oliver berking yacht

March / April Issue No. 297  Preview Now

The Parallel Passions of Oliver Berking

By matthew p. murphy.

ROBBE & BERKING CLASSICS Above—Oliver Berking, who represents the fifth generation to operate the family-owned fine silver business Robbe & Berking Silver of Flensburg, Germany, has a parallel passion for classic wooden yachts. He has turned this passion into another business, Robbe & Berking Classics, through which he operates a yacht yard, an exhibition hall, and a magazine. Behind him in this photograph is Robbe & Berking’s 9,600-volume library of yachting literature.

“…[I]t is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back from whence we came.”

O n September 18, 1962, GRETEL, the first-ever Australian 12-Meter-class sloop, beat the AMERICA’s Cup defender WEATHERLY by a margin of 47 seconds. It was the second race of the Cup’s final series, and the victory sent a shock wave through the sailing world and touched off gleeful pandemonium Down Under. Could this be the first year that the Cup would be wrested away from its American grip since its inception in 1851?

Alas for Australia, it was not to be. The Philip Rhodes–designed 12-Meter WEATHERLY went on to win the next three races, and the prize, in front of a dense spectator fleet off Newport, Rhode Island. Those 1962 AMERICA’s Cup races were significant for many reasons. Among them was the fact that President John F. Kennedy was there, observing the first race from the deck of the Navy destroyer named for his older brother, USS JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR. Also noteworthy was the fact that GRETEL’s sole victory signaled an ascendant Australian sailing program that would flower two decades later, in 1983, when the United States finally lost the auld mug to the winged-keel phenom AUSTRALIA II. Another important event that coincided with that contest went virtually unnoticed at the time, but eventually it was vital to the legacy of the 12-Meter fleet: on the day of GRETEL’s lone victory, 3,600 miles away from Newport, a baby named Oliver Berking was born into the fifth generation of a family of silver artisans in Flensburg, Germany.

ROBBE & BERKING CLASSICS

The 12-Meter-class sloop SPHINX rolls out of a Robbe & Berking storage shed in the spring of 2009. She was relaunched in 2008 after a meticulous two-year restoration that assembled the talent, tools, and space that would become Robbe & Berking Classics.

Today, 55-year-old Oliver runs the 143-year-old family silver business, called Robbe & Berking, a time-consuming endeavor that requires extreme focus on detail, raw material, and market conditions. But despite this demand on his attention, Oliver has an unquenchable parallel passion for classic yachts, and particularly classic 12-Meter yachts. Tapping this passion, he has founded another business that builds, restores, and maintains some of the finest yachts in northern Europe. The newer company bears much of the same branding as the fine silver company, including the name: it is called Robbe & Berking Classics, and it projects an image of luxury and exclusivity while also being open to whomever walks through its doors. It has built and restored 6-, 8-, and 12-Meter-class yachts, among other boats, and its complex of buildings occupies a portion of a commercial wharf opposite Flensburg’s revered historic harbor (see sidebar). The yacht business is more than a boatyard: It includes a hall that maintains a rotating series of three to four temporary yachting-themed exhibitions per year. It houses a classic-yacht brokerage called Baum & Konig and a 9,600-volume library of yachting books. It publishes a highly produced magazine called Goose . And it rents space to several marine businesses and a popular fine Italian restaurant, both of which guarantee a steady flow of well-heeled visitors.

Oliver carries the significance of his birthday like a calling card. “I was born on the day GRETEL won over WEATHERLY,” he told me as we toured the Robbe & Berking Classics grounds upon my arrival in Flensburg in late April this year. A Riva Aquarama, that most rarefied model of classic Italian wooden speedboat, stood nobly in the exhibition hall surrounded by a collection of vintage Mercedes-Benz automobiles displayed there by a local dealer. In the adjacent shop, the recently arrived 72′ Sparkman & Stephens yawl BARUNA was partially disassembled in mid-restoration for an American owner. In another room was a fleet of 6-Meters, many of which were built by Robbe & Berking Classics. Outside of the main building, at the edge of the parking area, stood, incongruously, a life-sized, multicolored fiberglass-over-foam statue of a rhinoceros, to which we shall return.

A crowd gathers in the yard’s workshop for a party during the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup in 2013. Robbe & Berking hosts an ongoing series of such events. On display here is the yard-built replica of the Sparkman & Stephens–designed 6-Meter-class sloop BUZZY III—the original of which is also under the care of Robbe & Berking, and now named GREAT DANE.

Opposite the rhinoceros, standing sentry over the entire operation, was the tired hulk of that pioneering Australian 12-Meter, GRETEL, an apparition from 1962 awaiting a savior to move her into the nearby shop and put her right.

T he seeds of Robbe & Berking Classics were sown in 2005 when the German Navy decided to sell a pair of classic 12-Meters, OSTWIND and WESTWIND, that it kept for training purposes for 50 years at a base near Flensburg. These boats, said Oliver, are “to me the most beautiful 12-Meters afloat. A lot of us in Flensburg cried” at the thought of them leaving the incomparable sailing waters of Flensburg Fjord. So Oliver led the formation of a syndicate—a “bidding group,” he called it—that bought OSTWIND, which was launched in 1939, and gave her back her original name, SPHINX. By 2006, the group decided to restore the boat to its original condition. “I didn’t have a yard,” he recalls. “I didn’t know boatbuilding.”

What Oliver did know, and what he has staked his yachting venture on, is that there is a small but exuberant market for rare, finely made objects. He knows this from his silver business, which hand-makes, among many other objects—including egg cups, cocktail shakers, and candelabras—spoons that go through a 50-step production process and cost $210 apiece. A functional knockoff might cost 30 cents, and yet these exquisite Robbe & Berking originals continue to sell, at a steady drip, to clients all over the globe. Five-star hotels and restaurants worldwide set their tables with Robbe & Berking flatware. The company equipped the Kremlin with a silver service 15 years ago. These sales are based on an emotional response to subtle, hand-crafted beauty. “You have to hit the hearts of the people,” Oliver said.

