History

On August 12, 1922, a circle of citizens took the initiative to establish a new sailing club. The location was Paulsen's Inn on Skibbroen - later Bondestuen, which was situated where Jebsen & Co is now located.

The first board of directors of the newly established Aabenraa Sailing Club consisted of Customs Inspector Ludvigsen (chairman), Innkeeper Paulsen (vice-chairman), Postal Assistant Carstensen (secretary), Representative Andersen, Head Conductor Jensen, Carpenter Petersen, Architect Jensen, and Contractor Preisler.

There were from the start 29 vessels and 72 members. Already before 1920, a sailing club existed in Aabenraa, but it was dormant during the World War and never started up again. It can be noted here, however, that in 1927 the old club's cash balance was transferred to ASC, a good 200 old mark banknotes, which were intended to be framed and used to adorn the wall of the new clubhouse, since the banknotes did not have much value in those years. But in this way, the club actually has roots going all the way back to the turn of the century.

The time right after World War I was favorable for those who wanted to acquire a boat, as inflation in Germany made pleasure boats so cheap that they were bought up in large numbers from Kiel, Eckernförde, and Flensburg.

From the very beginning, there were many tasks to be solved, and there was immediately an excellent cooperation with the municipal authorities.

Port engineer Ramhøj drew up plans for a new marina in Sydhavn, and a good winter storage space was secured in the empty seaplane hangar at the port for a rental fee of 15 kroner per boat, though larger boats cost 20 kroner.

The rules for the use of the hangar were strict, and members had to sign that they would comply with them. Major repairs were not allowed to take place, and there must
no fire of any kind was to be used, just as smoking tobacco was strictly prohibited. Nor was the floor to be damaged. The hall was used for a number of years, until plans to establish a boatyard at the same location fell through and the hall changed its function to an export stable.

Problemer med at få bådene i lan og søsat optog også klubben. Der var ganske vist nogle små slæbesteder, hvor mindre både kunne trækkes op - og så var der firmaet Hansen & Møstls bedding, som dog på grund af længden ikke var egnet til at køre bådene ud på sidespor fra. Kommunen ville ikke være med til en forlængelse, selv om man henviste til at det også ville være en fordel for fiskerne.
For many years, the problem was solved with Callesen's Motorfabrik crane, which lifted the boats ashore using straps.

The municipality also showed goodwill regarding the construction of a clubhouse by granting ASC a plot of land on the Sydhavn pier for an annual rent of 5 kroner.

The architectural plans were provided by architect Jensen, and the house was financed through 84 shares of 25 kroner each. As proposed, eight shares of 25 kroner each were drawn each year, so that the building would be paid off over ten years.

A preserved subscription list shows that a wide circle of the town's citizens supported the cause, as both County Governor Refslund Thomsen, Mayor Fink, and a large number of citizens in diverse professions were involved. On October 23, 1926, the municipality's building certificate was issued, and the house was inaugurated with a flag-raising ceremony the same year and was named “Kahytten”.

The club’s flag also captured people’s attention. In the first draft, the three mackerels appeared in white on a blue background, surrounded by the letters “ASC,” also in white. Curiously enough, the draft has been preserved—and it was drawn on the back of a banknote! This first banner caused quite a few problems when it was delivered. A letter from the club states that “the colors fade completely” and “the colors run together in the rain—yes, the blue even runs down the sail, which is now blue! On other flags that went up a week ago, there are no fish to be seen!”.

And the report from the flag-raising ceremony stated: “The little flags flew happily to the top, but immediately faded in the sun’s rays, so the boats had to sail incognito for the rest of the season!”

When the next batch of stands was delivered, they took on their current appearance—that is, without the letters and featuring golden mackerels.

Of course, cruising and racing were the main activities in club life back then as well.

The following account from a sailing season illustrates the conditions. At the same time, one must bear in mind that the sailboats of that era were of a much smaller average size than the ones we have now—and of course they had no engine . . . . . Under full sail “At Whitsun, when the woods turned truly green, the Gull set a course with sealed orders for a foreign shore....

