Coincidence never sleeps. Bavaria founder Winfried Herrmann went to the Hamburg boat show in October 1992 and visited the Sunbeam 44—then he spoke to the Schöchl brothers, and drove to Slovenia right after to order a 44 with J&J: “…but with an aft cockpit, please!”

Like most of Europe’s builders at that time, Bavaria was deep in the economic depression that followed the Gulf War. We felt creating a boat that would please the international markets could mean strong enough sales to keep the factory running. Modern aesthetics—but without raising traditionalist eyebrows—fast sailing, and proverbial German build strength and quality. Winfried Herrmann also added an important factor: unbeatable value through the most advanced build process in the industry. 

After seven months of development, Bavaria 44 was launched in June 1993 and became Bavaria’s first big success. She excelled at tests run by sailing magazines, and won several comparative sailings. Bavaria 44 sailed well and sold well; her value and build quality was welcomed by most charter fleets in Europe and worldwide. 

Bavaria 44 was the start of sixteen years of close cooperation between J&J and Winfried Herrmann and Bavaria. J&J developed over seventy designs in both the sail- and powerboat arenas, and Bavaria grew to be the strongest brand in the sailing world, their sales increasing from 11 M Eu to 300 M Eu and annual unit sales climbing from ninety boats in 1992 to 3600 in 2007. 

J&J not only produced designs, but also engineering and tooling. We helped the yard to grow and perfect their main talent: their production process, which enabled Bavaria to put models of different sizes onto a single production line—which was moving in a tack time of 1 hour! Bavaria’s production efficiency under Winfried Herrmann remains unbeaten.

Developing the production process with Herrmann reinforced J&J’s very special position in the design world: understanding and controlling a harmony of design, naval architecture, engineering, tooling, production process—and cost.