Bavaria Yachts: One shipyard, two big anniversaries

When two major events almost overlap, it’s a good reason to celebrate these great anniversaries together. Bavaria Yachts has been successfully building sailing yachts for 45 years and has also been known for sporty Motorboats for 25 years. Over 43,000 sailing yachts and Motorboats have been delivered by Bavaria Yachts to enthusiastic owners over the years.

The first prototypes of the legendary Bavaria 707 sailboat were launched in 1978 in the factory for windows of Bavaria Yachts founder Winfried Herrmann in Giebelstadt and it quickly became clear that yacht building would not just be a second mainstay in the future. Just one year later, Herrmann really took off with his second sailing boat, the Bavaria 808, laying the foundations for one of the most successful yacht shipyards ever. Almost 160 further sailing yacht models have followed to this day. Just one year after its premiere, the latest Bavaria C46 is already one of the most successful sailing boats from Giebelstadt. Among other things, it won the European Yacht of the Year Award 2024, as did its sister Bavaria C42 in 2021 and the Bavaria Cruiser 46 in 2016.
Building on the success of sailing yachts for private owners and the charter market, Herrmann decided at the beginning of the 2000s not only to expand its shipyard into the most modern yacht production facility with 70,000 square metres of production space, but also to conquer the motorboat market. The new BMB label, Bavaria Motorboats, adorned the first BMB 27 Sport and was celebrated as a revolution. Further Bavaria Motorboat models followed, sometimes as open or with hardtop, as coupe or fly, with inboard or outboard engine, right up to the latest Bavaria SR-Line, which also won awards.

25 Years Of Power: From BMB to BMW to the Bavaria SR-Line
At the end of the 1990s, the Bavaria Yachts production facility in Giebelstadt, near Würzburg, was expanded to become the most modern series production yard in the yacht industry. Covering an area of 200,000 square metres, the production halls with a surface area of over 70,000 square metres were equipped with state-of-the-art production machinery. CNC milling machines for processing decks and hulls, four production lines for fitting out the yachts and a painting line for finishing the company’s own furniture are just some of the production techniques that Winfried Herrmann introduced, earning him the respectful title “Henry Ford of the yacht industry”. And the foundation stone was laid for the expansion of production for the construction of Motorboats.
In order to give the new motorboat line its own face, the label BMB, Bavaria Motorboats, was developed with its own logo and its own appearance at trade fairs. The first model was the BMB 27 SPORT. It was constructed and designed by Japec and Jernej Jakopin. J&J Design had already designed many successful Bavaria sailing boats and had also shown a clever hand in finding the perfect balance between good sailing characteristics and generous space in the first BMB Motorboats. And many more BMB models from J&J followed. In 2009, the BMB 30 SPORT was named Powerboat of the Year.

During this time, the 2nd generation of the Sport-Line and the legendary Bavaria DEEP BLUE 46 were also created in collaboration with BMW Design in San Francisco, a real revolution for the boat market and for Bavaria Yachts itself. The press praised not only the extremely modern design, but also the unusually large amount of space with three cabins below deck. BMW Design remained a partner of the Bavaria Yachts development team, but in 2013 a new face took over the design of the Bavaria Motorboats. Marco Casali and his team from Too Design in Rome shaped the 3rd generation of the Bavaria Yachts Sport-Line and changed the face of Bavaria Yachst Motorboats for good with new developments such as the Bavaria Virtess 420. In the same year, the Virtess was named Power Boat of the Year and was also voted best motor yacht of the year in the UK.
Then things went from strength to strength. The Bavaria Sport 360 won the Best of Boats Award (BOB) in 2016, laying the foundation for the success of the new Sportline. The basic values of the Bavaria S29, S30 and S45 originate from this period and are therefore among the most frequently built Motorboats in Bavaria Yachts’ history today. The Bavaria R40 followed in 2017 and rounded off the model range with its unique luxurious concept.
Since 2020, the new Bavaria SR-Line has stood for a new level of Motorboats from Giebelstadt. The Bavaria SR41 kicked things off and the Bavaria SR36 a year later not only won important awards, but was also highly praised by the international community. “The best Bavaria that Bavaria Yachts has ever built” was one of the quotes in the trade magazines and shows that in terms of design, layout and quality, Bavaria Yachts has taken another major step forward with the Bavaria SR-Line. This was also the opinion of 30 readers of the French motorboat magazine Moteurboat, who were all able to test the Bavaria SR33 personally and voted it the best motorboat in France in 2023. Her safe but sporty handling characteristics, the many clever detail solutions on and below deck, as well as the perfect build quality convinced the critical readers.
And how will the history of Motorboats from Bavaria Yachts continue after 25 years? “First of all, we are very proud of what the Bavaria Yachts team, together with the worldwide Bavaria Yachts dealer network, has achieved over the last 25 years and we are now a reliable player in the market for powerboats between 29 and 50 feet. I myself have been deeply involved with every new development for more than 15 years and am already looking forward to the next projects,” explains Norbert Leifeld, COO responsible for production and design at Bavaria Yachts since 2023.

