably best given a wide berth.

Itineraries for sailing the Baltic Sea from Kiel

Germany, Bornhom and southern Sweden

Copenhagen & western Sweden

Circumnavigate Denmark

Denmark & western Sweden, exit via the Limfjord

Germany, Gdansk, Gotland & Sweden’s Blue Coast

Circumnavigate Sweden by cutting through the Göte Kanal

Denmark > Gothenburg > Bohuslän Coast – Oslofjord – Exit via the Skagerrak

Germany > Poland > Tallinn > Helsinki > Åland archipelago > Stockholm archipelago

Charts & Pilot books for sailing the Baltic Sea

The RCCPF Baltic Sea Pilot guide is a good place to start when researching a trip. It gives a good overview of each area and is perfectly adequate if passing through. In the archipelagos though, a local pilot guide is essential.

The Swedish Hamnguiden are superb, with aerial photographs of every harbour and anchorage, showing what kind or berth or mooring is to be found, where to do a rock mooring , and where to drop the hook for a ‘normal’ anchorage.

Electronic chart coverage can be excellent, but it’s hard work passage planning on electronic charts, especially in intricate waters.

Most countries have their own leisure charts in easy-to-use format so that you can flip through as you follow a lead in the skerries.

They often have the recommended routes drawn on, including an indication of the maximum draught and are worth investing in if you’re planning to explore beyond the main ports.

German company NV produces inexpensive coverage of the southern Baltic. Chart packs are accompanied by a pilot book with harbour details.

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• Audio edition

The Big Baltic Bomb Cleanup

The ocean became a dumping ground for weapons after allied forces defeated the nazis. now a team of robots and divers are making the baltic sea safer., authored by, article body copy.

Aboard the Alkor , a 55-meter oceanographic vessel anchored in the Baltic Sea several kilometers from the German port city of Kiel, engineer Henrik Schönheit grips a joystick-like lever in his fist. He nudges the lever up, and a one-of-a-kind robotic sea crawler about the size of a two-seat golf cart responds, creeping forward along the seafloor on rubber caterpillar tracks 12 meters below the ship. As the crawler inspects Kiel bay’s sandy terrain, a live video stream beams up to a computer screen in a cramped room aboard the ship. The picture is so crystalline that it’s possible to count the tentacles of a translucent jellyfish floating past the camera. A scrum of scientists and technicians ooh and ah as they huddle around the screen, peering over Schönheit’s shoulder.

The bright-yellow robot is the Norppa 300, the newest fabrication of the explosive ordnance disposal company SeaTerra, which operates out of northern Germany. SeaTerra’s cofounder Dieter Guldin rates as one of Europe’s canniest experts for salvaging sunken explosives. Now, after years of experience clearing the seafloor of hazards for commercial operations, and campaigning the German government for large-scale remediation, SeaTerra is one of three companies participating in the first-ever mission to systematically clear munitions off a seafloor in the name of environmental protection. The arduous and exacting process of removing and destroying more than 1.5 million tonnes of volatile munitions from the Baltic and North Sea basins—an area roughly the size of West Virginia—is more urgent by the day: the weapons, which have killed hundreds of people who have come into accidental contact with them in the past, are now corroded. Their casings are breaking apart and releasing carcinogens into the seas.

Onboard the Alkor , during a May 2024 test run, SeaTerra technicians Klaus-Dieter Golla, left, and Henrik Schönheit discuss video footage of the seafloor transmitted by the company’s Norppa 300 robot. Photo by Andreas Muenchbach

SeaTerra’s top technicians aboard the Alkor are testing the Norppa 300’s basic functions in the wild prior to the project’s start this month, in early September 2024: ensuring that its steering, sonar imaging of the seafloor, chemical sampler, and video feed are fine-tuned. Everyone huddled in the ship’s dry lab watches rapt as the crawler bumps up against a vaguely rectangular object the size of a bar fridge. It’s largely obscured by seaweed and, from the looks of it, home to a lone Baltic flounder that’s swimming around the base. Aaron Beck, senior scientist at Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, a German marine research institute working alongside SeaTerra, identifies it as an ammunition crate. “Look, the flatness there, the corner. That’s not of the natural world,” he exclaims.

