The Porz Water Sports Club (CfWP) in Cologne-Porz has celebrated its 100th anniversary. The German Sailing Association (DSV) is marking the occasion with a profile on its website. You can also read it below here on YACHT online, courtesy of the DSV:
A love of water brings us together
The club has been based in Cologne-Porz for a century. Sailing, rowing and motorboating are among the wide range of activities on offer, ensuring there’s never a dull moment on the Rhine. The German Sailing Association offers its congratulations on this special anniversary and wishes the club all the best for the future.
How it all began
Founded in a dance hall, with a boat shed in the cellar
It all began with a wish: we wanted to get about on a floating craft. So, on 1 July 1926, a group of water sports enthusiasts founded the club at the Lindenhof, with its large and well-known dance hall, in Cologne-Porz; the first set of articles of association for the Porz Water Sports Club (CfWP) was finalised around six weeks later, and the club was entered in the register of associations in November. Whilst the club initially consisted exclusively of canoeists and kayakers, rowing boats were gradually introduced, followed later by sailing. Among other things, the Cologne entrepreneur and landowner Ferdinand Mülhens Senior donated a quadruple scull and a double scull. They were named after the victorious Mülhens racehorses ‘Palastpage’ and ‘Polfino’.
The cellar of the Linden-Hof dance hall was quickly converted into a boathouse; one of the club’s rowing boats was therefore named ‘Körfer’ after the pub’s owner and later honorary member, Peter Körfer. Youth work quickly gained momentum, and the club became involved in competitive rowing with some success.
The Second World War brought all development work to an abrupt halt; the last general meeting took place in 1940. In 1943, up to 70 per cent of the club’s boats were destroyed in air raids, and the remaining ones were walled up in the Lindenhof cellar for their protection.
After the war ended, the boathouse had to be cleared out, and the club members set about looking for a new home. They found what they were looking for at the former Immendorf country brewery, above the Rosenhügel on the Zündorf branch of the Rhine. Although the cellar was half-ruined and neglected, it appeared to be suitable for their intended purposes. In countless hours of voluntary and labourious work, the water sports enthusiasts cleared 500 cubic metres of rubble from the basement – equivalent to around 75 standard containers. The rubble was used to stabilise a path leading down to the water.
In the early 1950s, the City of Cologne transferred ownership of the 4,840-square-metre plot of land at Rhine kilometre 677.3 (on the right bank of the Rhine) to the club. Until 1955, the club members initially continued to work on the basement; space was created for boats, showers and changing rooms, and eight years later they were finally able to open their clubhouse and a boat workshop.
What happened next
New builds, renovations and a lot of DIY
To mark the club’s fiftieth anniversary in 1976, the city had transformed the Groov peninsula on the Rhine into a leisure island; the harbour was built; and, with the new club constitution of 26 March 1976, the club was adapted to the new situation entirely in keeping with the spirit of its founding fathers: Water sports to suit every taste. At that time, the CfWP had 251 rowers, 123 sailors and motorboaters.
Between 1991 and 1992, the clubhouse was completely renovated. “Once again, the club members put in many thousands of hours of voluntary work to bring the building to its current state,” says the current chairman of the parent club, Michael Reitz. Today, in addition to a weights and training room and modern sanitary facilities, the clubhouse “also offers plenty of space for social gatherings and celebrations”.
In the early 2020s, the club members faced yet another financially and labour-intensive challenge: the jetty was completely rebuilt and a heating system featuring heat pumps and solar panels was installed. “Thanks to financial support from the local council, the clubhouse is now state-of-the-art in terms of energy efficiency.”
The club thrives on its diversity
Rowing, motorboating and sailing
“We offer everything,” says Michael Reitz, the club’s chairman. The focus is on recreational water sports: sailing trips or motorboat tours up and down the Rhine, or rowing 37 kilometres from Bad Honnef back to Porz, as was the case at this year’s opening rowing event, for example.
However, the Rhine, with its strong current and commercial shipping traffic, has always been – and is likely to become even more so in the coming years – a particularly challenging area. “We have therefore moved our youth sailing programme to Lake Zülpich,” says Friedrich Wilhelm Teutschbein, chairman of the CfWP Sailing and Motorboating Section, known within the club as SeMo for short.
With 52 active members, the sailors at the Porz Water Sports Club form a small community – but one with a wide-reaching influence. The best example: since 1986, the club’s members have been involved in the Rheinwoche, Europe’s largest river regatta; sometimes the CfWP harbour serves as the starting point, a refuge harbour or a stage finish. “This year we were the organisers and used the stopover for all the crews here to celebrate our anniversary as well,” says Friedrich Wilhelm Teutschbein. The harbour at Rhine kilometre 677.2 was absolutely packed; the atmosphere was as friendly as ever at the traditional Rheinwoche, and the mood was exuberant.
“It’s never boring here...
"and our love of water brings us together"
The CfWP is a community of sports enthusiasts – the main thing is to be out on the water. “We bring together a wide variety of sports, which have jointly built and maintain the infrastructure for everyone,” says Michael Reitz. Of course, there are the odd disagreements here and there, as the interests are too diverse. “But ultimately, these differences mean it never gets boring. Our love of the water and our enthusiasm for sharing a harbour in one of the most beautiful parts of Cologne is what unites us.”
A realistic look into the future
Keeping up with the times
Lake Zülpich, 55 kilometres from the club’s premises, offers an alternative sailing area to the Rhine, but for Friedrich Wilhelm Teutschbein, the focus is on a different problem: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get children and young people out on the water.” Long school and training hours, coupled with a wide range of leisure activities, pose a challenge for sailing clubs. That is why the CfWP regularly organises activities in partnership with schools or offers young people sailing trips on the club’s own boats, for example on the IJsselmeer. “We’re constantly sending out a message to the community, saying: ‘Hey, we’ve got something to offer you.’”
Michael Reitz takes a similar view: “We’re trying to open up as a club as a whole and move with the times.” Stand-up paddleboarding, jet skiing and wakeboarding in the harbour are therefore all part of the cross-departmental programme offered by the Porz Water Sports Club.
This is the Porz Water Sports Club
The club grounds are situated at Rhine kilometre 677.2. The club’s own harbour has around 110 berths, with spaces also reserved for guests. The clubhouse is situated just above the marina and the rowing bridge. The CfWP restaurant ‘Am Yachthafen’, with its beer garden and unique view of the marina and the Rhine, is open to all guests. The club has 467 members, of whom 272 are motorboaters, 52 are sailors and 143 are rowers; Address: In der Rosenau 10 a, 51143 Cologne; Email: info@cfwp.de; Website: www.cfwp.de