The NRV’s home sailing area is the Alster, a small river contained by locks to form a picturesque lake right in the centre of Hamburg. The lake measures just 1.5 by 0.5 nautical miles – but beware! Buildings near its banks such as Hotel "Atlantic" or the "Intercontinental Hotel" form a kind of windbreaker. And even worse, howling squalls rushing through the gaps between dignified mansions guarantee treacherous winds. Anybody mastering the conditions here will be able to sail successfully anywhere. In the past NRV members had to take their boats down to the River Elbe via two locks to reach the open sea. Nowadays they use trailers to get to the Baltic or the North Sea and beyond.

Apart from this traditional sailing arena, the world of sailing has no boundaries for the NRV, with globalization by no means anything new to the club. NRV burgees and club pullovers can be seen at Cowes, off Sardinia, around the Balearics, off Scotland or Sweden, in the Caribbean and around Hong Kong. They symbolize yachting for pleasure at its finest and not infrequently, also tough but successful racing...