In 1926, the first navigation course was held, taught by Assistant Professor Otterstrøm and navigation instructor Rundborg. The course was very well attended; according to the records, “21 men and two women” participated. The course took place at Aabenraa State School from January to March.

In those days, the club had to apply for permission to call at German ports, and the “German authorities rejected the application to call at Gelting, Steinberghaff, and Langballigau, but they found consolation in the traditional fall cod feasts at the Steamship Pavilion.”.

They also began collaborating with the other sailing clubs in South Jutland fairly quickly, particularly those in Haderslev and Sønderborg. And the Copenhagen Amateur Sailing Club helped obtain the blueprints for a slipway.

There were problems with the flag display, as the club wanted to fly KDY’s split flag on the new flagpole, but was not granted permission to do so. Instead, the magistrate established a challenge cup for the first official regatta, which took place on August 9, 1922.

After the good start, a slow decline set in during the early thirties, resulting in a decision in 1934 to take out a loan to redeem the last debt certificates in the clubhouse. They were redeemed at 40 percent of their face value.

The reason given was that, at the time the building was constructed, there were 31 active and 124 passive members with a total membership fee of 136 kroner, and that, due to unfavorable circumstances, the association had only been able to redeem 1–2 certificates out of the original 8.

The number of vessels was down to just 3-4 vessels. The club's finances were therefore shaky.

The proposal was approved. However, over the years, a number of members had given away their promissory notes; some had used them to purchase furniture, etc.

At the 1934 general meeting, it was decided to sell the training boat “Yap,” which had been purchased a few years earlier for the junior members. Since the sale did not go through due to a lack of interest, the boat was loaned to three of the club’s members under contract.

The shadow of war fell over the country. But gasoline rationing, which put a damper on driving, made people eager to try their hand at renewable energy sources. This resulted in an increase in both membership and the fleet. In 1941, the club obtained permission from the Ministry of Commerce to display “ASC” as the home port designation on its boats.

A press release states that “the club now has 25 pleasure craft at its disposal, in addition to a number of motorboats that must remain in the harbor because of the war.”.

The clubhouse was renovated, new furniture was purchased, and “beforehand, three of the town's prominent citizens contributed 36.43 kroner each for a new ceiling. On behalf of the club, he expressed gratitude for this financial sacrifice.”.

In 1942, the number of sailboats stood at 40, and membership had risen to 150! A new junior division was established, with no fewer than 22 boys and eight girls participating in a winter seamanship course. That same year, the club joined SIKA—the organization for the Cooperative Sports Clubs in Aabenraa. At the flag-raising ceremony that year, local newspapers carried the following headline: “Denmark’s Fastest R-Boat Heads to Aabenraa.”.

Olaf Jessen had acquired the 11-meter-long, beautiful 6-meter “Oui-Oui,” which at that time had won 354 prizes.

The following year, the number of boats had grown to 42, and the number of members to 234.

However, on September 30, 1943, the Ministry of Justice issued a decree prohibiting all forms of recreational boating except for rowboats and the like. The boats had to be placed in the water to prevent them from drying out, but without a mast, engine, oars, or rudder.

At the 1944 general meeting, the club nonetheless had 210 members and a surplus of 743 kroner. And the clubhouse was finally debt-free.

The only major club event that year was a group trip to Kalvø by bike and horse-drawn carriage!

Immediately after May 5, 1945, permission was granted to sail in a specified area upon presentation of identification in the form of the club’s membership card, but only from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. For regattas outside the city, a passage permit was required, which had to be arranged through the secretary. Conditions, however, quickly returned to normal.

In 1948, the club got a boost when it commissioned master carpenter Kruse to build a dozen or so pirate dinghies

Along with some privately purchased ones, the number of these dinghies reached 15.

These small, fast boats soon attracted a group of young people who, with great enthusiasm, raced around the fjord, generating a lot of interest in the sport.

