The members of the Hamburg Sailing Club Oevelgönne, founded in 1901 (SCOe), are celebrating 125 years of the club’s history this year. 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:
Let’s keep sailing together
On no fewer than two occasions, the members of the SCOe have had to rebuild their club virtually from scratch. But because a hands-on, do-it-yourself ethos has always been part of the SCOe’s DNA, the Elbe-based club from Köhlfleet continues to be a vibrant community for young and old, recreational sailors and regatta sailors alike, even in its 125th anniversary year.
How it all began…
On New Year’s Day 1901, Bernhard Schulz, Hermann Pohlmann, Albert Heinze, Georg Löffler, Arthur Weiss, Willi Ludwig and Martin Derner gathered for a morning pint at the ‘Robert Fischer’ pub in Oevelgönne, which at that time was still part of Prussian Altona. The seven sailing enthusiasts solemnly resolved to found a club “with the sole aim of pledging mutual friendship, always sticking together and helping one another at every opportunity” – and so the Segel-Club Oevelgönne von 1901 e.V. was born.
To preserve the close-knit atmosphere and camaraderie they valued, the friends decided not to admit any further members. However, this resolution was short-lived: the dinghies ‘Elbe’, ‘Kille’ and ‘Seemöve’, which were soon purchased, attracted interested young people, and in 1912 the ban on new members was officially lifted.
… and what happened next
As early as 1913, the young club, situated on the banks of the Elbe – which were still very tranquil at the time – had 65 members and 24 boats. In 1914, the club organised a full sailing programme: club regattas on the Elbe, as well as participation in the national regatta. Five SCOe boats took part, and all won prizes.
Then came the upheaval of the First World War. Seventeen SCOe members died at the front, and all the club’s boats had to be sold due to financial difficulties. The club had to reinvent itself – and did so through hard work, solidarity and voluntary effort. By 1922, it had 61 members and 15 boats once again, and internal regattas were introduced.
During those years, members regularly sailed the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, sometimes in the most adverse conditions. A prime example is the voyage undertaken by Arthur Ott, who sailed to Heligoland in 1925 in his 5.5-metre dinghy, the ‘Irmgard’.
The next major step came in 1926: the move to the other side of the Elbe, to a site of our own on the Köhlfleet in Finkenwerder. The slipway, rails, pontoons, tidal bridge, buoy system, a 50-metre jetty and boathouse were built almost entirely by the members themselves. Two-thirds of the members were tradespeople, most of whom were unemployed due to the economic crisis and keen to lend a hand. The first clubhouse was a small wooden house, affectionately known as the ‘Wanzenbude’.
With Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Reich Chancellor in 1933, many freedoms came to an end at the SCOe as well. Sports clubs were ‘brought into line’, and the club’s chairman was required to be a member of the NSDAP. No member of the SCO was in the Nazi Party in 1933, so a water sports representative of the NSDAP appointed himself as ‘club leader’. A year later, the SCOe was forcibly merged with another sailing club and given new articles of association. Among other things, these stipulated that members under the age of 35 had to complete an hour of athletics exercises on the club grounds on Sunday mornings. Sailing continued on the Köhlfleet and on the Lower Elbe. In 1936, the ‘Rund um Pagensand’ regatta took place for the first time; it will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2026.
In 1939, club activities came to a virtual standstill; in 1944, the club grounds were severely damaged by bombs. The few who had stayed behind – mostly older members – did their best to salvage whatever remained after the bombing. Once again, everyone rolled up their sleeves and, in countless work sessions, cleared up the devastated grounds and replaced the destroyed wooden jetty with a steel structure.
Resources were scarce and materials were in short supply, but the determination to design, build and sail remained undiminished. Thus, in the post-war years, a legendary fleet of steel Blitz dinghy cruisers came into being. Club member Georg Sievert, known as ‘Schöttel’, made his workshop available; frames were bent, sheet metal was pressed, and parts were riveted. With great ingenuity and limited resources, a legendary fleet was created. “In the end, the eight boats were raffled off amongst those who had built them,” explains Sven-Ove Baumgartner, the SCOe’s first chairman.
In 1948, the club race ‘Rund um Pagensand’ was relaunched; it later became a fixture as the Pagensand Regatta – a sporting highlight, but also a social gathering.