Still, he recalls that at the beginning of the OSTWIND project, “We were afraid. Articles in magazines and local rumors said that these crazy boys from Flensburg…if they start taking that boat apart, they will destroy it.” The syndicate, however, knew its limitations and potential, and hired six or seven competent shipwrights for the job. The sensitively restored SPHINX emerged from the shop in 2008, to critical acclaim. And then there was an empty shop, an idle crew, machinery and tools, and an ascending reputation. Oliver decided to keep the operation going, and to solicit more business for it.

In 2011, Robbe & Berking launched this replica of the Sparkman & Stephens 6-Meter NIRVANA, the original of which was built by Abeking & Rasmussen in 1939 and destroyed by fire 20 years later.

His father was seeking a new rowboat at about that time, and the yard built him a bright-finished custom 14′ mahogany one. That was Hull No. 1 of Robbe & Berking Classics—a humble project that primed the pump, so to speak. There followed a medley of historic reproductions, new designs, and restorations. One of them was a pair of 6-Meters built in anticipation of the class’s world championship in 2013, which Robbe & Berking would host in cooperation with the Flensburg Sailing Club. Then came a 50′ modern wooden cruising sloop, cold-molded and vacuum-bagged, to a design by the German naval architect Georg Nisen. Around the same time, the yard speculated on the construction of a 30′ powerboat of its own design inspired by the American commuter boats that ran wealthy financiers to work on Long Island Sound in the 1920s and ’30s. A reconstruction of the Sparkman & Stephens—designed 6-Meter NIRVANA followed that, and then came the yard’s pièce de résistance: a new 12-Meter.

BARUNA, a legendary Sparkman & Stephens ocean racer from California, was recently shipped to Flensburg for a structural overhaul by Robbe & Berking. This is how she appeared in early spring this year. The temporary longitudinal bracing on her outer hull is meant to withstand the forces of reframing. She’s also receiving a backbone assembly, deck, and coach roof.

SIESTA, the new 12-Meter, was under construction during my first visit to Robbe & Berking, which was in February 2014. The yacht was launched and sailing when I returned there earlier this year. She is design No. 434 of the Norwegian master Johan Anker (see WB No. 239)—and one of his last, for Anker died a year after completing the plans for this yacht in 1939. But she was never built, because World War II halted the project, and the postwar 12-Meter Rule made her obsolete, in contemporary terms. But over the course of 75 years, she aged into the status of classic.

The SIESTA project came to Robbe & Berking because of the yard’s consistent and increasing service to the 12-Meter fleet, and to Meter-boats in general, since even before its founding. Oliver’s passion for these boats predates the SPHINX project. In 2001, Robbe & Berking Silver had hosted the 5.5-Meter World Championship. There followed, under the aegis of Robbe & Berking Classics, similar events for the 6- and 8-Meter classes, as well as for the 22-Square Meters. In 2011, Robbe & Berking Classics hosted the 12-Meter World Championship, drawing 10 boats, and in 2015 it hosted the European 12-Meter Championship, which drew a whopping 14 boats. “Never before have so many 12s been together in one harbor,” Oliver said.

MATTHEW P. MURPHY

Robbe & Berking is committed to classic powerboats, too. The yard designed and built this 30’ diminutive commuter-style launch on speculation, but has kept it in its fleet as a regatta tender and company yacht.

His ambition has not been to simply create a shipyard. He clearly loves his native Flensburg region, and sees it as a world-class yachting destination. Flensburg Fjord is, indeed, blessed with a reliably steady breeze, light currents, minimal obstructions, and unfettered natural beauty. “My dream,” he said, “is that a sailor from Milan…who is not a poor man…says to his wife, ‘Honey, we have to go to Flensburg and enjoy its magnificent restaurant, view, and harbor.’ So they go, and then he returns home and tells his friends on Monday morning, ‘You have to go to Flensburg once in your life!’”

To this end, Oliver built the exhibition hall—a tastefully designed and rendered space that would befit any maritime museum or high-end art gallery. Its doors are open to the public, and a visitor is greeted at a reception desk that gives way to a central space with a soaring vaulted ceiling and a second story rimmed by a balcony hallway. In the edge of that balcony, etched in concrete, is the name of every 12-Meter built to date. The hallway itself is lined with books, approximately 9,600 volumes, which Oliver estimates to be the largest yachting library in the world. If a visitor takes a few steps beyond that central vaulted ceiling, he arrives at a massive sliding door which opens into the spacious, well lighted, and meticulously organized boatbuilding shop.

The Yachting Heritage Center, shown here during a visit by a group of Mercedes-Benz aficionados, is the heart of Robbe & Berking Classics. The wing to the right is the workshop. The structure to the left was recently added to house the exhibition hall, office space, and a restaurant. Below—Oliver Berking sets up a photograph for the current exhibition: JFK, The Sailing President.

BARUNA, the 72′ yawl that’s currently taking up a portion of the shop, was launched by the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard in Massachusetts in 1938 and won the Bermuda Race that year, with her deisgner, Olin Stephens, navigating, before going to her longtime home waters of California. She had arrived in Flensburg while I was home in Maine planning my trip; Martin Schulz, who is the project manager for Robbe & Berking, texted me several photos of the yacht upon her arrival. She had come in from Denmark on her own bottom, tired and wet, and was immediately hauled and moved into the shop.

When I encountered her in person, her garboards, sheerstrakes, house, and deck had been removed, and the crew was milling stock for her new laminated-mahogany keel. New laminated frames were progressing at the same time. The shop aims to have the keel, stem, and frames replaced by autumn, when she’ll then go to another shop for a new Andre Hoek–designed interior. Overseeing the project is Sønke Stich, the shop foreman, a German boatbuilder who once ran his own shop in Norway.

Next to BARUNA lay neat stacks of long, wide mahogany boards awaiting milling and laminating to become the new keel. And nearby, a new mast for the 1918 12-Meter THEA was taking shape. That boat was too tender under her old, taller rig, and the new mast, of flawless Sitka spruce, is intended to cure this. BARUNA occupies only a fraction of this workshop, which is flooded with natural light coming in through a 25'-tall bank of windows.

INA STEINHUSEN

Johan Anker designed the 12-Meter SIESTA in 1939, but she was never built due to the exigencies of World War II. Robbe & Berking Classics resurrected the design several years ago, and launched the new yacht, seen here on trials, in 2015.

