Beilken
The Beilken company is a sailmaker based in Bremen . It was founded in 1919 by Friedrich Beilken in Bremen- Vegesack . Jörg Müller-Arnecke has been managing director of Beilken Sails GmbH since 2007 .
history
In the beginning, paid sails were mainly made for the peat barges in Vegesack . The craft of the sailmaker was closely linked to that of the rope maker and therefore (support) sails, nets and ropes were also produced.
The founding grandsons Hans and Berend Beilken took over the company together in the third generation after the Second World War. They introduced many technical innovations in German sailing and in the 1960s relocated the company headquarters to Lemwerder in Lower Saxony on the other side of the Weser .
On sailing trips aboard the Germania yachts of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach in the US and on trips to Australia and New Zealand Hans Beilken learned a lot from the significant sailors Ted Hood , Lowell North both US and Chris Bouzaid (NZL).
At the beginning of the 1960s, the new plastic material Dacron for sails came onto the market. The Beilken brothers relied on the new technology and won the largest sailing yacht in Germany at the time, the Germania VI from Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach , as an important first customer . The mainsail was used on the Germania VI for 15 years. The success was resounding and established a series of successes in the original equipment of large (mega) yachts with sails.
The brothers' successful participation in international regattas with Beilken sails cemented the reputation of the sailmaking industry and thus ensured an economic breakthrough. Hans Beilken won the one-ton world championship ( One-Ton-Cup ) twice. The younger Berend Beilken won second places at the single-tonne world championship and three victories at the Admiral's Cup , which was considered the unofficial world championship for sea sailing at the time.
Beilken sails dominated Germany's offshore scene for a long time . They were used on the successful Admiral's Cup yachts and the yachts of the Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race ).
In 1995 the regatta sailor Albert Schweizer took over the Beilken sailmaking company, who is himself a multiple German, European and world champion in sailing.
In 2007 the company ran into economic difficulties which led to another change of ownership. Since mid-2007 the company has been called Beilken Sails GmbH . The managing director from 2007 to 2019 was the Bremen regatta sailor Jörg Müller-Arnecke . Headquarters and production were relocated to Bremen and are now located on Richard-Dunkel-Straße in the Hohentor district on the left of the Weser. In 2019, Jörg Müller-Arnecke retired as managing director and partner. Since then, the company has been run by the Bremen sailor Uwe Wenzel.
Beilken Sails GmbH is known to a larger audience for the equipment of the sailing ship Alexander von Humboldt with its distinctive green sails. Another racing yacht with sails from Beilken is the Bank von Bremen. Circumnavigator Wilfried Erdmann is also a customer.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 9 ′ 22.8 " N , 8 ° 36 ′ 21.6" E