Küsten- und Hochsee-Seglergemeinschaft Oberrhein e.V.
Küsten- und Hochsee-Seglergemeinschaft Oberrhein e.V. (KHSO) is a non-profit sailing club based in Karlsruhe that has organised coastal and offshore sailing since 1971, even though the nearest seacoast is about six hundred kilometres away. Instead of owning boats or cultivating classic clubhouse romance, the club charters comfortable catamarans and classic sailing yachts each year for crew trips to cruising grounds such as the Caribbean, Croatia, Greece, the Seychelles, the Balearics, Corsica and Montenegro; members meet at the club premises at the Alter Schlachthof. Members are brought together into crews, with post-cruise evenings, annual general meetings and season-closing events; the club belongs to the German Sailing Federation (DSV), the Baden-Württemberg state sailing association and Badischer Sportbund Nord. Around sixty active members shape club life, which deliberately requires no work hours or boat-maintenance duties and welcomes beginners as well as experienced skippers.
History
In spring 1971 fifteen enthusiastic sailors from the Karlsruhe area met on the Upper Rhine and founded KHSO to organise coastal and offshore sailing far from the coast. The idea was to charter yachts together and form crews rather than accept distance to the sea as a barrier. On 14 April 1999 the current statutes were adopted; then-chairmen Günter Schmid and Uwe Gentner signed them. The club is registered in the Karlsruhe association register under number 904. Over the decades numerous cruises and club outings followed: Athens and the Saronic Gulf in 2008, Croatia with five yachts in 2010, the Aeolian Islands with a view of Stromboli in 2014, Mallorca in 2016, Dubrovnik and southern Dalmatia in 2017 and 2018, and the Gulf of Naples and Amalfi Coast in 2019 with fourteen people on two yachts under skippers Dieter Kammerer and Harald Siebler. In 2020 a post-cruise evening on the Amalfi Coast still took place before the pandemic interrupted joint travel. On 15 October 2021 KHSO celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at restaurant Zum Bruderbund in Rheinstetten. At the 51st general meeting on 6 May 2022 Thorsten Reiser was elected 1st chairman; in 2024 Axel Solis Trompler became the new 2nd chairman and Winfried Schmitt remained treasurer. At the 55th annual general meeting on 12 June 2026 Thorsten Reiser was again confirmed as 1st chairman, while the 2nd chair and treasury remained vacant. Today the club has around sixty active members and organises four to six offshore cruises worldwide each year.
Information
Facilities
Club premises at Alter Schlachthof in Karlsruhe; no own boat, charter yachts and catamarans
Activities
Crew offshore cruises, post-cruise evenings, annual general meetings, season closings, club outings
Guest berths
No, no own harbour