Blaues Band der Warnow: what is actually insured at a junior regatta

Lysander Radicke is not a Nammert by name, but he still counts as family to us. On the regatta weekend of 12 and 13 September 2026 in Rostock, Germany, he took a double win in the Opti B fleet together with Emil Hübner, and brought home the Blaues Band der Warnow, a traditional trophy, to his home club in Greifswald on the river Ryck. We are genuinely happy for him and for everyone who stood on the jetty with him.

The story was first reported by the regional site Boddenracer.de. It also describes how ILCA4 newcomers from the same club raced in Rostock on the same weekend, many of them moving up from a small sailing dinghy for the first time. For them the result mattered less than the experience itself, often watched by their own parents on the shore. That is what youth sailing looks like at most German and Austrian clubs on lakes and along the Baltic coast: small boats, frequent regattas, and a ranking that matters to some families and not to others.

For insurance purposes a weekend like this raises two separate questions, and families often mix them up. If a regatta is organised through a sailing club and its national federation, third party liability during the race is usually covered by the federation's own sports policy, the same way it works for club regattas in most countries. What that policy typically does not cover is the family's own dinghy and the journey to get there, and that gap is often only discovered after a claim.

A small Optimist dinghy is one of the most common junior sailing boats, but it usually belongs to the family, not to the club. If it gets damaged on the trailer on the way to a regatta, or goes missing overnight from the club grounds, the club's liability cover will not pay for it, because that cover only responds to damage the child causes to someone else, not damage to the family's own boat. A separate hull policy with a reasonable deductible is what closes that gap, for towing, racing and training alike.

The second blind spot is the child's own accident cover. Family liability insurance responds when a child injures someone else, not when the child injures themselves, for example capsizing in cold water or being hit by the boom. A dedicated watersports accident policy for children and teenagers is inexpensive and worth checking for any family whose child races regularly, not only in an Optimist.

For Lysander and everyone still racing this autumn, the question every family should settle before the next season is simple: what exactly does the club policy cover, what does the family's own boat need, and what does the child need separately. Sorting that out before the first regatta is easier than sorting it out after a claim. From us: congratulations to Greifswald, and fair winds for next season on the Ryck.