Anny von Hamburg is a historic three-masted schooner, originally built in 1914 by Conrad Lühring at Hammelwarden yard in Germany. Initially named "Anny," the vessel was designed as a cargo ship. Throughout her extensive history, she has undergone several name changes and transformations, reflecting her diverse roles from cargo schooner to cadet training ship to passenger sailing vessel.
Historical timeline
- 1914: Launched in Hammelwarden yard and registered in Brake, Germany as "Anny" to owner Diedrich Hasseldieck. On 1st voyage confiscated in Russia and registered in St. Petersburg during WWI as "Briz", then used for Russian naval cadet training (or housing?) ship;
- 1922: Registered in Leningrad, USSR as "Briz";
- 1925: Returned to Germany and renamed "Hanna" with Hamburg as registry, fitted with single propeller and 25HP engine, owner Capt W. Richter;
- 1936: Renamed "Kurt Both" and used during WWII for transporting cement to Helgoland;
- 1940: Fitted with a 125 (or 150?) HP diesel engine;
- 1950: Hull extended 8m at Fritz Frank shipyard in Hamburg;
- 1952: Bowsprit removed at Hugo Peters yard in Beidenfleth (or Wewelsfleth/ Stör);
- 1957: Sold to a Swedish company owned by Oscar Abrahamsson & Sons and renamed "Ringö" with registry in Edshultshall;
- 1963: Sold to Finnish company owned by Paul Grönquist, registered in Borgå;
- 1979: Sold to Gunnar Stark in Sweden with registry in Karlskrona, fire onboard;
- 1980: Discovered partially burnt in Sweden, sold to Jörn Deistler who transferred Ringö to Glückstadt in 11th Sept. The hull was shortened by 8m at Brockmüller yard, engine changed to a 280 HP diesel. Restored rigging to its original 1914 design in Svendborg, Denmark by Michael Kiersgaard. Cargo hold was converted to 5 cabins with 10 person capacity. Renamed and registered as "Anny" in Hamburg;
- 1985: registered under British flag
- 1987: registered under Antigua Barbuda flag as "Anny von Hamburg";
- 1990: Sold to Herman Buss who refitted the vessel in Leer, Thien & Heyenga as managing owners;
- 1997: refit lasting until 1998, "Anny" sailing extensively Mediterranean, Caribbean and summers in Baltic sea. Registry was once again changed to Portuguese flag with Madeira on her stern;
- 2004: sold to Hanse-Koggewerft and re-registered back to German flag;
- 2007: moored in Leer;
- 2019: transferred from Leer to Elsfleth, then to Finkenwerder at some juncture;
- 2023: sold to Jan Rautawaara and registered in Ekenäs, Finland. Transfer under own keel to Helsinki for a full refit at Viapori yard.
- 2024: Entered back into service in 2024 fully rigged and serviced with new masts.
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Author comment:
As we all now know between the previous article and this one the narrative did not have any dramatic turns so in Jan 2021 the Hamburg morning post wrote the following about a German millionaire getting involved in the "Anny" restoration project and to add to the "Timbercoast" single ship fleet of Capt Bockermann but perhaps the money was not forthcoming or something else froze the project. The story continues.
Anny von Hamburg: You have no idea which super-rich person this ancient sailing boat belongs to!
Rothenburgsort –
Without any masts, the proud "Anny von Hamburg" looks a little sad. The 107-year-old three-masted schooner has been lying in Billwerder Bay at the "Lütje-Yachts" shipyard for months. "No comment" was the answer to questions about the owner. But MOPO found out: The cargo sailing ship belongs to one of the richest Germans!
The 28-meter-long ship was built in 1914 at a shipyard in Hammelwarden on the Lower Weser together with seven sister ships. The iron cargo sailing ship's first big voyage went to St. Petersburg and ended abruptly there. The First World War broke out and the "Anny" was promptly confiscated by Russia and served as a barge for the Tsar's naval cadets. It was not until 1925 that it returned to Germany as a "hulk" and was converted from a barge to a cargo ship at a shipyard in Wilhelmsburg.
During World War II, the sailing ship transported cement from Bremen to Heligoland, because the North Sea island was being converted into a fortress. After the war, the "Anny von Hamburg" changed hands several times and was converted into a motor ship. After a fire on board, it ended up in Karlskrona, Sweden, in 1980. In the same year, it was re-entered into the German ship register as "Anny von Hamburg", and a Hamburg sailing enthusiast began to restore the ship.
But who is the current owner? Also a sailing fanatic. Hans Georg Näder (59) bought it in 2018. He is the third generation to run the Otto Bock group of companies, the world market leader for prostheses. 7,300 people in 51 countries work for Näder, and his fortune is estimated at two billion euros.
