Only two bracing timbers under her stern ensure that the classic Hornet 32 GRP yacht is still lying straight. She is standing on her keel and yacht transport professional Nico Bilzinger has almost completely dismantled the wooden scaffolding on which she spent the winter in the hall so that he can drive his trailer under the hull. The "Sandra III" is to be launched back into the water via the slip ramp at the nearby Hamburg marina in Wedel.
The owner is visibly nervous as Bilzinger reverses his lorry until its trailer has reached the transport position under the lovingly maintained ship.
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"If I have parked the boats myself, as was the case here, then I know exactly what I'm getting myself into," says Bilzinger later. He is the managing director of the Wedel-based company H. D. Wrede Bootstransporte. Some of his jobs take him all over Europe, but most of his work takes place in northern Germany. Bilzinger is an expert at parking boats without a storage rack and then bringing them back into the water in spring. "Nobody else really does that," says the 48-year-old.
Customised boat transport
In addition to the sailing boat business, Bilzinger also regularly takes motorboats to places where their owners either can't or don't want to take them. This was also the case earlier this morning. "While we used to transport a lot of long-keelers, these are now a rarity. But the proportion of modern sailing yachts is also declining, so we are transporting more and more motorboats," says Bilzinger.
He had already driven from Hamburg to Neustadt in Holstein the previous evening and spent the night in his lorry on the port site. "It's really nice that I have a good relationship with most of the harbour operators I regularly visit," he says. "In Neustadt, for example, I have a key that allows me to use the sanitary facilities 24 hours a day." Using the harbour infrastructure is much more convenient than having to use service area facilities, he says. "I see that as a real advantage of my rather special load," says Bilzinger with a grin.
However, while other drivers, especially in long-distance transport, can fall back on standardised dimensions and norms, such as when transporting containers, load securing presents Bilzinger with special challenges every time. Although he has developed a trained eye and a good feel for weight distribution and loads over time, you can still hear a great deal of respect for the task in his descriptions: "Which ship has a hook installed that has been approved and is guaranteed to hold the boat's weight under all circumstances?" he asks, for example, and answers himself: "Well, I don't know of any!"
Precision meets passion
Before being loaded onto his trailer by the port's crane, Bilzinger first manoeuvres the Zodiac XC10 motorboat with its two 350 hp engines to the crane site by water. Only then does he reverse his truck to the Travellift. While the boat is being loaded, Bilzinger hydraulically adjusts the trailer to the length of the boat. Once it has been loaded and the trailer supports have been adjusted, Bilzinger secures the boat with lashing straps. He then stands on the fast inflatable boat. "The owner forgot to unscrew the small mast, so I'll just do that now," he says.
His personal affinity with shipping is something that his customers value. "Many other drivers wouldn't move the boat in the water either, but for me it's part of my service," explains Bilzinger. Because he also has the confidence to do this work and takes the time to do it, transport with Wrede Bootstransporte is in many cases somewhat more expensive than with his competitors.
The boat owners also receive a complete price when Bilzinger prepares the quotation. "It would never occur to me to make a customer a favourable transport offer and carry out the job, only to invoice the points I knew about in advance as expensive, unexpected additional transport costs afterwards," he says. According to Bilzinger, his quotes always include the expected full price, including permits, potential escort vehicles, possible police escorts and the like.
The owner has let the air out of the tubes to move the Zodiac. "Fortunately, in Schleswig-Holstein we are usually allowed to transport boats up to 3.80 metres wide without an escort vehicle," says Bilzinger. His former colleagues and he have earned this through their reliability.
Bilzinger provides boat transport as a "one-man show"
Nico Bilzinger now runs his company alone. While H. D. Wrede Bootstransporte used to have a fleet of several vehicles, he now only owns one large tractor unit. He also has a former employee who is now retired and often helps him with his own 3.5 tonne car trailer.
Bilzinger discovered his love for boat transport at an early age. He remembers: "My parents always had a boat. Out of season, it was kept in the winter storage shed of the sailing club. The Wrede company always slipped the yachts into the water and took them out again." He was so impressed by this that, with his father's permission, he started helping the former managing director slip the boats at the age of ten. "When I was 18, the boss paid for my driving licence," because Bilzinger still regularly helped to launch the boats.
However, he did not start his professional life at Wrede. Bilzinger initially trained as a forwarding agent, later working in industry and then for a while in shipping. He then began studying in his mid-20s. "My current wife found that amusing at the time, but I also realised relatively quickly that I wasn't cut out for studying," recalls Bilzinger.
Personal service goes beyond boat transport
Throughout this time, he continued to advise his current company anyway and helped out wherever he was needed, recalls Bilzinger, who finally took over the company almost 20 years ago. And he has been running it himself ever since.
During the journey from Neustadt to Bönningstedt, where the Zodiac XC10 is to be unloaded at Gründl, Bilzinger repeatedly receives calls from his customers. One of them has problems paying for his new yacht. As the selling broker only accepts the money in Swedish kronor, the transaction could raise suspicions of money laundering at the bank. However, the seller does not want to let the yacht leave the yard unpaid. Bilzinger is not fazed by this, offers the customer maximum flexibility and is thus able to defuse the situation.
It is very important to the service provider that he treats his customers personally. "For me, it's always 'you' among water sports enthusiasts, that's just the way it should be," says Bilzinger. His sociability is evident in his conversations with customers. There is hardly a situation for which he doesn't have a snappy remark up his sleeve.
After loading the Hornet 32 onto the road trailer, Bilzinger drives the boat to Wedel in Hamburg's marina. And although the slipway there is clear when he arrives, he first goes for a coffee in peace and quiet despite the apparently ideal conditions and a waiting customer. When asked why, the professional explains the peculiarities of the tidal area: "The water level doesn't allow us to slip in yet, we were too quick with everything this morning and have to wait another half an hour or so," he explains.
Path to the future
"In the 1980s, we had four vehicles, all of which were well utilised," recalls Bilzinger. The Wrede employees used them to transport over 500 ships to winter storage and also brought them back into the water in summer, he explains. Today there are still around 60 ships. But Bilzinger seems satisfied with the current size of his company. Although he still has a few former employees behind him, he fulfils the majority of his orders on his own.
In addition to his former employee, who still occasionally fetches ships from winter storage for him using a car trailer, Bilzinger has another ex-employee who helps him when needed. He has set up his own business and accompanies heavy goods transports with his escort vehicle. "He also does the odd holiday replacement," explains Bilzinger. His former colleagues also help him out when he needs help at short notice, says the Managing Director.
What will happen to the company if he retires at some point? "I don't really know yet," admits Nico Bilzinger. Due to the company's specialisation in parking ships without a fixed bearing block and its complexity, he estimates that he would have to train a potential new managing director for at least five years. But he would also have to be able to make a living from the business during this time. In addition, there is always a residual risk that the potential buyer of the company could get cold feet and change his mind in the short term.
However, it will probably be a few more years before Bilzinger retires. "I enjoy my work and would actually like to do it as long as I can still manage it physically," he says. But the work in local transport from the winter warehouses is particularly physically demanding. Nico Bilzinger often has to dismount, assemble and dismantle the wooden frames and so on. Nevertheless, he will carry on and will once again park more than 50 ships in winter storage without a storage rack next autumn.