Opposite the building that houses the Yachting Heritage Center and workshop is a new, freestanding shed with humidity and temperature control, originally meant to be a showroom of sorts for the brokerage boats—“a humidor for yachts,” Oliver called it. But that vision has been modified to serve the growing storage business. The yard currently stores eleven 12-Meters, and had launched seven of them the week before I arrived. Most of them are wooden, but one is the fiberglass-hulled KIWI MAGIC, the first New Zealand 12-Meter, which attempted to win the AMERICA’s Cup from the Australians in 1987 after they had finally won it four years before. She is the first “modern” 12-Meter in the Robbe & Berking storage fleet, and Oliver anticipates that there will be more.

“I think you will always find some crazy boys or girls who want them,” Oliver said of the 12-Meters and other classic yachts he and his crew build, restore, and maintain, “but you have to search for the owners all over the world.” The Brokerage, Baum & Konig, has given him that reach. Its listings are a melting pot of classic European and American designers, and include names such as Mylne, Anker, Sparkman & Stephens, Herreshoff, Reimers, Camper & Nicholson, and Laurin. Oliver recalled that he wasn’t exactly seeking to enter the brokerage business when he acquired Baum & Konig, but its principal, Peter Konig, was moving on to other things, and he made Oliver an offer he couldn’t refuse. It has turned out to be a perfect complement to the existing business. “The yard and the brokerage have to know the same things,” Oliver said. “They must know what boat an owner has…and what he aspires to.”

As Oliver and I toured the buildings of Robbe & Berking Classics, three gentlemen walked in off the street and engaged him in friendly conversation. They were retired German navy officers. “Can you give me ten minutes?” Oliver asked, interrupting our conversation.

“Of course,” I said.

And he was off, with a spring in his step, to begin the tour all over again. I fixed myself an espresso in the on-site, self-serve café, which is furnished with high-top tables of rough-sawn elm, a retro green refrigerator behind the bar, and a vase of tree branches pushing early season leaves into the bright, cheery space. Oliver soon returned, aglow. “They fell in love, and I fell in love with them,” he said. The trio had sailed in the 12-Meters OSTWIND and WESTWIND in their cadet days.

ULF SOMMERWERCK

The fleet of 12-Meters charges down Flensburg Fjord during the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup races, summer 2016.

We next ascended the stairs to the second-floor library. Upon reaching the top step, Oliver turned and faced me, and gestured toward the elevator opposite the stairwell, and then said, “It is all about little girls and boys like you and me staring at beautiful boats on the horizon.” He then pushed the button to open the door, and adorning the back wall of the elevator compartment was a life-sized vintage photograph of two little girls at the seashore, sitting on the gunwale of a lapstrake rowboat. One clutched a pair of teddy bears, while the other stared purposefully seaward through a brass telescope. It’s a powerful image that suggests the power of the place: in just a few short years, the Yachting Heritage Center has become a node where threads of yachting history intersect—where aging sailors reconnect with their former ships; where young sailors discover their ancestry.

Around the corner was the library. Oliver purchased it intact from a collector named Volker Christmann. He recalls, “There was a day when his wife said, ‘the books or me.’” One condition of the sale was that the books be shown to the public. They are under lock and key in purpose-built glass-fronted cases, but easily viewed and available for research. An iPad, encased in wood, sits at a study desk, and contains the card catalog.

The rhinoceros, by the German artist Hans-Ruprecht Leiss, welcomes visitors to the Yachting Heritage Center.

On the same floor as the library is the Italian restaurant. It seats 200 diners twice per day, for a daily average of 400 guests walking through the Yachting Heritage Center. A precious few of these people are potential customers. “I want everyone who comes in to know that this is a place they can buy a boat,” says Oliver—“from the brokerage, or new.” While most of them are not yachtsmen, most are captivated by the Center’s ambience and rotating exhibitions.

The current exhibition is called JFK, The Sailing President . It is a collection of 40 photographs on loan from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, summarizing the yachting endeavors of the president from his childhood through his final days. Nearby, a continuously looping film rotates through Kennedy’s viewing of the 1962 AMERICA’s Cup, his arrival in Berlin, and his famous “Eich bin ein Berliner” speech. It is a stirring display, and it would have been all the more so had Oliver been able to pull off the purchase, shipping from New England, and display of a Wianno Senior—a sistership to the Kennedy boat VICTURA, which is now at the Kennedy Library. Oliver has made such purchases in the past. He acquired GRETEL from Italy in hopes of attracting a new owner, and in 2009 he pulled the sodden hulk of the 12-Meter JENETTA out of a western Canadian Lake, in pieces, in hopes of restoring her. Neither of those projects has yet come to fruition. Perhaps having learned from these experiences, he decided, in the final analysis, that procuring an actual Wianno was too risky an investment for the Kennedy exhibit.

That seems to be the Oliver Berking modus operandi : to push the limits of the dream in his imagination, and then dial it back to the fantastically feasible.

Oliver Berking visits the final inspection point of the 50-step process of making a Robbe & Berking silver spoon. “The silver. The boats. It is the same story,” says Oliver.

O liver’s dreamscape of possibility is perhaps best represented by the magazine, Goose . It’s a high-quality effort, as much a book as quarterly magazine. Upon viewing it for the first time, however, I did not understand the title. It now makes perfect sense to me.

“I was thinking a lot about 6-Meters,” Oliver said of the time of the founding of the magazine in September 2011. “And the best, the fastest one, was Olin Stephens’s GOOSE.” That, however, would be too obvious a reason for the title; the 6-Meter GOOSE was but a gateway to its more subtle symbolism. In a classic Swedish children’s tale by Selma Lagerlöf, a boy named Nils Holgersson rides atop a goose on an adventure that gives him a grand view of the wonders of the Swedish countryside. Goose magazine is Oliver Berking’s personal goose. From it, he said, and with the expert editing of Detlev Jens, he “observes the shores and the wonders of the world.”

Such metaphor and symbolism weave through the elegance of this place. GRETEL…the Kennedy mystique…the photograph in the elevator…the rhinoceros guarding the entrance. The rhinoceros is the work of a German artist named Hans Ruprecht Leiss, who is a friend of Oliver’s, and it touches upon the theme of the 1983 film And the Ship Sails On , by the Italian director Federico Fellini.

