The ship
Six cabins for twelve guests, two professional crew, a 21-metre hull in oak and teak, two 24-metre masts, 320 square metres of sail and a Gardner engine for the days the wind fails.
Specification
The figures below come from Aron's own ship specifications.
The ship
Aron is rigged as a two-masted schooner — a Danish working rig without square sails, designed so that a small crew could handle a large sail area from the deck.
The two masts are Douglas fir. The 320 square metres of canvas are set by hand on halyards. Guests are invited to join in, while Helene and Gorm adapt each task to the people and conditions on board.
Her 2.65-metre draft lets her enter the shallow harbours of the South Funen Archipelago that deeper yachts have to pass by, and the 110 HP Gardner takes her in and out of harbour and through calms.
Simple, warm accommodation below deck in two-person cabins with washbasins.
History
Aron was launched on 10 April 1906 from Brdr. Bager's yard in Marstal. Shipbuilder Lars Jensen Bager ‘the younger’ built her oak on oak with the flat transom, strong sheer and soft lines associated with Marstal's working schooners.
She left the slipway as a two-masted schooner: no square sails, a shallow hull and a rig a small crew could work. Everything about her balanced cargo capacity with the ability to be sailed economically.
A.K. Andersen of Marstal commissioned Aron and sailed her as owner and skipper. Through successive Ærø owners she carried cargo, gained an auxiliary engine and was cut down to a galeas rig. From 1937 the Jørgensen brothers of Rudkøbing operated her completely downrigged, carrying grain, coal, coke and cement.
Her shallow draft — Aron draws 2.65 metres — let her load in small harbours. The Jørgensen brothers lived aboard, fitted a larger engine and increased cargo capacity to about 100 tonnes as coastal freight moved away from sail.
Kristian Lund bought the downrigged cargo vessel in 1968 and began converting her at a Middelfart yard. Aron was rigged again as a two-masted schooner, fitted out for charter guests and ready to welcome her first passengers in 1970.
The 1947 wheelhouse was removed in 1973, when a new 110 HP diesel engine was also installed. Kristian and, from 1982, Anette Hansen kept Aron sailing and helped establish charter sailing as a livelihood in Denmark. Anette continued after Kristian's death in 2018 until Gorm and Helene took over on 1 March 2021.
Aron's working appearance has also taken her onto film and television. She appears in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), Barbara (1997) and A Fortunate Man (2017), and sailed in DR's Sommertogtet in 2020–21.
Those appearances belong to her continuing working life: the same hull, rig and deck carry guests between productions and public events.
Today Aron is owned and sailed by Gorm Bødker and Helene Moodie from her home port of Svendborg. She sails with up to twelve guests on sailing holidays, day trips and team building in the South Funen Archipelago and the Baltic.
Every voyage contributes to the ongoing care of the 1906 wooden hull, rig and sails, so the ship and the knowledge around her can be passed on to future crews.
Aron's history is presented from the ship's documented records, with uncertain details left open for further research.
The ship
Open departures are published in the schedule. Charters, team building and receptions are planned directly with us.
