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The P 29, ex minesweeper Boltenhagen

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  A little history Built as Condor I Class Minesweeper at the VEB Peenewerft Wolgast (project no. 89.118) for the former German Democratic Republic navy.  Registered with the ID 352 and named “Boltenhagen” she was commissioned on 19th September 1970.  After the German unification the “Boltenhagen” was run by the Bundesgrenzschutz as BG 31 until 30th June 1996. In 1997 the “Boltenhagen” was turned into an unarmed patrol craft and delivered to Malta, where she was renamed P29. Light armament were added, during her 12 years in service around the Maltese Waters she was responsible for many offshore missions including asserting control over Malta's Continental Shelf, anti-contraband missions, and numerous border control operations. The P29 was purposely sunk approximately 170 meters off the Cirkewwa breakwater on 14th August 2007.  

Some data The P29’s over all length is 51.98 meters, a beam of 7.12 meters she had a draft of just 2.3 meters. Fully loaded she had a displacement of 361 tones. Her two Russian MD 40 Diesel engines gave her 4000 horse power on the shaft and powered her up to 20 knots. Last armament was a 14.5 mm quad, which was added in Malta.  

The Dive The P29’s final resting place is on a sandy bottom between 37 meters off the bow and 36 meters at the stern. The deck lies at an average depth of 32 meters and the top of the mast at 17 meters of water. Due to the depth, and the involved mid water swim, it is a dive recommended for experienced divers.  Even though it is a new wreck so one does not expect huge amount of marine life, the first bream and damselfish have already made it their home!  A fair amount of growth covering the wreck already has occurred and that’s only after a few months, it looks very promising for the future. She is a very interesting wreck, the yard preparing her to be sunk, did a brilliant job in cleaning her, removing all the hutches, doors which might have become a hazard for trapped and entangled divers. Keeping her depth and the relatively short no decompression limits in mind, her open layout with light penetrating in all driveable compartments makes her a very good wreck for wreck dive training and penetration and of course some great pleasure diving!  The reef close by is ideal to extend the dive a little without exceeding the no decompression limits and it makes it easy to do a safety stop without getting bored.  

Answering a few questions A lot of people might ask: “Another wreck, just of one lying out there already for years?” Some people might say: “Finally, but why so deep and why there and not at another place?” Now, what’s the purpose of sinking old ships so close to the coast? We all know, that properly cleaned there is no known impact on the environment. In fact we are creating an attractive habitat for a variety of sea live. Only after a few months the steel will be covered in all sorts of growth and more and more different fish can be seen around these wrecks. If you like to know more about sinking wrecks as artificial reefs have a look at our related article. Whey there and not on another place and why so deep, the exact answer for this is somewhere at the Maltese Planning Authority. But there are a few considerations for finding a location, we can follow very easy. Malta is quite a busy shipping area and there for the location and the depth has to be chosen very careful. While we are talking about shipping, we are not only talking about the big commercial ships. Since Malta is a very famous water sport location, there are in summer thousands of yachts and pleasure boats around and even medium size sailing yachts can draw up to 3 meters (10 feet). Since the wrecks are all sunk in open water, the weather is also a factor which has to be considered. The winter storms and the involved swell here around Malta can be quite strong. If the wreck is lying to shallow, it doesn’t take too much to do damage on the wreck and even a relocation due to heavy swell is possible. A big part of the bridge of the “Um El-Faroud”, Malta’s biggest wreck, was taken of just a few weeks ago by on of these storms. The Um El Faroud is a 110 meter tanker which is broken apart and the two parts are moving. Changes can be seen every time there was heavy swell and the ship is lying in 35 meters of water. The final resting place has to be a sandy bottom. Around Malta we find under water big areas covered with Since we are all divers and these wrecks are one of Malta’s main attractions for the diving community, the places have to be chosen even more carefully. They need to be out of the main traffic zones but still easy accessible by divers and they can’t be too deep because than they are only interesting for tec divers.Another consideration for finding a location to sink a wreck around the Maltese Islands is the general seabed. Close to shore in shallower waters, we find lots of big areas of sea grass, specially the Posidonia grass (Posidoniaceae). How boring, sea grass, we divers might think but did you ever look into it? I don’t want to be too scientific here but as divers we should be concerned about our environment. We still want to go diving tomorrow and see the same beauty, we enjoy today. Here I want to give you just a short explanation how important sea grass is to keep the environment balanced and what it does for us divers:

1. it helps to keep the water clear by trapping fine sediments and particles with their leaves;
2. it stabilizes the bottom with it’s roots and stops important soil being carried away by water movement;
3. it provides habitat for many fish, crustaceans, and shellfish;
4. itself and the organism crowing on it is food for many sea animals
5. most impotent, it is a huge producer of oxygen, which is also needed by us humans to bread;
6. even dead, piling up on the beaches in winter, it is still useful, protecting the shore line by keeping the sand from being washed out to the sea;

Summary Let’s be happy about the P 29 and where she lies, it’s not a bad place over all. She is lying in the sand, out of main traffic zones, deep enough not to get effected by every miner storm and away from sensitive sea plants. Still, she is good accessible from shore and every experienced diver is good to dive her. Every entry level diver, liking the wrecks will get to the point where he has to do step and go advanced or special. Purposely sunk wrecks in good conditions, out of main traffic zones, away from sensitive bottom compositions like sea grass areas or coral reefs and still good accessible for divers will always be deep.