In the film, a group of people gather in 1914 aboard a cruise ship to mourn the death of an opera singer. During the social proceedings, a horrible smell emerges from the hold, which turns out to be a neglected rhinoceros who is subsequently fed, watered, and given a clean space. The cruise then continues until an encounter with a Serbian gunboat, which sinks the cruise ship. In the final scene, the protagonist, Orlando, is in a lifeboat with the rhinoceros, and the camera then pans to reveal the behind-the scenes workings of the film’s belle époque luxury—a giant hydraulic jack that moved the ship; the plastic ocean; the legions of technicians behind the scenes. It’s like a massive door in a luxurious yachting exhibition hall being rolled open to reveal a crew of craftsmen laboring to create exquisite luxury in a working boatshop.

The film’s German title is Schiff der Träume , which means “Ship of Dreams.” “That is what we do here,” said Oliver. “We build boats of dreams.”

“Everything I do,” he said, “is from times far away. You don’t need it anymore. You don’t need a wooden boat. You don’t need a silver spoon. You don’t need a magazine printed on paper.” These things are splendid luxuries, and at the Yachting Heritage Center you can glimpse the soul of the craft. You can distinguish the sterling from the silver-plated.

O liver gave me a tour of the silver company the following day. It is now the largest silver manufacturer in the world, but like the business of wooden boats, the overall industry is a faded image of what it was. There were once three such companies in Hamburg employing 1,000 people each. Now there is only Robbe & Berking, in Flensburg, with 172 employees.

It is located in a distinguished-looking brick building on the outskirts of Flensburg. This was dairyland when the building was new in 1957; it is now populated by car dealerships. We walked through all 50 steps in the making of a spoon, which involved much handwork—cutting, grinding, polishing, detailing, more polishing—and two quality-control points to guard against expensive labor being expended on a piece that was flawed early on. At the end of the tour came a promotional film for Robbe & Berking—the silver company and the yacht company combined—showing beautiful, well-dressed people sailing and motoring in beautiful boats, picnicking ashore on an Island in Flensburg Fjord, eating eggs from silver cups. Children gamboled in pastel shirts and dresses while their parents sipped sparkling wine from silver goblets. After the film ended and the room was silent for a moment, Oliver said, with slightly ironic grin, “And that is how we live every day.” Which is not true.

What is true is that Oliver and his wife enjoyed their honeymoon cruise in the spartan accommodations of a 25′ Folkboat, and he gets up every morning to create a product. That product happens to be rare, handmade objects for a very small market. “It is manufacturing in the purest sense of the word,” he said. “The silver. The boats. It is the same story.”

Regarding the emotional impulse behind the creation of the Yachting Heritage Center and the shipyard, Martin Schulz observed, “I don’t think he would have done this if he had not grown up in Flensburg—if his family business had been in the big city. Here, he would have seen the ferries and the steamers going up and down Flensburg Fjord. It’s impossible to miss.”

A fter my visit to Flensburg, I made a short trip to Hamburg, the big city, to visit my old friend Taco Rison. He is a Dutch expat who has spent decades in the classic-yacht restoration business, and seems to know everybody in the northern European wooden boat scene. He’s been living in Germany for about 15 years. I told him a bit about my visit with Robbe & Berking.

“They do the best work in Germany,” he said succinctly.

“The best wooden boat work in all of Germany?” I asked him, hoping for an elaborate explanation.

Matthew P. Murphy is editor of WoodenBoat.

TAFF/BENJAMIN

Flensburg’s Historic Harbor Flensburg’s Historic Harbor Flensburg is a small, compact city of 89,000 located on the German border with Denmark in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It was left largely unscathed by the widespread Allied bombing campaign of World War II, and so its historic edifices are unusually intact for a German city. While it is known for its beer, rum, and trading history, its crown jewel is its beautifully protected historic harbor, the Museumshafen Flensburg, which provides year-round berth space for classic working boats and vessels of regional significance.

The Museumswerft Flensburg, an interpretive center, is located across the harbor from the Robbe & Berking Yachting Heritage Center. It operates a working shipyard, conducts seminars, publishes a newsletter, and hosts events.

The most popular annual gathering is the Flensburg Rum Regatta, which each May attracts a fleet of historic working vessels from northern Europe for spirited racing.

As Oliver Berking suggests in the main text, the city is a compelling destination for the wooden-boat minded, whether they lean toward yachts or working vessels. —MPM

For more information, visit https://museumshafen-flensburg.de

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The silver manufacturer Robbe & Berking was founded in 1874 and is still a pure family business today – now in its 5th generation.

Manu Factum – made by hand – is everything that bears the name of the company. The master silversmiths in the silver manufactory and the master boat builders in the Robbe & Berking yacht manufactory   are responsible for the unrivalled quality worldwide. It is not the limited possibilities of rational large-scale production, but the hands of the master craftsmen and women alone that determine the form and quality of each piece of work. 

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2002: Mercedes recalls the Maybach brand for the Group's most luxurious saloons and has since given them a special shine with silver from Robbe & Berking.

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Robbe & Berking

Manu Factum – made by hand – is everything that bears the name of the company. The master silversmiths in the silver manufactory and the master boat builders in the Robbe & Berking yacht manufactory are responsible for the unrivalled quality worldwide. It is not the limited possibilities of rational large-scale production, but the hands of the master craftsmen and women alone that determine the form and quality of each piece of work.

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Buyer's guide: Everything you need to know before buying a classic yacht

Thinking of buying a classic yacht ? Sam Fortescue talks to experienced owners to find out out everything you need to know about owning a classic, from how much it costs to the importance of refits ...

There is something almost ethereal about the sight of a yacht from another era. You’ll know exactly what I mean if you’ve ever been passed by a tall ship under a press of sail or watched entranced as dozens of wooden Metre boats spar gracefully around a Baltic racecourse. With their long overhangs, elaborate rigs and gleaming brightwork, they are travellers in time, infusing their surroundings with the patina of the past.

It is an illusion, of course. Get a little closer, and you can see the deck hands wearing modern clothing, or hear the race crew yelling urgently about pressure and counting down to the lift before bellowing “send it!”, just like their counterparts on modern yachts. They may hide it artfully behind fin-de-siecle panelling, but these boats often pack many mod cons, from flat-screen televisions to air conditioning. And yet there is something that sets them, and their owners, apart.

