“Friends of Campus Cleve” presents Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences with Sailing Boat
A wonderful boat and a “winter deal”
A new sailing boat, christened “Campus Cleve”, was officially presented to Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences by the sponsoring organisation Friends of Campus Cleve e.V.
Kleve – The excitement in Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Klein’s voice is impossible to miss: “This type of sailing boat, a ‘polyvalk’, is the perfect boat for learning to sail. I learned on just this kind of boat, at the late age of 20, the same age as many of our students.” As a knowledgeable and passionate sailing hobbyist, Prof. Klein noted that the roomy boat is capable of reaching five to six knots in moderate wind conditions. “The polyvalk is a daysailer classic that is extremely popular in the Netherlands.”
The new boat was presented to Prof. Klein and his students by the sponsoring organisation Friends of Campus Cleve, e.V., which recently acquired the 7-year-old boat in the Netherlands. With one mast, two sails and a small outboard motor, the sailing boat – christened appropriately “Campus Cleve” – is imprinted with the logo of the sponsoring organisation and now sits at its new home, a prominent mooring point in the Spoy Canal in the heart of the Kleve Campus. The boat isn’t confined to the Spoy, however: thanks to an additional trailer acquired by the sponsoring organisation, it can be transported all around the region.
Prof. Klein was originally responsible for the idea of acquiring a sailing boat and spoke with the sponsoring organisation about it in autumn of 2014. “The timing couldn’t have been better”, notes Peter Wack, the first Chairman of the now 266-strong sponsoring organisation. “We were able to find a nice ‘winter deal’ for a sailboat without much difficulty.”
Following in the ‘wake’ of the sponsoring organisation’s recent donation of a new Smart Forfour for use by AStA representatives needing to commute between the Kleve and Kamp-Lintfort Campuses on official business, the donation of this sailing boat is once more a “clear signal of our commitment to our dear Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences”, as Mr. Wack said.
The boat was formally presented to the university as part of a small celebratory ceremony with university president Dr. Heide Naderer and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Klein, as well as Peter Wack, Hans-Josef Kuypers and Wilfried Röth, who represented the board of the sponsoring organisation, and Wolfgang Spreen, District Commissioner (Landrat) of Kleve. For Dr. Naderer, the ceremony was also a first chance to meet and speak with representatives of the board of Friends of Campus Cleve e.V. On behalf of the entire university, Dr. Naderer thanked the sponsoring organisation and those in attendance for the wonderful gesture and was pleased to note that the students themselves would be the ones to most profit from the donation.