45 Years of yachting: sailing yachts non-stop
How one comes up with the idea of building the largest yacht shipyard in Germany and one of the most modern in the world in the middle of Germany, far away from the coasts in the north or the Mediterranean, will perhaps always remain the secret of Bavaria Yachts founder Winfried Herrmann. The success of Bavaria Yachts today shows that he made the right decision in 1978, because a good team with a passion and love for boatbuilding is perhaps more important than direct access to the sea.
Above all, however, the boats that Herrmann developed in the early 1980s were in line with contemporary tastes and were always slightly cheaper than those of the competition. “The age of handmade boats is over,” Herrmann decided at the time, and his rapid commercial success proved him right. From the very beginning, the production of his boats had nothing in common with traditional boatbuilding in a small shed. Hermann was a restless and passionate rationaliser who, even in his window factory, liked to check work processes with a stopwatch and optimise them where possible. This led to another legendary statement by Herrmann: “We are redefining pricing in yacht building!” However, he never lost sight of the development and improvement of his boats. The yacht dealer and then charter boat broker Josef Meltl, who contributed a great deal of market expertise and certainly helped to prepare the later, very successful entry into the charter market, was also involved from the very beginning and later became a partner. The Bavaria 46 HOLIDAY was the first charter-optimised sailing yacht in 1985 and can still be found in some charter fleets today.
And the Bavaria Yachts brand has always benefited from the best designers and consultants. From 1992, J&J Design from Slovenia designed the new models; the then still young design team had already made a name for itself for fast yachts. A total of 160 different sailing yacht models were developed over the 45 years. Bavaria Yachts always remained true to its DNA. In addition to good sailing characteristics, optimised space and cooperation with renowned suppliers have always been important components. Masts from Selden in Sweden, sails from Elvström in Denmark and winches from Lewmar can be found on all sailing boats ever built in Giebelstadt.
Farr Yacht Design from Annapolis is known for fast regatta yachts in the Ocean Race or America’s Cup, but they also proved that they can design fast and comfortable sailing yachts with the Bavaria Cruiser and VISION-Line from 2010. With over 1000 units built, the Bavaria Cruiser 46 is probably one of the most built sailing boats in the world. And the Bavaria Cruiser 34 is not far off this mark either.

Like the Motorboats in the SR-Line, the new Bavaria C-Line has Italian characteristics. Not only in their design, but also in their agility under sail. Cossutti Yacht Design designed the flagship of the fleet, the Bavaria C57, in 2017. Five further C-Line models followed and lifted the sailing boats from Bavaria Yachts into a new segment. The best example of this is the new Bavaria C46, which was immediately voted Europe’s Yacht of the Year by an international jury of experts. Jochen Rieker, head of the EYOTY jury, reported: “The boat builders from Giebelstadt in germany already proved three years ago that something has changed. Back then, after a long break, the Bavaria C42 designed by Maurizio Cossutti won the title of European Yacht of the Year with overwhelming clarity. Now the Bavaria C46 is following suit and, despite the numerous well-known competitors, it is once again a clear winner. Although it follows the same basic concept, in many respects it sets the bar even higher than its sister, which won in 2021.” And Toby Hodges from “Yachting World” explains the triumph of the C46 with its substance: “Bavaria has increased its quality to such an extent that other large shipyards find it difficult to keep up.”
“In my working life, I have worked for many companies with strong brands. Not only did Bavaria Yachts very quickly become one of the best-known brands for sailing and motor yachts after it was founded, Bavaria Yachts has had a lasting impact on the market in 45 years. With the Bavaria C- and Cruiser-Line, we are perfectly positioned for the long term in our segment of 30 to 57-foot sailing yachts. This is confirmed daily by many happy owners and our dealers, many of whom have been our partners for 45 years. We believe we are very well equipped for the future,” summarises Michael Müller, CEO of Bavaria Yachts.