Insändare: Problems of Danish Sailors

In issue 8/2011 of Pa Kryss a letter on page 11 by a group of Danish sailors reported their being turned away from several Bohuslan harbours on the grounds that they were for Swedish and Norwegian sailors only. A certain amount of hostility was displayed and signs saying ”no strangers” were shown.

I have no views on the accuracy of this letter but it is fairly detailed.. I have to say that my wife and I have received courtesy and help practically everywhere we have sailed in Sweden.
We were last in Bohuslan some 10 years ago and know that it gets incredibly crowded in late July. This might have been a factor.
If this is a general phenomenon  or an official local arrangement then I would like to know so that I can plan voyages accordingly and also inform my Club, the London based Cruising Association.
For what it is worth, my guess is that a smallish group of local sailors are fed up with the crowding in high summer and have decided to take unofficial anction. According to the Danes, the situation has only arisen in this year.

The foregoing I sent to Sjofartsverket because of my anxieties on the subject. They suggested I contact you
I have just checked up a little using Google Earth and the internet. Both Fiskeback and Saltholmen are GREFAB harbours, not in Gasthamns Guiden so may be harbours where all the places are let permanently.If this is not the case then the hostility is not explicable. This would account perhaps for hostility towards any boat entering that has not hired a place for the season.

The situation is Grebbesad is less explicable. There is a guest harbour there but there is also possible an inner private harbour which might well have notices forbidding entry to strangers. The claim that the guest harbour is only available to Norwegians is very strange. It is possible that those who sent the Danish crew away were Norwegians wanting to keep berths for their compatriots. Would a Dane be able to distinguish wheter the speaker was Swedish or Norwegian?

Yours truly
Roger Saunders