Thursday morning, eight o'clock in Kappeln: It's pouring with rain. Large puddles have formed on the Ancker Yachting site and the ground in between is flooded. Nevertheless, the men working under the big blue crane are hard at work. Drops of water fall from their yellow hoods onto the ground. In a few hours, they will be completely soaked. Not because of poor clothing, but because they are constantly on the move. Here someone is kneeling to disconnect the cable between the mast and deck, there someone is bent over to loosen the shroud tensioners with two spanners.
More from this series:
- Saturdays at the charter base
- Why a retired captain works as a lock keeper
- Non-stop work as a boatswain on a museum ship
- Harbour master up close during Kiel Week
- From the roll of cloth to the finished sail at the sailmaker's
- Students at the sailing boarding school give their all for the dream of the Olympics
One of them initially tried it in shorts, but then quickly realised that this was the wrong choice of clothing for today: Malte Ancker. Together with his wife Karolin, he is the second generation to run the family business. The service company was founded in 1989 by Karolin's father, Thedje Ancker, on the site of a former brickworks. Until then, the graduate engineer had worked at the Hamburg Shipbuilding Research Centre. Today, the company not only offers customers the opportunity to have their boats uncrated and stored, they can also have all the necessary work carried out here over the winter. From underwater painting and hull polishing to boatbuilding work.
Employees specialised, but can be deployed flexibly
While his employees are busy making the final preparations to hoist "Rasmus", a Delphia 37, out of the Schlei, their boss is already coming round the jetty with the next boat. Slowly and skilfully, Malte Ancker manoeuvres the X-43 "Elixier" alongside the jetty. The Delphia owner, an older man, stands under the canopy of the harbour building. "The team is working very professionally," he comments, while the hot belts tighten under his ship and it is slowly lifted out of the water by Ralf Reimer, who is operating the crane in a calm and level-headed manner.
The expert ensures that "Rasmus" swings in the direction of the towing vehicle after its keel hovers over the pier. Then Reimer gently sets the ship down on the trestle. The owner is satisfied. "That went very well," he says, as Malte Ancker drives the ship towards the halls of the crane yard and it slowly rolls past him.
Parallel to the work involved in storing the ships, the various tasks are distributed among different teams. It is important that the team remains flexible and that individual employees can help out in other teams at short notice so that all tasks are completed with a high degree of efficiency. All employees are specialised in certain tasks. Malte Ancker and his colleague Pajo Hysenllari, for example, are primarily involved in getting the ships to the crane site and unrigging them before they are slipped. However, they also regularly need help from colleagues. Ralf Reimer and Migoel Gurrica are familiar with craning and Ole Büßen and Thomas Labes work in the rigging department.
When unrigging, the running rigging is first tied to the mast and all removable parts are dismantled. The telescopic handler is then put into operation. The red Manitou is held in position by four supports and functions here as a mobile mast crane. Once its boom has been moved to the mast of the X-43, which is inserted through the deck, and secured there, it can be easily lifted out of the ship. As soon as the rig moves upwards, the professionals avoid any movement of the ship. Otherwise the mast could possibly cause damage. Once the rig has been lifted out of the ship, it is swivelled ashore and placed on trestles. Attachments such as antennas and Windex are removed and stowed in the ship. The men then drive the rig into one of the halls where the spreaders, shrouds and stays will later be removed. All the dismantled parts have to be meticulously labelled.
Busy times in the rigging department
Although the crane is still very busy, Ole Büßen from the rigging department is already working on orders for the masts that have already been laid. In between, however, he is in demand to support the crane team.
Next on his own list is to work on the rig of a Grinde. Its relatively new Furlex needs to be greased. In addition, while laying the mast, his colleagues realised that the shroud tensioners needed to be checked and that the retaining plate on one of the upper shrouds looked as if it had broken. The first task for Büßen and his colleague Thomas Labes was to inform the owner of everything. The owner immediately issued a repair order and the riggers are now intensively investigating the potential sources of danger.
First, they drill out the rivets of the retaining plate to check the important component. After a thorough inspection, it is clear that the supposed crack is just a scratch. Accordingly, the retaining plate of the upper edge is riveted back into place. The Furlex furling system is cleaned by the two rig specialists within a few minutes and prepared for the next season with fresh grease.