Dumped munitions lie in waters across the world but are ubiquitous in German waters. In the aftermath of the Second World War, all the conflict parties, including the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, and the United States, had to divest themselves of armaments. “They didn’t want [them] on land, and facilities to destroy [them] were too few,” explains Anita Künitzer of the German environment agency. Dumping at sea, a practice held over from the First World War, was the obvious choice .

In occupied Germany, British forces established underwater disposal zones—one of which lies near Kiel bay. “But,” says Guldin, “on their way to the designated dumping grounds, they also just threw hardware overboard.” Grainy black-and-white film footage shows British sailors busily operating multiple conveyor belts to cast crate after crate of leftovers into the sea. Whole ships and submarines packed with live munitions were scuttled in the rush to disarm the Germans .

After the Second World War, the ocean became a dumping ground as militaries rushed to dispose of weapons.

Experts estimate that a ginormous 1.6 million tonnes of conventional munitions and another 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons lie decomposing off Germany alone in the North and Baltic Seas, most from the Second World War. (Because of its busy ports, the North Sea received four times as much as the Baltic.) If all that weaponry were lined up, it would stretch from Paris to Moscow, about 2,500 kilometers! “Nowhere in German waters is there a square kilometer of seabed without munitions,” says Guldin.

In the postwar decades, freelancing scrap metal collectors hauled explosives and other valuable wartime debris ashore to hawk on the metals market. Fisher boats that ensnared unexploded munition in their nets were required to turn them in to coastal authorities, not toss them overboard again. The German Navy’s anti-mine units attempted to clear some of the mess, usually through initiating underwater explosions, but lacked the proper equipment to tackle the problem systematically. Only when the private sector picked up operations did a whole new suite of technology and skill sets emerge.

Since the late 2000s, SeaTerra’s ensemble of marine biologists, hydraulic specialists, sedimentologists, divers, engineers, geophysicists, marine surveyors, pyrotechnicians, and archaeologists—now about 160 people—have been mapping the sunken armaments as they worked to clear safe patches of seafloor for wind-farm, cable, and pipeline projects.

But until this year, SeaTerra never possessed the remit it has long coveted: to begin systematically ameliorating the seafloor for the sake of marine ecosystems—and the people dependent on them. The German government has set aside 100-million euros to remove the toxic mess from Lübeck bay, off the Baltic port city of Lübeck, southeast of Kiel, as a pilot project. “No other country in the world has ever attempted or achieved this,” says Tobias Goldschmidt, the region’s environment minister, in a press release.

Experts prepare the Norppa 300 for a trial run in the Baltic Sea in May 2024. Photo by Andreas Muenchbach

Guldin and other advocates are elated that the project is on, but acknowledge it will only dent the Baltic’s total quantity of submerged ordnance. Their goal is to recover between 50 and 80 tonnes worth of munitions, though the pilot’s primary purpose is for SeaTerra and the two other firms to test their technology and to demonstrate to bankrollers that the job is doable. “Then it’s about scaling up and getting faster,” says Guldin.

Faster is vital, because in their watery graves, the many land and naval mines, U-boat torpedoes, depth charges, artillery shells, chemical weapons, aerial bombs, and incendiary devices have corroded over almost 80 years. The Germans, like other dumping nations, long assumed that when the casings broke down, the vast ocean would simply dissolve pollutants into harmless fractions. About 25 years ago, scientists discovered that instead, the explosives remain live and are now oozing into the ecosystem and up the food chain .

That flounder darting in front of the crawler’s camera from the Alkor ’s dry lab? It almost certainly contains traces of TNT, the highly toxic compound used in explosives. Toxicologist Jennifer Strehse, from the Kiel-based Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology for Natural Scientists, which identified the mounting toxic pollution, says that contamination is particularly widespread in shellfish, bottom-dwelling flatfish, and other fauna that are close to the munition dumps. They’re “contaminated with carcinogens from TNT or arsenic or heavy metals like lead and mercury,” she says.

An image of Lübeck bay’s seafloor shows a smattering of bombs. Photo courtesy of Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research

Scientists have also found toxic concentrations of TNT in Atlantic purple sea urchins, mysid crustaceans, and blue mussels . Once contaminants have escaped into the water, they can’t be recovered, Strehse points out. “So, we’re working against time.”