One of the best-known classic yacht brokers, Barney Sandeman, describes it like this. “There are a lot of people who would like to own a classic but it’s a very special person that will commit. They are very passionate people who are careful what they do with their money, but owning a classic is not something they have suddenly decided to do. It’s in their DNA. It’s a love affair, something they can’t do anything about.”

How much does a classic superyacht cost?

Let’s tackle that point about money head on. There is a sense that classic yachts are more costly to take on than their modern counterparts. Not so, says Ed Kane, owner of the exquisitely restored Sparkman & Stephens yawl Bolero among others. “The normal maintenance and wear and tear is like on any other new boat,” he says. “It’s not inexpensive, but not out of line with a new 73-footer [22-metre]. Dockage and crew are the biggest costs, and that is the same regardless of the age of the boat.”

The nature of that maintenance might be a little different, however. Or as Daniele Canelli, owner of the stately 26-metre gaff ketch Javelin explains it: “They do not need more maintenance, only more love.” Instead of technical prowess with hydraulics, load cells and an arsenal of toys, there is instead acres of varnishing.

“It’s so much work that you can’t do it yourself,” says Wilfried Beeck, who owns two towering 12-Metres - Trivia , designed and built by Camper & Nicholson in 1937, and the gaff- rigged Cintra , a 1909 Fife. “I have a full-time employee who does nothing else, but we share him across our two 12s. When you see little damages, you sand and varnish it during the season. Every little cut is always varnished immediately. It is constant maintenance.” 

Both boats were acquired in the Med and brought back to the Baltic, where a vigorous 12-M racing circuit has developed. Beeck says that the difference in maintenance requirements is stark. “Two seasons in the Med, and you realise that you have to varnish the boat three times a year, as opposed to once a year in the Baltic.”

To buy a classic 12-Metre (which will in fact measure between 14 metres and 22 metres overall), you’d be looking at anything from £900,000 to £2.25 million, depending on the condition and pedigree of the boat. Beeck spends about £90,000 per year on each boat, including everything from mooring to insurance and repairs. 

Charter income covers half of that, but some spend twice as much. “The maintenance cost of the boat is much lower than many people think. You need a boatbuilder working on it constantly, but when you do, the cost is low. If you neglect the boat for three or four seasons, the cost can be huge.”

What do I need to consider when refitting a classic yacht?

Neglect in the classic boat world is part of the landscape. It is at once a threat and an opportunity, both endangering the survival of these beautiful boats and providing the raw material needed to transform them into head- turners and jaw-droppers. The sense of preserving a small but important, beautiful fragment of history is what drives some of the today’s keenest owners.

“We’re all keeping these things alive for the sake of history,” says Cameron Ridell, co-owner of Eros , a fine example of a staysail schooner built in 1939. “These classics are floating museums, but they are also operational. It’s a strange way to treat something that should be in a museum: take it out and beat it!”

Ed Kane, owner of 22-metre Bolero , believes that what he calls the “provenance” of the yacht is key to engaging with a restoration. “We spent as much time learning about the history and the ownership - its race record, where it sailed, its reputation - as you do studying the actual boat itself.”

In contrast to maintenance, restoration can be ruinously expensive, so an exhaustive survey is critical to understanding what you’re taking on. The work itself is a slow, precise process where traditional woodworking skills and an experienced eye are key attributes. Some owners insist there is a place for modern techniques such as laser measurement and epoxy sheathing, but if the aim is simply to build a modern boat that looks like a classic, it is better to start from scratch elsewhere.

Tara Getty is in the final throes of restoring his fourth yacht – an S&S yawl called Baruna which belongs to the same design family as Bolero , and he takes comfort in a degree of wonkiness. At one point, his skipper and project manager Tony Morse rang him from Robbe & Berking’s yard in Flensburg, Germany, with the news that the new stainless-steel water tanks they’d bought fitted on the starboard side, but not on port. “That’s good news in a way, because it means it is still the Baruna it’s meant to be,” says Getty. “It’s most definitely skew!”

Besides the basic fabric of the boat herself, there is a challenge in finding correct or appropriate deck fittings and equipment. Unsympathetic refits or desperate patch-ups can make it hard to identify what is an original part. “You need to be very careful not to detract from a classic,” says Getty. “We found one original cleat, so we’re having it recast. We also found the clock and barometer, but it took us a while to verify that they were the originals. We had to check against the pictures in the archive at the Mystic Seaport [museum].”

Restorations can yield up some glorious nuggets, like time capsules from the past. Getty recounts how they had to remove tonnes of concrete from the bilges of his yacht Bluebird when she was brought back to life. Using pneumatic drills, they were stunned as they began to uncover the metal forms of the original deckhouse windows. Naturally, they cleaned them and returned them to their rightful place.

And when Daniele Canelli rescued Javelin , a process that required 57,000 working hours, they found more hidden treasure. The refit was extraordinarily detailed, touching every part of the boat’s fabric and interior, from the oak frames to the fireplace and the bathtub in the master cabin. And when they removed the mainmast, there it was: a silver shilling coined in 1884, wedged into the oak step for good luck. 

It was eventually replaced under the new mast. He compares the process to that of philology “You must be prepared to take all the actions necessary to give a new life to a literary work, respecting the work and the intent of the author. There is nothing worse than a boat refitted by someone who does not respect her spirit.”

There are other surprises. As word gets around about the rescue of a yacht, people emerge with tales, documents and sometimes even whole fittings. “We’re getting lots of information from people who knew Baruna ,” says Getty. Far from looking down their noses at a restoration and critiquing every detail, the classic boat fraternity has been helpful, says Kane. “People give me magazine articles, things that say ‘ Bolero ’, or used to be on the boat. I even have some leather-bound scrapbooks that people have collected.”

What is the difference between a restoration yacht and a replica?

One of the most vexed questions relating to the rebirth of a wooden boat is whether it can remain “original” after everything has been replaced. “We say a boat is a restoration, not a replica, if during the entire time of construction you can recognise the hull shape,” explains Bolero owner Ed Kane. Despite his boat being completely taken apart for restoration, she has retained the original deck furniture, doghouse, keel, some planking and most of the interior.