At the very end of the mid-pier between Sydhavn and Gammelhavn stood the enormous Voetmanns Lade, a colossal wooden building that had been constructed in recent years to serve as a warehouse. For several years, the club had an excellent winter storage facility for its boats here, although it was a bit of a struggle to lift the larger vessels over the pier. But with the help of the High-Voltage Power Plant’s 6-metric-ton crane, hoisting them up and down eventually went smoothly.

But in those years, a great enterprise grew up in the harbor where the club had hitherto felt at home: the livestock export. This traffic, which was prompted by a German law that only allowed the import of live cattle and pigs by sea, gave rise to a very busy era in the history of Aabenraa Harbor. The old seaplane hangar served as a stable building, and the noise of the screaming animals as they were driven aboard the ships with electric shocks was deafening. Nor did the stench of manure contribute favorably to the “yacht-like condition” of the sailboats. Countless converted passenger boats and other old “plimsolls” arrived and lined up in Sydhavn to take the live cargo on board, and it became necessary to incorporate a part of the marina for new berths.

Since it also happened that the harbor was blocked off when the pleasure boats were heading out, the demand for the construction of a new marina grew.

In 1953, a meeting was held with the port committee, which looked favorably upon the idea.

In the following years, the marina in Nyhavn was established, and along with this, a new slipway was constructed at Lindsnakke – “æ Miljø”. An excellent mast crane was erected, which by the way is still functioning (1992), now at the service pier.

The harbor was gradually expanded, the clubhouse “Kahytten” was moved over to the rowing clubs – and here in the late 1960s the major transition to fiberglass boats took place, membership numbers grew, and new docks were added.

In January 1973, the chairman, Gunnar Pedersen, stated in an article in the club magazine “Søforklaringer” that ASC is “among the largest” in the country. The number of active members is now 223, the total membership 347, and the harbor is actually becoming “full” with the establishment of a new floating dock. At the same time, Aabenraa Port had other plans for the east side of the Nyhavn basin.

A grandiose plan for a large marina was therefore put forward. The first draft for a location was actually right where the harbor ended up being located—that is, by Kystvej.

But that was during the years when the Port of Aabenraa was working on plans for a container port. And after contacting the Technical Administration, it became clear that that part of the area was off-limits.

However, the mayor at the time, Camma Larsen-Ledet, was extremely positive and, to some extent, embraced the club’s initiative as her own: Aabenraa was to have a large-scale marina —a marina that would not only satisfy a small group of the city’s residents but would also create an environment that the entire city could enjoy—and that would provide the old seafaring town with a valuable infusion of saltwater.

Since the area along the coastal road could not be touched, plans were drawn up for a marina at Laimun. A series of meetings were held, led by the dynamic club president Gunnar Pedersen, and the project was approved by both the Ministry of Public Works and the municipality’s Urban Planning Committee.

But in the May 2, 1973, issue of “Søforklaringer,” the big news breaks: Shipowner Michael Jebsen offers a donation of 4 million kroner. One condition, however, is that the port must not be built at Laimun.

In the same issue, it was suggested instead that the site be located on Kystvej, since the Port of Aabenraa’s plans for the area had now been clarified and the opportunity was available.

A donation of 4 million kroner and a very supportive city council gave the project a gentle push forward: In January 1974, the first seabed surveys were conducted in the waters off Strandgården. Meetings were held with residents in the area, and plans for a shared “water clubhouse” were discussed.

A few “minor obstacles” had to be dealt with along the way. The Danish Maritime Authority had reservations about the exit through the dredged channel leading to the commercial port.

But on June 25, 1974, the formalities were in order: The club had received the Ministry’s approval of the detailed plan. And the municipality’s conditions had been accepted.

Work began immediately, and in September, members were informed that the bridges had been ordered.

This was followed by a heated debate over the construction of the clubhouse. The discussion gradually took on proportions that were somewhat out of line, considering how small a part the clubhouse represented of the overall project.