The man collects art, buys an old Berlin brewery, founds the Schützenmuseum in Duderstadt and buys a guest house in Eichsfeld. But his greatest passion is sailing. Näder, who also has a residence in Hamburg, is even the majority owner of a Finnish shipyard, and here he had the world's largest sailing yacht made of carbon, the "Pink Gin VI", built. The cost: an estimated 60 million euros. But the 54-meter-long ship, which has a purple mini grand piano, chandeliers and a huge glass dining table, is currently for sale.
Näder thought the thing was perhaps a bit too ostentatious and no longer contemporary. He now wants to get involved in a sustainable sailing project. And that's where the "Anny von Hamburg" comes into play. It is being extensively restored in the shipyard at Kaltehofe Hinterdeich and will then become part of the "Timbercoast" project. That is the name of a shipping company in Elsfleth, and the idealistic owner, Captain Cornelius Bockermann, dreams of building an entire fleet of cargo sailing ships that will ship goods around the world under sail, just like 150 years ago.
With this “fair transport”, Bockermann wants to make a statement against mass transport at sea, which mainly uses diesel-powered ships.
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Author comment:
So from 2019 there had been no developments and despite promising writing by the maritime press the narrative had come to a standstill, perhaps due to the hefty price tag of "Pink gin". Then in June 2023 the Magazin des Reises wrote about Anny and her new owners outlining the future for her to be restored and put into traffic as a cruising sailing vessel in Finland to start with.
Adventurer ANNY VON HAMBURG or the long struggle of two captains to preserve a ship's beauty
By Dr. Peer Schmidt-Walther - June 17, 2023
ANNY VON HAMBURG under full sail off Miami, Florida. © Photo: Bent Weber, BU: Peer Schmidt-Walther, photo: 1983
Berlin, Germany (MaDeRe). Whoever saw her fell in love with her: the ANNY VON HAMBURG. That was the case over 117 years ago - and people still succumb to her elegant magic today. As her impressive biography shows.
She was built in 1914 at the renowned C. Lühring shipyard in Hammelwarden on the Lower Weser. Seven more sister ships followed.
The steel cargo sailing ship's first big voyage went to St. Petersburg and ended there. When the First World War broke out, ANNY was confiscated by Russia and served as a barge for the Tsar's naval cadets.
It was not until 1925 that she returned to Germany as a barge hulk and was converted back into a cargo ship by Ernst Harms at the Wilhelmsburg shipyard and renamed HANNA.
After the war, the schooner changed hands several times and was eventually converted into a motor ship.
The ship received a smaller rigging and a two-stroke engine from the Hanseatic Works in Bergedorf with 120 hp. In 1936, the Glückstadt shipowner Max Both acquired the motor schooner and renamed it KURT BOTH. Its home port remained Hamburg and it was then used for tramping to Scandinavia.
Coaster for sand and gravel transport
In 1940, the three-master was converted into a one-and-a-half mast with a new, 150 hp four-stroke engine from the Deutsche Works in Kiel. During the Second World War, the sailing ship transported cement from Bremen to Heligoland, as the North Sea island was being converted into a fortress.
In 1950, the KURT BOTH was extended by eight meters at the Fritz Frank shipyard in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. After the bowsprit was removed in 1952 at Hugo Peters in Wewelsfleth/ Stör, the schooner was finally converted into a motor ship. After almost 32 years, the ship was deleted from the Hamburg ship register in 1957. It was sold for 230,000 DM to Oscar Abrahamsson & Sons in Sweden, for whom it sailed as RINGÖ. In 1963, the Finn Paul Grönquist bought it, who then operated it for another 16 years as a coaster for sand and gravel transport on the Finnish coast between Helsinki and Porvoo.
In 1980, Jörn Deistler, managing director of Germania Schiffahrt, Hamburg, discovered the ship in the port of Karlskrona. The former gaff schooner was partially burnt out and looked completely different. Based on old construction plans from the Lühring shipyard, a faithful restoration was attempted. But first it was reflagged: to England (1985) and Antigua (1989) and then in the summer as a cruiser through the Aegean and Mediterranean and in the winter around the Canary Islands and the Caribbean. She was always there for the Kiel Week and Hanse Sail as a Sail Training Ship (STS).
Raving despite scrap and rust
In 1997-98 she was finally overhauled in Wilhelmshaven and from then on sailed for the Thien & Heyenga company until 2004 under the Portuguese flag with Madeira as her home port. From then on the Hanse-Koggewerft e.V. association took over the helm. And thus appeared again in the Hamburg ship register.
