He did not live to see one of the greatest successes of the brand he created. Winfried Herrmann was already dead when the Cruiser 46 was awarded the prize for Europe's Yacht of the Year for the first time in Düsseldorf on 17 January. The shipyard founder died a few days before his 72nd birthday in Tutzing as a result of pneumonia.
With his passing, the international yacht building industry has lost one of its most prominent entrepreneurs and pioneers. He "revolutionised the construction of series yachts", says Constantin von Bülow, the current Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Bavaria. DSV President Andreas Lochbrunner, himself the owner of two sailing boats with the stylised compass rose in the logo, calls him "a pioneer".
The Franconian from Ochsenfurt near Würzburg was regarded as a guarantor of efficiency and success. At peak times, 3,500 yachts left the ultra-modern assembly line at the company headquarters in Giebelstadt every year - up to 18 sailing and motor boats a day.
Even when he retired from his job in 2007, he showed his skill. Herrmann and his co-partner Josef Meltl realised the record sum of 1.2 billion euros for their shares - never before and never since has a large-scale shipyard been valued anywhere near as highly. For the passionate inventor and rigorous rationaliser, who had a very self-confident manner, the sale could have been a source of satisfaction - the ultimate crowning glory in the career of a self-made man who had made it from hoover salesman to multi-millionaire.
In reality, however, he was never willing to part with his life's work. Because with the shipyard, he lost his task and responsibility, and even more: meaning.
Winfried Herrmann, who had never cultivated a large network of friends, increasingly withdrew from his few trusted companions. He even fell out with Josef Meltl, who had saved Bavaria from imminent bankruptcy in 1984 with his investment and guarantees, during the sales negotiations in 2007 because he would have preferred the Beneteau Group to win the bid. Things became even quieter around the lone decision-maker, whose razor-sharp mind and enormous determination were a substitute for any studies.
He was "a good guy", says Andrea Barbera from Master Yachting, who was close to him. And others also knew his human, his winning side. Designer Axel Mohnhaupt, for example, whose designs and suggestions laid the foundations for the enormous growth of the shipyard. "He was so accurate," recalls the Berliner. And Josef Meltl also attests to his "character".
Herrmann's outbursts of anger when things didn't go his way were also legendary. His sometimes shrewd, sometimes excessively tough purchasing negotiations. His sometimes overly far-reaching cost-cutting measures that led to unintentional losses in quality - as in 2005 with a series of keel defects on the Bavaria 42 match. At the time, the shipyard boss took the reporting of the manufacturing defect personally. Instead of goodwill, he favoured confrontation. And still had to discontinue the already unsuccessful model series a year later.
What few people knew was that even back then, the assertive Franke was "in very poor health", as Axel Mohnhaupt reports. He had never done any sport, smoked a lot and was exposed to the styrene-laden air in production. Winfried Herrmann battled with lung cancer for ten years until he lost this final fight. An edgy, tall man.
An obituary by YACHT editor-in-chief Jochen Rieker
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
