Klassiske Linjer nr 10 1999 - Klassisk Treseiler Klubb

60
ABEKING & RASMUSSEN
Boat and yacht-yard since 1907
RÜDIGER SCHACH,
German Classic Yacht Club
It is almost impossible to
describe the history and
development of one of the most
famous German boatyards
without describing the life of its
founder and owner or vice
versa. For this reason my
article on Henry Rasmussen in
KL No. 9 ought to be completed
by an overview of the historic
development of A & R, the
boatyard founded by Henry
Rasmussen and Georg Abeking
in Lemwerder near Bremen in
summer 1907.
Unfortunately hardly anything
can be reported about
Rasmussen's co-founder Georg
Abeking except from the facts
included in the article on
Henry Rasmussen’s life
published in KL No. 9: Abeking,
born in 1881 in Lichtenwalde
near Berlin, was an engineer at
Nordseewerke where
Rasmussen first met him
during his time in Emden. Like
Rasmussen, Abeking had
decided to be self-employed in
future, so they started together.
Abeking obviously handled the
whole business more as an
investment as he left almost all
business activities to Henry
Rasmussen. Undoubtedly Georg
Abeking provided the company
with the major part of the
necessary capital; but it is
evident that in Rasmussen’s
thoughts and among his many
friends and contacts he never
achieved more than a minor
position. In his memoirs
published in 1956 Rasmussen
only mentioned him twice:
when describing their decision
to found A & R and with the
KLASSISKE LINJER NR.10 MAI 1999
Henry Rasmussen
single sentence "for my partner,
Mr. Abeking, the times were too
enervating, and his only wish
was to leave A & R". – So he
did in 1925, and as he preferred
life in the mountains to
sailing and dealing with boats,
Abeking settled in Bavaria
where he died in Ingolstadt in
1970. To return his partner’s
investment, Rasmussen had to
pawn his wood-depot. Even
though it seems as if Georg
Abeking somehow fell in to
Rasmussen’s bad books, he has
survived in the yard’s name as a
partner – and US-customers
usually talk about A & R as
"Abeking’s".
In 1925 Abeking was followed
by Edmund Schulz, a former
Navy admiral, whose loans
were transformed into shares
but who left A & R after only
five years.
After 1931 A & R was completely
owned by Rasmussen and
due to the special relationship
between Georg Abeking and
Henry Rasmussen we primarily
think of Henry Rasmussen
when talking about A & R.
Lemwerder – the place might
not seem to be one of the best,
geographically at least. Indeed,
Henry Rasmussen first wanted
to settle as close as possible to
the Baltic coast, having in mind
that German yachtsmen
evidently preferred sailing
between Germany, Denmark,
Sweden and also Norway while
almost neglecting sailing on
North Sea and Atlantic (there
were hardly any contacts
between German and British
sailors in those times).
Although they tried hard
German authorities refused to
follow their special plans for a
boatyard on Schleswig-
Holstein’s Baltic coast that
could have satisfied
Rasmussen’s demands. So he,
Danish in origin and grown up
in a maritime environment,
with some "business roots" in
Vegesack (where he lived for
some time, working at Vulkanyard)
cast his eye on the international
business contacts
nurtured especially in Bremen:
contacts to Great Britain as well
as to the America, business that
provided merchants in Bremen
with a lot of money to be spent
on representation and recreation
– valuable people for
somebody who wanted to
design and sell yachts (later, in
1926, when Germany – and to
some extent also A & R – suffered
from the world-wide
economic depression, these
contacts helped Rasmussen to
his first visit to America where
he met Nathanael Green
Herreshoff whose yachts he
always praised as some of the
best and most desirable).
Moreover there was no boatyard
building fine sailing-yachts
in the vicinity, so when he was
offered an area on the banks of
the river Weser, it seemed too
good an oportunity to be missed
for the start of their business.
The yard started – sheltered by
the old silver-poplars on the
river banks – with two wooden
halls and a brick building.
Everything always looked like a
natural part of the enviroment.
One of the halls was fully
equipped for boatbuilding and
contained all necessary
machinery and equipment,
including A & R’s own workshop
for making brass fittings.
The other hall gave room for
winter-storage of boats and
their equipment, 750 square
metres without any supporting
pillars inside. Here they also
had painters’ and riggers’
workshops, in later years completed
by their own sailmakers;
the brick attachment lodged
Rasmussen’s office close to the
smiths’ workshop and the
place for zincing metal parts.
The whole yard was powered
by an own 30 hp steam engine
so that all in all it was almost
independent.
This basic structure remained
over the years, frequently
changed and adjusted to the
changing demands and needs
of every special historic period:
in 1910 A & R’s estate was
enlarged by about 100% when
the neighbouring Weser Yacht
Club built a new harbour; in
the twenties A & R built new
halls for storage and building
of boats with a stronger
emphasis on ships and boats
built from iron or steel;
another enlargement occurred
in the thirties when Rasmussen
bought more estate close to the
original place for storing wood
and for the sawing department.
By the end of the thirties A & R
already owned an estate of
about 45,000 sqm with 12,000
sqm of buildings. Since then
the area has not been enlarged
much, but nowadays three
blocks of halls, in total covering
an area of about 25,000
sqm, each of them up to 25 m
high and equipped with a
central heating and airconditioning
system securing
an even room-climate and a
controlled air-speed inside the
halls, each of them allowing the
daylight to get in through
skylights that can be opened
pneumatically, provide the yard
with all necessary facilities for
modern boat building (excluding
plastic boats!).