At the other end of the scale, the recently relaunched 12-M Jenetta has just one small piece of original woodwork left, scarphed into a deck beam. Oh, and 17 tonnes of lead in the keel. Oliver Berking, who runs the Robbe & Berking shipyard where she was rebuilt, likes to say that she is 63 per cent original by weight. And yet the International Twelve Metre Association has accepted her as an original, allowing her to race in the classic classes. The main thing is to save the boat, as Tara Getty says: “As long as you can stop her from going to the knacker’s yard, then I’ve got no problem with that. It doesn’t have to be a perfect restoration.”

Why should I buy a classic yacht?

When you take on the ownership of a classic yacht , you are making yourself a public figure. That’s because people don’t just stand and admire these yachts as they screech round the mark or slide into their berth; they want to come and talk to the crew, the owner and admire the details. They galvanise people around them.

“When I go into a yacht club, and people know that I own Bolero , I never have to buy my own drink,” laughs Kane. “I’ve probably saved enough on drinks to buy another boat!” He has been invited to join eight clubs around the world, all keen to have Bolero on the membership list.

Classic boats are a natural conversation starting point for many. “One of the most fun parts of all this is the people we meet in all sorts of wonderful places,” says Cameron Riddell, co-owner of Eros . “The locals come to the boat because it’s big and beautiful, and they turn out to be really interesting themselves. The human contact is one of the most rewarding parts of the classic yachting scene.”

In a different way, Wilfried Beeck would agree. His 12-M Trivia was and still is a mean, lean racing boat of astonishing beauty. He always wanted nothing more than to campaign her, and his first challenge was to find the crew of 16 people necessary to do so. “You learn quickly that you can’t win in the first season. Building the crew is the bigger concern, not so much the maintenance of the boat.” After that, you have to find your place in the crew. He was always keen to helm, but not all owners do. One of the joys, he says, is the immediate, honest feedback you can get from a crew. “Most of us would love to have that in our own companies.”

He also warns that you will eventually have a collision if you’re too aggressive at the starting line. Fortunately the shape of a 12-M means that damage is rare, but it can still be dangerous. “Pro crew from more modern boats will produce crashes because they’re used to boats that turn more quickly and are more manoeuvrable. They sometimes underestimate how long it takes to turn 30 tonnes around. You have to prepare in advance.”

In most cases, the specifics of manoeuvring and trimming a rig that was designed 80-plus years ago are enjoyable. Owners appreciate the peculiarities which have to be mastered. Eros , for instance, has a large rectangular “fisherman” sail strung between her two masts, clewed down to the boom. “She doesn’t look right without the fisherman, but we only use it for racing because it takes a team of eight people to get it up,” says Riddell. “We keep one on each side because you have to take it down on one side and raise it on the other every time you tack or gybe. The manoeuvre can take between five and 10 minutes.”

If you have reached the end of this piece with the sense that you are not alone, or with a nagging memory of a classic boat that you saw as a child, then beware: you could well be a future owner . And, if Barney Sandeman is right, you have little choice in the matter. “I sometimes feel I’ve got an orphanage and I’m getting the children out to the right families,” he explains. “To a degree, these boats pick their owners.”

This feature is taken from the September 2020 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.

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Robbe & Berking Shipyard

Oliver Berking, owner of Robbe & Berking, talks about his yachting center in Flensburg, Germany. The center is a boat yard, a heritage center and lots of regattas and other activities. The yard does both restorations as well as new builds (often based on old designs)

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Leading Yacht Clubs • Working Together • Sharing Experiences

The Legend is Very Much Alive – 12 Meters Today

Wolfgang Weber, Delegate International Affairs

Norddeutscher Regatta Verein

November 11, 2021

The City of Flensburg, an ancient but lively seafaring and merchant town, is located in Northern Germany next to the Danish border. It also is the home town of Robbe & Berking Classics boat yard. Founded in 2008, the company is not only dedicated to the restoration of classic sailing yachts but also specializes in building new wooden boats of classical design according to construction plans of former and contemporary yacht designers and boat builders.

It was a special moment in yachting history at R&B’s boatyard when the first newly built wooden 12-meter yacht in more than 50 years was launched for the first time. It bears the design number 434 of the famous Norwegian designer Johan Anker, dating from the year 1939. It was his last 12-meter and his second-to-last design overall. His final design was an 8-meter. World War II and Anker’s death, in 1940 due to illness, prevented these two boats from being built – until today.

The new 12-meter features a beautifully varnished mahogany hull, a teak deck and a wooden mast. With no engine and only the barest interior, this is a pure racing yacht from the 1930s. It has alternating ribs of stainless steel and ash wood and the lead keel alone weighs in at 17 tons. Johan Anker was known as “the master of the lines” and was remarkably successful, not only as a designer, but also as an active racing helmsman himself. His boats, especially his meter-class designs, were known for being particularly fast. Design 434 is the last of twenty 12-meters he designed during his career and all of his experience, as well as boatbuilding knowledge, went into this boat.

This proud yacht was christened during the Robbe & Berking 12-Meter Open European Championship in 2015 when 14 classic 12-meters gathered on the Flensburg Fjord. It was one of the largest fleets in this class’s history.

In 2019, the 12-meter yacht Jenetta followed. She was designed in 1939 by the Scottish naval architect Alfred Mylne. She is not only one of the most beautiful, but with a length over all of 21.78 meters, also one of the longest 12mR yachts.

Her first life ended on the bottom of Lake Pitt not far from Vancouver in Canada, during a storm 10 years ago. After salvaging the wreck and organizing its transport to Flensburg, and then more than 20,000 working hours at the yard Jenetta was launched again on 25 May 2019 for a northern European syndicate. Her second life began exactly 80 years and 8 days after her first launch on 17 May 1939.

It is sad that Alfred Mylne, who died in 1951, could not see what happened on that weekend. To honour him and to the great pleasure of Mylne Yacht Design and the Mylne family, the owners decided to veil the yacht with a tartan for the first summers.

Mr. Oliver Berking, is a member of Norddeutscher Regatta Verein in Hamburg, Germancy, as well as of the Flensburger Segel-Club. His yard builds, repairs and restores classic wooden yachts of any type and size and offers winter storage facilities at their yard for eleven 12-meter yachts, three of which were also built there.

The Robbe & Berking Classics boat yard is truly keeping the 12m legend alive!

