Rollo Gebhard
Rollo Gebhard (* July 7, 1921 in Salzburg, † December 27, 2013 in Bad Wiessee ) was a German single-handed sailor, author and animal rights activists.
Biography
He was born the son of a scholar and grew up in Upper Bavaria, Saxony, the Netherlands and Switzerland. At age 17, he passed the Abitur. During World War II, he was trained in the Air Force as a photographer. After the war he lived in Garmisch, where he worked as a laboratory manager of a photo shop. In the following years he was a theater actor and businessman ( Schallplatten-/Musikgeschäft ).
In 1956 he came to sail, when he bought his first sailboat, the Hansa- Jolle Solveig I, with the hull number 79 from the shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen. With this ship began his " sailing career " on Lake Starnberg. So three years later undertook, among other trips across the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and to the Gulf of Aden.
With the 5.6 -meter equipped with cabin plywood boat Solveig II - type "Caprice", built on the Isle of Wight, in 1963 he made his first Atlantic passage from Italy to New York City. The Atlantic crossing in such a small boat made Gebhard immediately famous in the U.S., while the reaction of the media and the public in Germany was rather subdued. From then on, Gebhard earned his livelihood of public lectures about his sailing trips.
A short time later, he received his ride cruiser Solveig III - Type " Condor 7" from the Stöberl shipyard in Eggstätt, with whom he handed around the world sailed twice ( 1967-1970 and 1975-1979 ). In 1983 he started with his future wife Angelika Zilcher on a Hallberg -Rassy 42, a third, eight-year voyage around the world, including a six-month trip on the piece of Cairns / Australia to Emden / Germany.
Among other things, he was awarded the Trans-Ocean Award for his travels in 1991.
In 1991, Gebhard, the " society for the rescue of dolphins " (GRD). Since 1993 Rollo Gebhard focused on expedition motor boating. His first voyage took him to the Solveig V (type Linssen Sturdy 36) 2000 km ( 1080 nm) on the rivers and canals between the Elbe and Oder. 1995/96 was followed by journeys through the waters of northern Europe to Saint Petersburg. 1998/99 he ran his Solveig VII (type Linssen Sturdy 400 ) over the nine Danube countries to the shores of the Ukraine, Turkey and Russia.
Travel with this ship were:
- 2001: from the Baltic to the Black Sea, across Russia under the Russian flag
- 2002: from Istanbul and Crete, Tunisia and Corsica to Marseille
- 2003: Marseille, the Rhône up to Papenburg on the River Ems.
In this circumnavigation of Europe on the eastern route through the inland 2001-2003 he put around 15,000 km ( 8100 nm) back.