German health experts recommend that consumers limit themselves to no more than two meals of local fish a week to reduce exposure to heavy metals, dioxins, or PCBs. The source of most of these contaminants are industrial processes and the burning of fossil fuels; TNT does not figure into the guidelines. Nevertheless, the risk of TNT and other contaminants from weapons is enough to cause Strehse, herself, to steer clear of all Baltic Sea mussels.

The risk of immediate loss of life is also ever-present. Most of the submerged weapons remain as powerful as the day they were dumped. Now rusted through, they are even more unstable—presenting a precarious obstacle to fishing boats trawling the seafloor as well as offshore wind-farm developers, whose sprawling turbine parks are integral to Europe’s transition to clean energy systems. In the two German seas, over 400 people— tourists, sailors, fishers, naval cadets, and munitions experts —have lost their lives to explosions from sunken weapons.

German aerial bombs retrieved from the Baltic Sea are stacked and secured before the SeaTerra team transports them ashore for disposal. Germany currently has only one major disposal facility for unexploded ordnance. Photo courtesy of SeaTerra

The menace doesn’t stay at sea, either. As the munitions deteriorate, amber-colored chunks of phosphorous from incendiary bombs, fragments of TNT, or rusted casings often wash up on shore. Beachcombers who touch solid white phosphorus—usually mistaking it for Baltic amber, a sought-after gemstone—can suffer third-degree burns or worse. The chemical element sticks to human skin and can combust spontaneously when exposed to air at temperatures above 30  ° C.

Over half a century after the fighting ended, the task of addressing the environmental danger and risk to life from dumped munitions has become its own battle. When Guldin entered the field of munitions cleanup in 2000, he saw the problem’s enormity and malevolent power as the ultimate challenge for his technical imagination.

Fifty-seven-year-old Guldin describes himself as a pacifist by nature and archaeologist by training. He grew up far removed from oceans, in southern Germany’s Black Forest where, as a conscientious objector, he refused to serve in the German army, later joining the Green Party instead. He helped excavate Roman settlements along the Rhine river. Then he moved on to the Middle East where he unearthed ancient civilizations in Yemen and Lebanon. Eventually, in 2000, he admitted to himself that the long stays abroad and one-off digs weren’t conducive to the family life he wanted. Shortly after this, he touched base with an old friend, Edgar Schwab.

Dieter Guldin of SeaTerra has been encouraging the German government to clean up sunken war munitions for years. Photo courtesy of Drones Magazin

Schwab, a geophysicist, was in Hamburg, Germany, and one step ahead of his buddy—starting up a little company to appropriate the lethal relics of the Third Reich from the ocean floor. The two friends were less interested in digging to explain humanity’s past than in undoing the damage it had inflicted upon nature, and together they cofounded SeaTerra.

Guldin immersed himself in the history of munitions dumping in northern Europe—a practice that was discontinued worldwide only in 1975 . While SeaTerra conscientiously cleared patches of seafloor for industry, the mass of munitions across the greater seafloor gnawed at him. He insisted that his country clean it up so that future generations wouldn’t suffer this legacy of wars executed by generations past. He worked the halls of power for 10 years but couldn’t get officialdom to touch the odious issue.

The fact that the seafloor was littered with munitions has been common knowledge since 1945, but no one knew exactly how much there was or where. SeaTerra and a smorgasbord of concerned groups , including Strehse’s institute, understood that before anybody was going to address the issue, they first had to find out exactly what they were dealing with.

In the course of its work for private companies, SeaTerra began developing technology—such as a prototype crawler, the DeepC —for surveying the seafloor, meter by excruciating meter. In the deep and churning North Sea, with its muscular tidal currents, much of the detritus lies meters beneath the seafloor. To penetrate the sediment, SeaTerra developed underwater drones and advanced multibeam radar equipment. For shallow tidal areas, SeaTerra also created low-flying drones outfitted with magnetic sensors that can detect metallic masses buried deep in the sand.

SeaTerra technicians lower a device called a scanfish. They use it to tow magnetic sensors through the water, about two meters above the seafloor. Photo courtesy of SeaTerra

Many of SeaTerra’s innovations entailed modifying technology used in related fields, like mining, pyrotechnics, and archaeology. The team started with a lot of energy but few resources: “In the beginning, we used zip ties and duct tape for everything,” Guldin says. The range of state-of-the-art technology the team now operates is not the brainchild of one person, but Guldin has been central to much of it.

