The more than 70-year-old sail training ship "Greif" is about to be completely overhauled. The ship is now out of the water and on dry land. The costs are increasing.
Greifswald / Stralsund (dpa / mv) - The basic renovation of the sailing training ship "Greif" of the city of Greifswald will be significantly more expensive than planned. Originally, costs of around 3.5 million euros were estimated. According to the current forecast, however, there is now an additional requirement of almost 950,000 euros due to the general increase in costs, the city announced on Thursday. That would correspond to an increase of around 27 percent. The citizenship will discuss this at its next meeting, it said. The funds are provided by the federal government, the state and also the city of Greifswald.
The ailing sail training ship, which belongs to the city, has been lying on dry land at the Stralsund shipyard since Wednesday. With the help of a special lift, the 230-ton hull was lifted out of the water and placed on so-called keel support beams on land. The Hanseatic city of Greifswald announced that the steel work on the hull could now begin.
The schooner brig, which was put into service in 1951, is driven about 300 meters further on a rail system to its repair site on the site of the Maritime Industrial and Commercial Park Volkswerft Stralsund. After cleaning, the ship is to be scaffolded. The most severely corroded plates of the outer skin are then to be replaced with new steel plates eight millimeters thick. Later, the deck, the rigging, the machinery and the complete interior fittings are also to be renewed.
According to the information, the financing is provided, among other things, by funds from the federal government and the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the preservation of the technical monument of national importance. The city of Greifswald's own funds for the restoration and rehabilitation of the "Greif" amount to 806,000 euros so far.
The German Foundation for Monument Protection and the East German Savings Banks Foundation as well as the Tall Ship Friends association also supported the renovation of the tall ship. Until 1991 the "Greif" was used as a training sailor under the name "Wilhelm Pieck". Then the city of Greifswald took over the ship and renamed it "Greif". The schooner brig has been considered unseaworthy since 2020.