The yard employs around 25 skilled people of all trades capable of performing the most demanding jobs and applications, not just on 12-meter yachts, but also for smaller wooden sailing yachts and wooden motorboats.

This new wooden 9-meter motorboat was built in the style of the US East Coast commuter yachts in use during the 1920s and ‘30s and was launched at Robbe & Berking in the summer of 2011. It was built in collaboration with yacht designer Kay-Enno Brink as number one of a planned series of new commuter yachts just like her ancestors on the Hudson River in New York and on Long Island Sound, which were used to transport their wealthy owners from summer homes to their offices in New York City.

The boat was originally meant to be sold, but now serves as a supporting tender during 12-meter yacht regattas.

For more information about Robbe & Berking Classics boat yard please visit their website www.classic-yachts.com   or contact Mr. Oliver Berking at  +49-461 – 31 80 30 60 or by email at [email protected] .

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Classic Boat Awards 2017 – the winners

The winners of the 2017 Classic Boat Awards, in association with Classic Marine, were revealed last night during a champagne reception and ceremony at The Royal Thames Yacht Club, London.

Guests included Royal Thames Vice Commodore Bernard Kinchin and Gstaad Yacht Club Rear Commodore Manrico Iachia, with 120 classic boat owners, designers, builders and other key individuals involved in the classic world from as far afield as Denmark, Italy and the USA.

Now in its 10th year, the Classic Boat Awards is a widely respected celebration of all that the magazine stands for, with winners voted for by the readers.

The Classic Boat Yachtsman of the Year 2017 was Oliver Berking. Fifth-generation Flensburg silversmith and owner of Robbe and Berking Silber, Oliver Berking first opened a boatyard, Robbe and Berking Classics, in 2008. He is also a key sponsor of Metre boat events and in 2016 he built a major Yachting Heritage Centre in Flensburg.

This year Classic Boat launched a partnership with the Gstaad Yacht Club and a new award for Centenarian of the Year. The Gstaad Yacht Club is well known for its Centenary Trophy at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. The new award is open to any yacht in authentic condition that is more than 100 years old.

The inaugural winner of the new award was the pilot cutter Jolie Brise. Skipper Toby Marris, who runs the boat for owners Dauntsey’s School, came up to receive the trophy, a silver bowl and silver goblet made and donated for the award by Robbe and Berking. The silver bowl, bearing the winner’s name, will be exhibited for the year in the new Robbe & Berking Yachting Heritage Centre in Flensburg.

The evening’s headline sponsor was Classic Marine, the classic chandlery business owned by Suffolk Yacht Harbour. The Managing Director of Suffolk Yacht Harbour, Jonathan Dyke, who was also keynote speaker, said: “The Classic Boat Awards showcased the very finest standards of classic yacht restoration and individuals’ commitment to traditional craft. It was fantastic to see such an array of impressive projects from across the UK and much further afield. On behalf of Classic Marine, I was delighted to support the event and have the opportunity to engage with fellow classic boat enthusiasts and experts from across the industry.”

The evening was also supported by Simon Winter Marine, which offers a specialist classic boat insurance policy, and Astins Sailing Sculptures, which made the awards.

Simon Temlett, Classic Boat’s publisher, said: “The Classic Boat Awards has grown over the past decade to become one of the key events for the classic world and a real celebration of the industry. This year’s event was as successful as ever and we are excited to see how the event can grow in future years.”

Classic Boat editor Rob Peake said: “The Classic Boat Awards celebrates oustanding craftsmanship, be that on a 14ft workboat or a J-Class yacht. Many thousands of votes are cast by classic boat enthusiasts around the world to decide the winners and this year we had a real smorgasboard of boats big and small, new and old. It’s clear that interest in this thriving scene is higher than ever.”

There was also a posthumous award, given in recognition of the contribution to the classic world made by former Classic Boat technical editor and naval architect Theo Rye, who died last year. Chris Barkham, skipper of the Fife Cambria, presented the award to Theo’s widow Sarah Pook.

The Classic Boat Awards winners 2017:

Restoration of the Year (over 40ft)

Winner: Santana, built in 1935, designed by Sparkman & Stephens, once owned by Humphrey Bogart, restored by East Passage Boatwrights and Loughborough Marine Interests, Rhode Island, USA

Runner-up: Gometra, 1925 Mylne sloop restored by a father and son team, with craftsman Giovanni Ambrosetti, who sadly died before the launch

Restoration of the Year (under 40ft)

Runner-up: Victoria, Danish 7-M, designed by A Witt in 1918, in the same family for three generations and restored by the owner Vidar Illum over four years at Gilleleje Shipyard in Denmark

Traditional new build

Runner-up: Unity, traditional workboat designed and built by Jon Bray of West Country Cutters, Penryn

Spirit of Tradition over 40ft

Runner-up: Spirit 47CR, fast cruising yacht designed by Sean McMillan, built by Spirit Yachts

Spirit of Tradition under 40ft

Winner: Marlin Heritage 23, built by Cape Cod Shipbuilding, USA, based on Herreshoff’s Fish and Marlin classes

Runner-up: Lake Constance Pilot Cutter, pilot cutter with a retractable bulb keel, designed by Jonas Panacek, built by Stefan Züst

Powered vessels over 40ft

Runner-up: Judith R, a New York commuter launch, thought to have been designed by John Hacker, restored at Woottens Boatyard

Powered vessels under 40ft

Winner: First Light 26, designed and built by First Light Boatworks, Cape Cod, USA

Runner-up: Granny, motor yacht designed and built by Skentelberry and Sons in 1936, rebuilt by Dutch yards Hofstra Jachtbauw and Popma Shipyard

Classic Boat Yachtsman of the Year

Oliver Berking

Classic Boat Special Award

Theo Rye (1968-2016)

Gstaad Yacht Club/Classic Boat Centenarian of the Year

Jolie Brise

For more details on the boats, see our full shortlist, https://www.classicboat.co.uk/awards2017/

For more photos from the night see our Classic Boat Facebook page

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Baum & König - The Classic-Yacht Broker

Articles about baum & könig - the classic-yacht broker, 27 items currently for sale.

New broker : Oliver Berking buys Baum & König

Lasse Johannsen

 ·  22.03.2011

The move was not easy for him, says Peter König, who will be moving the centre of his life to the Seychelles in style. König was the first German yacht broker with an exclusively classic portfolio.