Now, with a firm grasp of the problem and how to address it, Guldin and others at SeaTerra are itching to display their accumulated know-how in Lübeck bay. “The time has now come,” he announced recently on LinkedIn. “We, the explosive ordnance disposal companies, can now start our real work to make the oceans cleaner … and to measure our ideas and concepts against the physical reality of this blight.” It is, his announcement says, a great success for the company and a “recognition of our many years of effort in developing new technologies and concepts for explosive ordnance at sea.”

Aboard the Alkor , the scientists believe their star, the Norppa 300, is ready for official deployment in Lübeck bay. The crawler is the culmination of years of invention, testing, and tweaking. Unlike previous undersea robots, it operates at depths up to 300 meters and can do so 24/7, even in turbulent waters. Its many functions will relieve professional divers of some of the cleanup expedition’s most perilous tasks. The robot is equipped with sonar and acoustic imaging for detecting and identifying buried munitions. Its detachable arms include a custom-designed vacuum that gingerly hoovers sediment from buried explosives and a pincer for lifting pieces of ammunition.

The cleanup process for weapons that can be handled will involve three general steps using specialized ships. First, SeaTerra’s engineers and scientists on the Alkor— the survey vessel — will scan the site and classify the munitions. They will also take water samples for Geomar to analyze on board, distinguishing conventional from chemical weaponry. Chemical weapons , which contain phosgene, arsenic, and sulfur mustard (also known as mustard gas) are too lethal to handle, probably ever, admits Guldin. “You can’t see these gases or smell them,” he says, “and their detonation could blow a ship out of the water, killing a ship’s entire crew in a matter of minutes.” Those weapons will be left untouched.

Aaron Beck of Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research stands beside a mass spectrometer, used to analyze the chemical contents of water samples, in the Alkor’s dry lab. Photo by Andreas Muenchbach

Künitzer of the environment agency adds that the Nazis’ nerve gases were designed to incapacitate the eyes, skin, and lungs of battlefield foes. “Decades underwater doesn’t dilute their potency,” she says.

If the experts determine the material is safe enough for transportation, they’ll deploy the Norppa 300 to collect and deposit smaller items, like grenades, into undersea wire-mesh baskets. But if the explosive specialists monitoring from the ship above determine that the weaponry still contains detonators, divers—not a robot—will be sent to detach them. This is hazardous business that, thus far, only humans can execute.

Next, a different team on a second ship—the clearance vessel—equipped with spud legs (stakes that hold the ship in place) will use a hydraulic crane equipped with cameras to extract larger munitions, including those with corrupted casings, and drop them into undersea receptacles. The final step is for a third team to haul the cargo onto the deck of their ship—the sorting vessel—to sort, label, and package the lethal concoctions in steel tubes, and then transport them to an interim site in the Baltic Sea. There the material will be re-sunk in the tubes and stored underwater until it can be handed over to the responsible state authority, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service, for demolition.

Some of the munitions SeaTerra clears from Germany’s seas date back to the First World War, such as the 17-centimeter-long cast iron shell shown here. Photo courtesy of SeaTerra

The workers will have two months to clear the bay—and demonstrate that the Norppa 300 and other technologies are either up to it or not.

But there’s a hitch that will delay the destruction of all of the recovered weapons for about a year. Germany has a single major munitions disposal facility, and it is occupied with incinerating unexploded ordnance from across the globe, not least, incredibly, Nazi-era explosives still being unearthed from construction sites. That’s why the Lübeck bay project’s budget includes construction of a disposal facility. The company and concept have yet to be finalized. One option is to build a floating clearance platform where robots will dissect ordnance and burn the chemical contents in a detonation chamber at temperatures of over 1300 ° C, similar to how weapons are disposed of at the land-based facility.

There’s another snafu, too. Over the years, the mounds of weaponry in the undersea dumping grounds have corroded and collapsed into one another, creating a gnarled, combustible mass of metals and explosive agents that make their recovery more complicated. The only options are to leave these or blow them up on-site. The best-case scenario is that all the Baltic’s most hazardous conventional munitions will finally be history by 2050, and work on the North Sea will be well underway. The worst case is that funding does not materialize and the mountains of explosives will continue to deteriorate en masse, emitting poisons.

