[1] In the 1880s, amateurs were already renting a house in Zorroza, where they exercised in yawls and perissoir (small canoes), and this original group of rowing and sailing fans was the one who founded the Sporting Club of Bilbao a few years later.

[2] They went to the latter at the suggestion of Alfonso XIII, when he was named honorary president of the club, once his new floating house was installed next to the iron dock of Portugalete.

[5] In the summer of 1908, Alfonso XIII, arrived in Bilbao on board the Giralda on 15 August, and he was met by the flotilla of sloops of Sporting, which was then chaired by José Antonio de Arana, and the steamer Elcano with the representatives of the Cortes, Tomas Zubiría Ybarra, Juan Tomás Gandarias, and the local authorities.

[2] During his stay in Biscay, the King participated in the sloop regattas, also celebrating the cruise to Castro Urdiales, which was won by the German Wertheim with the sloop Ilse II, while the regatta of Copa del Cantábrico was won by Sogalinda, owned by the Conde de Zubiría.

[1] In addition to being a recreational club, essentially focused on nautical activities, it was a center directly linked to Biscayan conservatism.

[1] In the ranks of Sporting were not only conservative deputies, senators, and councillors,[1] such as Federico Echevarría, Benigno Chávarri, and José Maria Martínez de las Rivas,[4] but also counts or marquises, many of them titled by Alfonso XIII,[1] such as Eduardo Aznar.

[4] Other honorary members of the club in 1902 included Gandarias, Evaristo Churruca, and Ramon de la Sota.

[4] The Real Club Marítimo del Abra was founded in 1902 by a group of young sportsmen from the city's high society.

[4] At the end of July 1902, the Marítimo had its first presentation ceremony, with the appointment of a board of directors made up of Ramón de la Sota (president), Ramón Hurtado (vice president), Ramón Coste (treasurer), Isidoro Larrínaga (accountant), José Luis de la Gándara (secretary), Horacio Echevarrieta, Joaquín de la Rica, Miguel Ferrer, Hermenegildo Lozano, and Pedro Olavarrieta (vocals).

[1] Marítimo had its headquarters in one of the first buildings built in Las Arenas, such as the establishment of Baños de Mar Bilbaínos.

[1] First, they rented and then bought part of the premises of the old spa where not only did nautical activities take place, but the families of the members, wives, and children, could access it as a space for "recreation and entertainment typical of their class".

[1] In fact, when Don Juan set foot on Spanish soil for the first time after his exile, landing from Giralda in Las Arenas in the summer of 1963, he headed to Sporting and then to Marítimo on 25 August 1963 and had lunch at the club the next day; Bourbon's journey, which should have continued in Gijón, did not have the opportunity to continue because he was not allowed to disembark.

The new headquarters has also suffered two more terrorist attacks by ETA, with the more recent one taking place in the early hours of 19 May 2008 when a bomb van with 60 kilos of explosives exploded next to the facilities of Marítimo del Abra as retaliation for Abra's selection as the club that would challenge for the Desafío Español in the next Copa del América.

[9] According to the first analysis of the municipal architect, the club director Javier Chávarri stated that despite the great damage caused to the building, such as to the walls and furniture in the areas facing the sea on the ground floor and third floor, the structure of the club headquarters had not been damaged.

[9] In 1957, sailor Juan Manuel Alonso-Allende, from Real Sporting, won the Snipe class world championship for Spain for the first time, with Gabriel Laiseca as a crew member, aboard the Guadalimar.

[11] [12] Currently, the Royal Maritime Club of Abra-Real Sporting Club continues to operate at its headquarters in Getxo, preserving old memories such as photographs signed by Alfonso XIII, the rudder wheels of the frigate Numancia (the one from the 1989 Callao bombing), the snipe with which Alonso Allende and Laiseca were world champions, dozens of caricatures of old partners.