
Lifelong sailor and long-time DB resident Nikolaus von der Luehe is about to embark on a new adventure – but not before a brief campaign on behalf of the Discovery Bay Yacht Club. Elizabeth Kerr reports
PHOTOS BY Richard Gordon – www.richardgordonphotography.com & Michele Felder
Nikolaus von der Luehe comes to the door of his Sheung Wan office himself. There are other people milling about, but he has no trouble getting the door. He also commits to a now somewhat alien gesture: He extends a hand to shake. Well, he is a sailor.
Settling down in his office, the first thing that I notice is how heavily it’s dotted with magazines, books, gauges, tackles, trophies, photographs and maps related to yachting, which is not surprising given Nikolaus’ obvious enthusiasm for the low-key, welcoming Discovery Bay Yacht Club (DBYC) – totally unrelated to the superyacht- focused Lantau Yacht Club. Work, however? He actually trades in industrial thermostats.
And for the record that’s Commodore Nikolaus von der Luehe, a position he’s held at the DBYC (www.dbyc.net) for the last four years and which he’s ceded to new commodore Stephen Hart. Nikolaus and his wife Diana are heading back to Germany for good at the end of the year with, as he says, “One crying eye and one laughing eye.” The couple is only semi-retiring – they’ve purchased an old 14,000-square foot manor house close to Rostock on the Baltic coast, which they’ll be living in and managing as a vacation destination (www.schloss-puetnitz.de).
“It’s going to be hard work. The aristocratic name may still exist but it doesn’t pay the bills. We’ll be washing the windows and maintaining the grounds,” Nikolaus says with a chuckle. That might be where the laughing eye comes in. He’ll be leaving “home” but starting a new chapter. Setting sail on the next adventure as it were.