The company is here to stay. In Oliver Berking from Flensburg, a buyer has been found who has already made a name for himself in the scene through numerous regatta events for metre yachts and the founding of the classic shipyard Robbe & Berking Classics. "I am delighted to have found a successor whose heart beats for timelessly elegant lines and unrivalled craftsmanship in yacht building just as much as mine does," says Peter König.

The aim of the Robbe & Berking Classics yacht shipyard is to preserve and resurrect classic yachts as well as to build new yachts exclusively in wood and with classic lines. Baum & König will continue to guarantee this in the future and offer its customers the most beautiful classics, says Berking.

http://classics.robbeberking.de

http://www.classic-yachts.de

Most read in category Yachts

There’s hardly a better way to absorb Moscow’s atmosphere than on a ship sailing up and down the Moskva River. While complicated ticketing, loud music and chilling winds might dampen the anticipated fun, this checklist will help you to enjoy the scenic views and not fall into common tourist traps.

How to find the right boat?

There are plenty of boats and selecting the right one might be challenging. The size of the boat should be your main criteria.

Plenty of small boats cruise the Moskva River, and the most vivid one is this yellow Lay’s-branded boat. Everyone who has ever visited Moscow probably has seen it.

This option might leave a passenger disembarking partially deaf as the merciless Russian pop music blasts onboard. A free spirit, however, will find partying on such a vessel to be an unforgettable and authentic experience that’s almost a metaphor for life in modern Russia: too loud, and sometimes too welcoming. Tickets start at $13 (800 rubles) per person.

Bigger boats offer smoother sailing and tend to attract foreign visitors because of their distinct Soviet aura. Indeed, many of the older vessels must have seen better days. They are still afloat, however, and getting aboard is a unique ‘cultural’ experience. Sometimes the crew might offer lunch or dinner to passengers, but this option must be purchased with the ticket. Here is one such  option  offering dinner for $24 (1,490 rubles).

If you want to travel in style, consider Flotilla Radisson. These large, modern vessels are quite posh, with a cozy restaurant and an attentive crew at your service. Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats.

Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.

How to buy tickets?

Women holding photos of ships promise huge discounts to “the young and beautiful,” and give personal invitations for river tours. They sound and look nice, but there’s a small catch: their ticket prices are usually more than those purchased online.

“We bought tickets from street hawkers for 900 rubles each, only to later discover that the other passengers bought their tickets twice as cheap!”  wrote  (in Russian) a disappointed Rostislav on a travel company website.

Nevertheless, buying from street hawkers has one considerable advantage: they personally escort you to the vessel so that you don’t waste time looking for the boat on your own.

Prices start at $13 (800 rubles) for one ride, and for an additional $6.5 (400 rubles) you can purchase an unlimited number of tours on the same boat on any given day.

Flotilla Radisson has official ticket offices at Gorky Park and Hotel Ukraine, but they’re often sold out.

Buying online is an option that might save some cash. Websites such as  this   offer considerable discounts for tickets sold online. On a busy Friday night an online purchase might be the only chance to get a ticket on a Flotilla Radisson boat.

This  website  (in Russian) offers multiple options for short river cruises in and around the city center, including offbeat options such as ‘disco cruises’ and ‘children cruises.’ This other  website  sells tickets online, but doesn’t have an English version. The interface is intuitive, however.

Buying tickets online has its bad points, however. The most common is confusing which pier you should go to and missing your river tour.

“I once bought tickets online to save with the discount that the website offered,” said Igor Shvarkin from Moscow. “The pier was initially marked as ‘Park Kultury,’ but when I arrived it wasn’t easy to find my boat because there were too many there. My guests had to walk a considerable distance before I finally found the vessel that accepted my tickets purchased online,” said the man.

There are two main boarding piers in the city center:  Hotel Ukraine  and  Park Kultury . Always take note of your particular berth when buying tickets online.

Where to sit onboard?

Even on a warm day, the headwind might be chilly for passengers on deck. Make sure you have warm clothes, or that the crew has blankets ready upon request.

The glass-encased hold makes the tour much more comfortable, but not at the expense of having an enjoyable experience.

Getting off the boat requires preparation as well. Ideally, you should be able to disembark on any pier along the way. In reality, passengers never know where the boat’s captain will make the next stop. Street hawkers often tell passengers in advance where they’ll be able to disembark. If you buy tickets online then you’ll have to research it yourself.

There’s a chance that the captain won’t make any stops at all and will take you back to where the tour began, which is the case with Flotilla Radisson. The safest option is to automatically expect that you’ll return to the pier where you started.

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Kunst Schaffen 2020

Encounter with art and artists

To enable the production of art and cultural offerings, the Flensburg Robbe & Berking Yard, with the patronage of Schleswig Holstein’s Minister for Education, Science and Culture, and Flensburg’s Mayor dedicates 1,800 m2 of exhibition space to 60 selected artists. Sculptors, painters, graphic artists, selected artisans from all disciplines will finally be able to talk to art lovers and present and sell their latest works after the lockdown due to the coronavirus.

The curators of this art exhibition, which is certainly unusual for the region, are Dr Thomas Gädeke, former director of the Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, and Oliver Berking, founder and owner of Robbe & Berking Yard. The participating artists are from Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover, Berlin and the whole of Northern Germany. Some will move their studio to the shipyard and work on-site for the duration of the exhibition. With this unusually large variety of works, KUNST SCHAFFEN 2020 wants to present a small overview of northern German art, especially in Corona times. In order to document the common interest in the well-being of the North German art and culture scene, the head of the cultural office of Flensburg City Hall will move his desk to Robbe & Berking between the easels and workbenches, as will the department head for culture at the Schleswig-Holstein newspaper publisher.

The yard’s safety and hygiene concept are also exceptional. Oliver Berking: “The primary goal of the safety and hygiene concept is, of course, to ensure that visitors and artists keep a sufficient distance from each other. We designed the entire exhibition floor like a large chessboard, in addition to many other measures, so that everyone has a feeling for the distance to the next. In addition to a face mask, each guest receives a pair of white silversmith gloves for the visit and can therefore take on any work in which they are interested. To avoid queues at the cash register, we will refrain from entering these weeks.”

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