The 1960s: Hamburg’s harbour was booming and needed more space. As a result, the Hamburg marina on the Köhlfleet had to make way for an oil refinery. Many clubs moved to the new marina in neighbouring Wedel. The SCOe’s summer fleet also moved to Wedel, to Schlengel K, in 1967. However, the site on the Köhlfleet remained the club’s social hub. New halls were added, whilst at the same time the club’s youth programme was strengthened: a group for the youngest members in Optimists, children’s parties on the site – sailing became a family and community sport. Several generations of young SCO members spent their free time on the wild, sprawling grounds, building dens and tree houses, until the Hamburg Port Authority claimed large parts of the site in the 1990s.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the SCOe enjoyed a golden age of sailing: the blue, white and red flag was a familiar sight at Kieler Woche, Travemünder Woche, the Sandhamn Regatta and international championships – with OK dinghies, FDs, Sharpies, dinghy cruisers and keelboats.
Many members still have vivid memories of the cutter-building project in the early 2000s. The youth sailing cutter “Möwe” was built largely by the members themselves and financed by a generous donation from a club member. “All the masts and yards, and all the stainless steel parts, were made by our club members themselves,” recalls First Chairman Baumgartner, “and before the launch on the Köhlfleet, virtually the whole club was at the Jensen shipyard round the clock to finish the cutter.” Today, even after the end of the cutter boom on the Elbe, the “Möwe” remains a key part of our youth work. Not only is it actively sailed, but young people also learn on board how to repair, varnish and maintain the wooden hull.
The club today
Just in time for the anniversary, the clubhouse is looking better than ever, with new flooring, light-coloured walls instead of dark panelling, and modernised toilet facilities. Here, too, the members have shouldered the lion’s share of the work.
To this day, voluntary work is not merely a means to an end, but the glue that binds the community together. On the club grounds on Antwerpenstraße, members work on their boats in winter, maintain the club grounds, drink coffee or simply look out together over the flood defences at the bustling Köhlfleet. To organise winter storage, as well as launching and hauling out boats, the members meet once a month during the winter months.
Managing our finances with a sense of proportion remains our guiding principle. Here’s an example: every winter storage space has its own electricity meter, and bills are charged per member. To ensure everything is fair, there is a ‘meter warden’. In addition, the SCOe has a tractor warden, a winch warden and several hall wardens, to name just a few of the voluntary roles.
Today, the SCOe has around 250 sailors, including children and young people. The club deliberately keeps its membership numbers manageable. “The club works because everyone gets involved,” sums up the chairman, Sven-Ove Baumgartner, better known as “Petrus”. He has been at the helm of the club since 2002 and, “thanks to a great board”, still takes great pleasure in carrying out his duties.
The Executive Committee strives to appeal to both older and younger members alike – the older members through the ‘Blinkfüer’, published seven times a year, and coffee mornings for senior members, and the younger members through Opti and 420 training on the Elbe. The focus here is on a holistic sailing education. “We don’t train elite-level sailors; others are better at that,” says Sven-Ove Baumgartner.
That said, competitive regatta sailing is also in the club’s DNA. SCOe members regularly compete in international championships in dinghies and keelboats; Thomas Reinecke’s ‘Edelweiss’, an SCOe boat, even took part in the revival of the Admiral’s Cup.
A glimpse into the future
The SCOe’s anniversary year begins on 1 January 2026 at 11 am with an anniversary reception on Antwerpenstraße. A big celebration for all members and friends of the club is planned for the summer. In the autumn, the Pagensand Regatta will celebrate its 90th anniversary – with a big party in Wedel.
The SCOe, together with other clubs on the Elbe, has made it its mission to revive regatta sailing on the Elbe. And the first signs of success are already evident: the ‘Elbe Super Sailing Tour’, a newly created regatta series, is fostering connections and providing an incentive to compete against others. Even if the sailing area is “not always pure fun” (Baumgartner), the aim is to build on the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s on the Elbe.
“Uncompromisingly affordable thanks to our own hard work” will remain the SCOe’s guiding principle in the future. The halls on Antwerpenstraße will remain the club’s hub. To ensure this, we must maintain our spirit of hands-on commitment and taking responsibility for our own actions.
The owner of the club grounds on Köhlfleet is the Hamburg Port Authority; the SCOe uses the site free of charge under a framework agreement for sport. Should the port be expanded again and the land be required, the club must vacate the site within six months. However, this scenario currently seems highly unlikely – “especially as the city would have to provide us with a comparable alternative site,” says Sven-Ove Baumgartner.
This is the Oevelgönne Sailing Club
The Oevelgönne Sailing Club of 1901 e.V. has 250 members, a winter storage facility on Hamburg’s Köhlfleet and summer moorings in Hamburg’s marina in Wedel. The club’s members mainly go on sailing trips, but also take part in regattas in various classes. New members are very welcome. Contact: Oevelgönne Sailing Club of 1901 e.V., email: vorstand@scoe.de, www.scoe.de