This year, the members of the Atlantic Sailing Club of 1926 (SVA) are celebrating 100 years of the club’s history. The German Sailing Association (DSV) is marking the anniversary with a profile on its website. You can also read it below here on YACHT online, courtesy of the DSV:
Cruising for life
First on Hamburg’s Alster, now on the Elbe in Wedel: the ATLANTIC Sailing Club has been in existence for 100 years – a small community with a great passion for cruising, a strong sense of togetherness and plenty of ideas for the future. The DSV congratulates the club on this special anniversary and wishes it all the best for the future.
How it all began...
Set the mast and then sail from the Alster to the Elbe
“We want to take up cruising and touring sailing” – with this idea in mind, eight sailors set out in the 1920s to find a harbour or jetty in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. They found what they were looking for at the ‘Pantelmann-Steg’ on the Outer Alster, right in front of the ‘ATLANTIC’ hotel. The name of the new club was, naturally, the ATLANTIC Sailing Club.
The SVA-ScThe focus was on trips out onto the Elbe and towards the North Sea; on Thursdays or Fridays, the masts were lowered and the boats were rowed or pulled across the Binnenalster to the Reesendamm lock. On Sundays, we made our way back.
In 1932, the more than 60 club members joined the water sports section of the Deutsche Turnerschaft. However, this was dissolved when the National Socialists came to power, and the affiliated water sports clubs were incorporated into the Marine-SA. Three years later, the club was ordered to change its name on the grounds that it lacked local roots. Without further ado, the members opted for the name Segler-Verein ALSTER – at least this meant that the caps and the club’s initials on the sterns did not need to be changed. The club’s fleet grew to 38 vessels; the Pantelmann jetty became too small, and more and more members moved their boats to Schulau on the River Elbe.
… and what happened next
a cutter for the next generation and a great deal of dedication in the new home port
Following the capture of Hamburg by the British in 1945, a ban on sailing was initially imposed; a year later, boats under 30 feet were allowed back on the water. “This prompted some members to shorten their boats by making structural alterations,” says Uwe Junge, the association’s current chairman. “We have always endeavoured to solve problems in a very pragmatic way.”
The same was true of the challenge of ‘youth work after the war’: Near the ‘Alsterlust’ bathing facility on the Alster, a cutter belonging to the Hitler Youth Navy lay aground – some SVA members salvaged it, towed it to the Bille and fitted it with new masts and sails. Until 1953, the young sailors sailed this youth cutter extensively on the Elbe between Hamburg and Cuxhaven.
In the early 1960s, the SVA sailors, with their ever-larger yachts, moved to their new home port, the marina in Wedel. There, the Hamburg sailors were actively involved from the very start – in the development, the administration, on the board, and with creative ideas. Foremost among them was Adolf ‘Adje’ Stahmer, who, for example, used his slender motor-sailer as an icebreaker during a particularly harsh winter or designed a hydraulic slipway trolley.
The SVA today
Cruising, cruising and more cruising
“Ever since the club was founded, our focus has been on cruising,” says Uwe Junge. “And that’s still the case today – cruising is also enshrined in our current constitution.” And so the North Sea and the Baltic Sea are right at the top of the SVA’s list of cruising destinations, even though the odd club member has explored the Mediterranean and the Atlantic or sailed round the world on their boat.
Some SVA sailors regularly take part in regattas such as the Nordseewoche, but essentially they all agree within the ATLANTIC Sailing Club: “First and foremost, we all want one thing: cruising.”
“We have a close-knit community here” – a declaration of love
“We have made a conscious decision to remain a small club with around 60 members,” explains the chairperson, speaking on behalf of the club’s members. “We value and make the most of this – most members know each other personally, there are genuine friendships, and everyone is open to new ideas and new members.”
The club is too small to have its own youth section or other sailing divisions – but their shared love of cruising “fosters a close-knit community”, Uwe Junge goes on to say. Seasonal opening and closing ceremonies, barbecues, parties, listening to others’ sailing tales or recounting one’s own adventures, and meeting regularly at the marina for ‘winter camp gatherings’ during the colder months – it’s all part of the experience.
Looking ahead
The ATLANTIC Sailing Club has plenty of ideas and plans for the future. On the one hand, these focus on our older members, whom we want to keep involved – for example, by offering more land-based activities at the start and end of the sailing season. On the other hand, there is also a focus on providing more training and information seminars for members, as well as a desire to introduce more young people to the sport of sailing. “As a small club, we can only achieve all this by working with partners, other clubs or through our involvement in social projects,” says Uwe Junge.
The sailors of the SVA, who – like many Hamburg clubs – are struggling with the increasing silting up of the Elbe, have one very special wish for the future: To be able to sail on the tributaries of the Elbe again, to anchor in the Dwarsloch, and to have more harbours to choose from further down the Elbe, alongside Cuxhaven, Glückstadt and Stade. “The Baltic Sea is lovely,” says the chairman, “but actually, it’s lovelier here on the Elbe.”
This is the ATLANTIC Sailing Club
The ‘home port’ of the SVA is the Hamburg marina in Wedel, where most of the boats are moored at various jetties. The club currently has 52 members and 36 boats and yachts. Website: www.https://sv-atlantic.de; Tel. 0176 279 66 287; Email: seglerverein_atlantic@gmx.net