Before the green light came to start the cleanup, Guldin was becoming doubtful his country would ever address the mess, and thought he might have to accept that SeaTerra’s expertise would never be put to the greater task that he and Schwab had envisioned. For the foreseeable future at least, he’ll be in the thick of culminating his life’s work, undoing some of humanity’s sins on the seafloor.

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Six children and pregnant woman among 12 dead in deadliest migrant boat tragedy this year

Bottom of boat ‘ripped open’, plunging more than 60 people into waters off france, article bookmarked.

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Six children and a pregnant woman were among at least 12 migrants who died on Tuesday when their boat was “ripped open” during the deadliest attempted Channel crossing this year.

More than 53 survivors were plucked from waters off Gris-Nez point, between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, during a major air and sea rescue operation.

A nearby rescue vessel was joined by two fishing boats, a French Navy vessel and local lifeboats.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper described the incident as “horrifying and deeply tragic”, saying that French services “undoubtedly saved many lives, but sadly could not save everyone”.

Before the latest tragedy at least 30 people have died or gone missing while trying to cross to Britain this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration – up from 24 in 2023. More than 2,100 people have arrived in Britain on small boats over the past seven days, according to official UK figures, taking the provisional total this year to 21,403.

Almost 70 migrants were crammed into a vessel only 23 feet (seven metres) long when it got into difficulty in open waters.

“Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat ripped open,” said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, where a first aid post was set up to treat victims. “If people don’t know how to swim in the agitated waters ... it can go very quickly.”

Border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “It is a worrying trend that boats are being filled with many more people than we have seen in past times. And also the quality of boats is deteriorating, so these crossings are getting more and more dangerous as time goes on.

Related: ‘I will never forgive myself’: Father recalls heartbreaking moment daughter died on small boat

“They’re always dangerous, this is a very, very busy shipping lane, but the danger and the risk seem to be rising and today’s tragic incident is a representation of that.”

Of those who died on Tuesday, half were children, Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras told reporters. He added that 10 of them were female and two were male, with most of the migrants coming from Eritrea. A pregnant woman was also among the dead, the Boulogne-sur-Mer mayor Frédéric Cuvillier told the BBC at the scene.

Labour has vowed to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs behind the crossings, in part through increased cooperation with other European nations.

Ms Cooper moved to establish a new Border Security Command in her first days in office, while last week, Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron pledged to work together more closely to dismantle migrant smuggling routes.

Labour also scrapped the Conservative government’s “small boats” scheme – designed to send those who arrive in the UK on the vessels to Rwanda – within days of coming to office.

Ministers denounced the policy as a “gimmick” that had failed in its central aim – to deter the journeys.

But former home secretary James Cleverly called for the Rwanda plan to be reinstated in the wake of the deaths.

“This is tragic and it cannot continue,” he tweeted. “It is not enough to talk about smashing the gangs when the real-life consequences are so serious. Labour must re-establish the deterrent that the NCA said we need to stop vulnerable people being exploited and secure our border.”

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said there had been a “shockingly high” number of deaths in the Channel this year and the “devastating trend shows the urgent need for a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach to reduce dangerous crossings”.

“Enforcement alone is not the solution,” he added, calling on ministers to open up more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers.

The British Red Cross said: “Nobody risks their life travelling across the Channel in a small boat unless they feel they have no other choice.”

Steve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: “One life lost in the Channel is too much, but this year these tragedies have occurred with much more frequency and that is a deeply worrying trend that needs to be stopped.”

He added: “Every political leader, on both sides of our Channel, needs to be asked how many lives will be lost before they end these avoidable tragedies. Their continued obsession, and investment, in security measures is not reducing crossings, it is simply pushing people to take ever-increasing risks to do so.”

Nadine Tunasi, of the charity Freedom From Torture, said: “I know from the survivors I work with that no one gets into an overcrowded and unseaworthy dingy to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes without a desperate need to find safety.

“Too much time has been wasted on gimmicks and hateful politics, while conflict continues to push people to take dangerous routes to sanctuary.”

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin went to Boulogne-sur-Mer to meet rescuers at the scene.

“We absolutely must – and this is a very important point – re-establish special relations with our British friends,” he said, calling for harmonised immigration legislation between Britain and France.

Additional reporting by AP

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