NEWS
Marina Day am 31.08.24
Hiermit laden wir wieder herzlichst zu einem weiteren Marinafest in den Vacation Club ein. Wir haben tolle Überraschungen für Sie.
About the Marina
Marita and Paul Joseph Gast were water sports enthusiasts and so they decided to open their own port more than 40 years ago. The first private marina on the Rhine was built in 1976 in the former harbor basin on Weizenmühlenstrasse. In 2000, a new floating facility was built from 1.4 km of concrete jetties and anchored in today's media harbor at the sea dalves. Depending on the water level, the system slides up and down independently on these steel pylons, which are anchored 10 meters deep in the harbor floor.
The roots of the old Gast merchant family go back to 1848, when Johann Josef Gast opened the first merchant's shop near Aachen. In 1958, Paul Joseph Gast took over his parents' business and built the first self-service store with a size of 3000 m² in 1970 with colleagues who were friends. In 1974 he turned his hobby into a career. After visits to America, he was inspired by the idea of building a private Marina - Yachthafen - in Düsseldorf. In Düsseldorf's industrial port on Weizenmühlenstrasse, where the Mercedes Sprinter loading station is today, he built a facility made of Mannesmann Stahl with 120 boat berths himself. In 1980, Marina Düsseldorf entered into exclusive sales with the Taiwan-based brand "Ocean Alexander" and presented the yachts at BOOT Düsseldorf for 30 years.
In 2000, he built a new patented floating concrete jetty with his own labour. In 2002, the 600 tons floating harbour master's building was built by the harbour master himself. On 500 m², the building is divided under water into a workshop, showers, guest WC and social rooms. In the basement there is an event room and offices. Private rooms are located on the first floor.
2010
Rolf Gast took over the running of the marina. He realized that the market for yachts made of plastic with high horsepower diesel engines was not a sustainable market for the future. He decided to build his own boats from recyclable aluminum, steel and special plastic.
2013
Rolf Gast started the exclusive import of SEALEGS amphibious boats from New Zealand. Marina Düsseldorf builds the aluminum boats exclusively for private and corporate customers. In 2018, the first professional rescue and work boat was delivered for the DEA oil platform at the Middelplate site in the North Sea. Another amphibious workboat is in service at WSA Cuxhaven.
2014
Marina Düsseldorf entered into a joint venture with the SRF shipyard based in Harlingen in the Netherlands. Together they founded the brand for custom-made houseboats CRUISING HOME. The aim of the joint venture is to build high-quality houseboats and touring boats in the 12-24 meter class. The first fully electric 15-metre houseboat was launched in 2015. In 2017, a new class of seaworthy houseboats, the CRUISING HOME Explorer class, was created for the first time.
2020
The marina enters into a partnership with Moritz Todisco, which also runs the ONWATER boat school in the Medienhafen. The marina goes digital and now allows people passing through to book their berth directly and conveniently online using the marina's own web app. As a further service, the marina rents out 3 of its own event boats to private individuals and companies for any occasion.
The evolution of the Marina
2021
During the Corona pandemic, business areas such as events and the boat show came to a complete standstill. Topics such as climate change, our own CO2 footprint and the pollution of rivers and seas were on the agenda. The marina is to be realigned and made green. The close economic ties to the Netherlands and the innovative power in the maritime sector against plastic pollution of rivers and seas were an incentive for Rolf Gast to introduce a wide variety of new products from the “Dutch Circular Economy” in Düsseldorf. Together with Clear Rivers from Rotterdam, the first floating garden made of recycled plastic was installed in the Media Harbor. Together with the Dick Gilles shipyard in Middenmeer, a series of our own innovative OFF GRID products were developed, such as the first floating tree and a mobile lifting and boat washing system.
To reduce its own carbon footprint, the marina invested in its own photovoltaic system on the main building. The marina obtains its additional electricity requirements from the Düsseldorf-based provider Naturstrom, which comes exclusively from renewable sources.
2022
To ensure the marina's self-sufficiency, a 20 KV generator was installed, which ensures power supply even in the event of a blackout.
Introduction of CARE Diesel: A very decisive step for the marina towards innovative climate protection is the provision of synthetic diesel from renewable sources. Contact us, we will be happy to advise you. More about Neste Renewable Diesel
In this You Tube video!
From now on, the marina will focus its goals and activities on maritime environmental and climate protection and will cooperate with various international partners to this end.
2023
The marina has outsourced the organization of events and port management to Moritz Todisco. The aim is to become the leading provider of "events, culture and sporting events on the water". The marina offers an exciting and unique location for all group sizes from 10-100 people. The 250 m2 floating multifunctional platform and the 27-meter-long historic flat-bottomed ship "Voorwaarts" are being converted into a "VACATION CLUB". Together with the 2 event ships, Marina-Events now offers a unique event hotspot in Düsseldorf's Media Harbor. You can find out more about this innovative business model and the conditions under Marina-Events.
2024
A year of heavy rain events and permanent flooding. Huge amounts of dirty water, plastic and wood are floating in the Rhine and the Media Harbor. An initial investigation of the harbor water by the LANUV Institute reveals that the Rhine is heavily polluted. In order to proactively deal with the new challenges of heavy rain events and flooding, we have redesigned our planned raft into a multi-flexible work raft (multifloat). We will exhibit this innovation from Boot 2025. In order to further improve the water quality and prevent algae blooms and fish deaths in the hot months, we are continuing to invest in the renaturation of the Media Harbor via planting and breeding islands. We would like to thank the Düsseldorf company Asahi Kasei and our tenants for their support in the form of sponsoring planting islands.
from 2025
We will be investing more in wind power, solar energy and storage. We are convinced that we will be able to convert smaller boats up to 7 meters to electric power in the foreseeable future.
Contact us
Marina Düsseldorf
Port Management
Operated by ONWATER
Headquarters of the port team in the main marina building
Am Handelshafen 30
40221 Dusseldorf
Coordinates
6.45 East - 51.13 North
River kilometers: 743.1
© 2022 Marina Düsseldorf Yachthafen