At one point, however, the chair had to step in—as he was authorized to do—and a decision was made on the magnificent building we all know today.

The president organized the clubhouse construction under the motto: “Work or pay.” A good 100 volunteers signed up and were assigned tasks based on the trades they were best suited for. As a result, the work progressed smoothly. Another part of the story is that the old clubhouse, “Kahytten,” was sold to the recreational divers for 17,000 kroner.

At the 1974 general meeting, Gunnar Pedersen announced that he intended to step down as chairman the following year. He had been the driving force behind the marina construction from its very beginnings to the project’s near completion—three years of full-scale activity—but now the goal was in sight: a magnificent marina with plenty of opportunities.

The dedication ceremony and harbor festival took place the last weekend in May 1975. The festivities kicked off with a salute fired from Jørgen Bruhn’s old ceremonial cannon at the Kalvø Shipyard.

This shipyard had sent many magnificent windjammers out onto the world’s oceans—ships that helped make Aabenraa renowned for quality and speed. One could hardly imagine a better way to carry on the city’s maritime traditions.

This is where Karl Lildholdt concludes his historical overview. However, he adds in a postscript that it would actually have been an obvious choice to bring the club’s history completely up to date in connection with its 75th anniversary in 1997.

That didn’t happen—and as a result, while preparing the 2022 anniversary publication, the editorial team had to, on the one hand, consult the archives, and partly rely on the members’ good memories to piece together the historical facts in an effort to provide an overview of the club’s most notable activities in recent years.

At the 1995 annual general meeting, the board came under heavy criticism. Not only did the board have to take a lot of flak for the fact that the finances had gone off the rails due to significant budget overruns, but the board’s proposal for amendments to the bylaws also failed to gain support; on the contrary, the majority of the members present voted against them.

The board of directors viewed this as a vote of no confidence. This led to the entire board resigning. An executive committee managed the club until the subsequent extraordinary general meeting.

In 1997, a winter storage area was moved from Kystvej to a newly filled-in winter storage site south of ASC/Sønderstrand. The winter storage area had been established because the municipality wanted a waste disposal site as well as a parking area at Sønderstrand.

The club therefore saw an opportunity to also use the site as a motorhome campground during the summer. Admittedly, in 2009 the municipality issued a notice stating that the site was not approved as a campground. However, approval was granted the following year—and, incidentally, ASC thus became the first club in the country to be granted a site under the new camping regulations.

Now, 25 years later, in this anniversary year, the club can report that the RV park has been a great success. During the high season, it has been fully booked on several occasions.

To meet the high demand, we have therefore found it necessary to expand the number of spaces in 2022. This expansion was made possible by incorporating some of the winter storage spaces. During the summer season, the area is enclosed by a movable fence, so that the space can be reduced to its normal size when the boats are stored for the winter again.

In addition to meeting the needs of travelers, the parking lot also contributes positively to the club's finances.

Likewise, in the years following 1997 and for the next 12–15 years, the club was known for its extensive competition activities—both national and international competitions were held on the fjord. Credit for this development goes to a dedicated and capable competition committee.

From its inception, the sailing club has been very active in supporting junior sailors. Among other things, the club built several types of dinghies out of plywood and wood. More recently, the dinghies have been made of fiberglass and rigged with aluminum masts.

From 1990 through 2014, the club was very active as a participant in the Lillebælt Syd circuit. The Danish Championships for Optimists and international regattas for Laser and Laser Radial were held there.

At one point, the junior division was functioning so well that ASC joined a municipal project called ”Elite Aabenraa.” As part of this project, sailing was to be one of three sports disciplines included in a regional sports hub located in the municipality. During 2009, the municipality therefore constructed a building with changing rooms, shower facilities, and rooms for officials.

At one point, the goal was to reach 100 sailors. Recently, interest in junior sailing declined, so in 2020 about half of all junior gear was sold.