The ship then bobbed around in Leer's leisure harbor for around eight years after shipowner Hermann Buss tried to move her to Leer (East Frisia) in 2007.
In September 2018, the 119-year-old three-masted schooner was taken over by the entrepreneur and billionaire Hans Georg Näder. He wanted to have it repaired again and then run by the shipping company project Timbercoast, which he supports and which is committed to transporting cargo in a climate-friendly way using sailing ships. The cargo sailing ship AVONTUUR is currently the shipping company's only ship. He now wanted to use the ANNY as a cargo sailing ship again. To do this, the ship's hull had to be examined very closely. However, an initial ultrasound examination of the ship's hull revealed that the ANNY was in very poor condition, apart from the rigging, which urgently needed an overhaul. The foremast was just scrap and everything under the teak deck was rusting away.
A thorough renovation would have cost between two and three million euros, according to conservative estimates. Like all previous owners, they wanted to save the gem from decay. Every sailor can rave about it. The interior and salon alone were simply magnificent, if you look at old photos. It would have been a shame to convert it back into a freighter.
Perhaps the former cargo sailing ship could still become a passenger ship under sail? In view of the avalanche of costs, however, everyone involved gave up. We know this from the barque GORCH FOCK II, whose cost estimates rose immeasurably.
Two friends and their dream ship
But rescue was at hand once again. Until then, ANNY had been lying in Hamburg-Finkenwerder for months. And once again it was Finns who had fallen for the sailing beauty: the captains Jan Rautawaara and Juha Pokka. The purchase price was kept secret: "First of all, all reserves are gone," is all we know.
After the daunting history, now two crazy people? Jan laughs: "Not at all, because we have a clear economic concept." The two sailors, who are friends, have known each other for 30 years and are also the owners of the 53-year-old coastal motor vessel JEANNY, which is used in the grain trade between Fehmarn, Rostock and Hamburg and is currently being overhauled at a shipyard in Harburg.
Neither of them are unrealistic dreamers, but dreaming businessmen. They bring decades of sea experience, craftsmanship and knowledge of old, small ships. "We do a lot of things ourselves," explains Jan, who usually stands on the bridge of a billionaire's yacht, but like his friend Juha has also captained all kinds of large and small ships: freighters, sailing ships or cruise ships. Until 2022, Jan was captain of the 20,000 GT expedition yacht CRYSTAL ENDEAVOR, the last ship of the Stralsund Volkswerft for the time being. But he was drawn back to the German North Sea coast - also for emotional reasons. He constantly had his "dream ship" in mind, which he had admired as a child in Finland. In 1997 he even served as captain on charter trips with guests along the North Sea coast.
Glamour of classic yachting
The last hour of rescue has struck for the two ship lovers since the purchase. Their motto: "Sailing is not just a destination, but also a journey".
In February 2023, they will move the sailing ship "with great potential" under their own keel to the museum harbor in Wischhafen, "because it is cheaper than Hamburg," have some work carried out there, and then at the beginning of May set course for a shipyard in Mariehamn on the Aaland Islands, using Deutz-Diesel. "There, the ship's hull will be overhauled and the ship's class renewed. The home port will be Ekenäs/Tammisaari in southern Finland, where woodwork expert Juha will also put up the three 24-meter-high masts made of Finnish pine. "From there, Helsinki and Mariehamn, day charter trips with up to 30 guests through the archipelago waters will initially be undertaken from 2024, with only ten guests allowed for overnight stays," says Jan, revealing the first step into passenger travel. Their goal is ultimately to create "a SEA CLOUD en miniature as an expedition sailing ship with a unique private yacht atmosphere and high-class service." However, Jan would also like to “have command of the big, old ship for a day”. Other sailing areas for the “slightly different sailing ship” are to be Norway, Spitsbergen, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean – “emission-free, of course”, as Jan Rautawaara emphasises, “we want our guests to experience the timeless glamour of classic yachting”.
Ship information:Type: schooner
Rigging: gaff rigging
Masts: 3 (wood)
Sail area: 520 sqm
Shipyard: Conrad Lühring, Hammelwarden
Year built: 1914
Owner: Diedrich Hasseldieck, Nordenham
Christening name: ANNY (1914-1925), then HANNA (1925-1936), KURT BOTH (1936-1957, Swedish flag 1957-1963), RINGÖ (1963-1980, until 1979 as a motor keelboat under Finnish flag), trailer in Karlskrona, ANNY VON HAMBURG (since 1980)
Sister ships: 7
Hull: steel
Use: passenger yacht
Length (LOA): 38.0 m, width: 6.95 m, draft (max.): 2.65 m
Engine: Deutz, power: 280 hp (206 kW)
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