Back in the workshop, the two tackle the shrouds. "The tensioners on the upper shrouds can no longer be turned at all," Büßen reports on the complaints of the employees who were busy unrigging the bark. This is why new shrouds are now to be made for the eight-metre-long ship. After a brief search, Büßen digs T-terminals out of his box, which are identical to those that were previously installed. Without further ado, he presses a terminal onto the wire, which is still wound in many turns on a large reel.
Once he has attached the new wire next to the old one on a board at the end of the workbench, Büßen can measure the length, cut the wire to the correct length, mark it and cut it off. The thread is then pressed onto the lower end of the future rig. "We also offer our rigging work to external customers, but of course the expense has to be justified," explains Büßen, who is often out and about in the harbours around Kappeln for on-site appointments.
Smooth cooperation with specialised companies
The fact that Ole Büßen is regularly in demand as a lecturer at the vocational school for boat builders on the Priwall in Travemünde also shows that his expertise is in demand. He collects a number of illustrative objects in a box. "These are broken retaining plates from various shrouds, for example. Some of them practically crumble apart when they are removed," he reports on the extreme cases. The danger posed by a rig that is not regularly professionally maintained is underestimated by many sailors, says Büßen. "Particularly when the club works together on a crane in one day and the mast is 'just laid' beforehand, supposedly minor issues are often dismissed or damage is even overlooked," says the trained locksmith.
In their workshop, the rigging specialists at Ancker Yachting can press wires from three to 19 millimetres. They have most of the terminals, shroud tensioners and threads in stock. This means that they can help their customers with replacing the standing rigging at short notice in an emergency. "If the owners commission us, we also trim the rig again in the spring," says Büßen.
While Karolin and Malte Ancker's employees are busy on land with the de-rigging of the X-Yacht, an employee from Kiesow is working on the engine's cooling water system below deck. The co-operation with Schiffsmotoreninstandsetzung und Service GmbH goes hand in hand. If a customer on Ancker Yachting's order list requests work on the engine, the team ensures that the work is carried out properly by one of the specialised companies.
Cohesion of the shipyards in Kappeln
The engine is to be winterised on the "Elixier". "An oil change is also carried out, as this is a regular service and the customer has requested it," says Malte Ancker. Finally, the employee from the third-party company also changes various filters. All of this is done while the Ancker Yachting team is on deck preparing the rest of the boat to be lifted out of the water.
Despite the high density of shipyards in and around Kappeln, Malte Ancker reports an excess demand for both winter storage space and services on the Schlei. "That's nice, of course, we don't steal anything from each other," says Ancker, "which is of course good for the cooperation with the others, if everyone can live well, the threshold for helping each other out is naturally lower."
In autumn, 600 to 700 boats are craned at Ancker Yachting. "Just under 550 of them stay with us in the halls or on the outdoor area, the rest are trailer boats or boats that are stored in the barns of some farmers in the neighbourhood during the winter," explains Karolin Ancker. When planning, half an hour is estimated for craning ships under 40 feet in length, and a whole hour for larger ships. "Of course, the ships that take the longest are those of owners who have booked the full service, handed in their keys to us and only want to take delivery of their ship again in the spring," says Malte Ancker, "we always have a few of them on the list." They are craned if no other sailor is standing in the harbour waiting for their ship to come out of the water.
Influence of the Baltic storm surge in 2023
When asked when most owners want to get their boats ashore, he replies: "Our crane season runs from the beginning of September to the beginning of November. While some sailors want to make the most of the season until the end, others are afraid of the impending autumn storms. Especially after last year's storm surge in the Baltic Sea, they want their boats to be safe before mid-October." However, almost all of the boats are craned out by the beginning of November at the latest and are then in the hall.
After Ralf Reimer has put the X-43 on the trestle, it goes to the washing area. While the rig is still being attended to, the underwater hull and the hull are already being cleaned here. The ship's sliding hatch has already been closed by Malte Ancker before the crane. "We don't have to work on that anymore," he said. The hall spaces are allocated in the family business via the booked services. "Of course, I want to utilise my employees so that I can keep them busy all year round," says Malte Ancker. Some of the halls are even heated, which makes working on the ships much more comfortable in winter. They will prepare the ships in their winter storage facility throughout the winter so that all customers can enjoy the coming season without any worries.