Now we can only hope that parents who sail with their children will want to sail again. The club will be ready to welcome them.

In the summer of 2009, the club commissioned a condition report on the bridge structure. At that time, the report estimated that the current structure had three years of remaining service life. The conclusion was clear—albeit disappointing: it would require a significant investment to repair this damage. The alternative was to build entirely new bridges.

A requirements specification for a new bridge structure was prepared, along with a cost estimate for the repair of the existing bridge structure.

In March 2010, the club held a workshop for its members. A majority of those in attendance wanted floating bridges. Six companies were invited to submit proposals—two of the proposals received were selected for further consideration and subsequently sent to the members for consultation. Following the consultation round, financial models were developed and presented at a special general meeting in February 2012, where the vote resulted in the bridge system we have today.

The project was launched and inaugurated in 2012.

The project cost approximately 7 million Danish kroner, which was financed through member bonds, bank loans, and a private loan.

The experiences with the bridge construction had given the club something to think about. And when Aabenraa Municipality simultaneously announced a completely new local plan for the entire beach and harbor area, the club decided to prepare a so-called SWOT analysis to uncover its strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities - and thus use the opportunity to set a new course for the club's further development - provisionally until 2017. The goal was to create a long-term plan with cohesion that could future-proof the club's areas, its development opportunities, and the members' needs - now and in the future. Based on the SWOT analysis, the members were involved in the further process through workshops and debate meetings to define a number of focus areas necessary to realize the visions.

The aforementioned local plan for the beach and harbor area, which Aabenraa Municipality initiated in 2013, included, among other things, a beach promenade designed to beautify and renovate the stretch from Sønderstrand along the entire landside of the marina out to Styrtom. The promenade featured a granite-paved route and planted islands, the asphalt paving of the entire parking area near Café Under Sejlet, as well as some quite spectacular new streetlights constructed as so-called ship's masts. The project was completed in 2016.

In 2017, the club discovered that the new steel mooring posts were suffering from extensive galvanic corrosion. The corrosion occurred on the steel where the plastic section ended underwater. The solution was to install new steel pipes, which were driven down over—and thus on the outside of—the old ones. New plastic pipes with caps were installed so that they extended all the way to the seabed to minimize exposure of the steel pipes to the water as much as possible. While the work was underway, the club also decided to make the bridges flood-resistant by raising the anchor piles for the floating bridges on the north side by approximately 40 cm. In addition, 12 berths were extended, and two new berths were constructed on the east and west sides. The work was completed in 2018.

ASC embarked on a whole new chapter in 2021 by offering a new activity: sea kayaking. With help from DGI, the club hosted an open house where residents could try sea kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP). Interest was overwhelming, with over 60 people eager to give the new activity a try. Initially, ASC was able to borrow sea kayaks from DGI, but thanks to grants from foundations, the club managed to purchase 13 sea kayaks, including safety equipment, which can even be rented out to other interested individuals via a booking system. In recognition of this, ASC was awarded the Aabenraa Municipality Initiative Award.

In 2022, it’s not just the anniversary that’s dominating the board’s agendas. At the general meeting the year before, the board was tasked with preparing a proposal regarding the establishment of stackable boat racks that would ensure more flexible transport by vehicle to a potential boat wash facility with a boat-washing treatment system. In addition to the racks, work is also underway to acquire a permanent crane for boat hoisting, as the club’s current mobile crane is nearing the end of its service life. A decision on whether to invest in new racks and a new crane will be made at the 2022 general meeting.

ASC is also an active participant in Aabenraa Municipality's master plan regarding water culture activities. The plan looks ten years ahead and encompasses not only the facilities of the sailing and boating clubs, Sønderstrand and urban water activities, but the municipality's coastline as a whole as well as lakes, swimming pools, and open-air baths. A study during 2022 is to explore the possibilities and result in a preliminary proposal with a budget and schedule. ASC has submitted a proposal for the future design of Sønderstrand.