“We’ve been out of the water constantly for 14 days,” said the harbor master of the municipality of Moos (district of Constance), Martin Graf. “We don’t actually have a boat lying where it’s supposed to.” Around a third of the boats at the approximately 400 berths were either relocated or taken out of the water.
“There are such low water levels from time to time, but usually not at this time of year,” said Graf. On the island of Reichenau, too, the first boat owners were again stranded before the summer holidays in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria had begun. About 50 of the more than 260 boats in the island’s harbor were taken out of the water because they would otherwise run aground, said harbor master Franz Egenhofer. Many owners are upset.
Those who have to look for another berth for the boat because of the low water currently have bad cards. “We currently have many boat owners from other ports who have to get out there because the draft is no longer sufficient,” said a spokeswoman for the largest port on Lake Constance, the ultramarine marina in Kressbronn. The situation there is not so problematic because the harbor basin, as a former gravel pit, is quite deep. “Unfortunately, we are full ourselves and have to turn down these requests.”
At the end of the week, the lake level in Constance was less than 3.30 meters, according to the Baden-Württemberg State Institute for the Environment. This is only around ten centimeters away from the seasonal record for low water. The authority assumes that the previous lowest value for this season of 3.17 meters from the years 1949 and 1876 “will be reached or even fallen below” in summer or autumn if little rain continues to fall.
Source: Nachrichten
