Only those who know the past understand the present and can shape the future. If the past extends over a period of 160 years, one can learn a great deal from history, and so the Meyer family and shipyard chronicle drawn up by an uncle is regarded as a valuable treasure by the younger family members. “It’s important to remember what it used to be like,” says Christopher Meyer. The ??-year-old, who feels most comfortable in the engine workshop, has been working in the family business for more than ten years and took over its management in 2011. In the fifth generation and together with his sister Patricia, who is responsible for trading in sports boats and looking following regular customers, and his wife Christiane, who takes care of commercial and government customers.
The cornerstone for the boatyard was laid in 1862 by Georg Meyer. The “Zillenschoper”, as he is called in the family chronicle, built traditional wooden ships and zills as well as roller ferries for the communities of Spitz and Weißenkirchen an der Donau. So-called Trauner, who transported wood and salt, were also part of his repertoire. These transport ships, which are up to 40 meters long, were manufactured manually from so-called root tips, i.e. frames made from root wood that had grown accordingly.
All-rounder plastic
Until the 1950s, only wooden ships left the Meyer boatyard, only in the 1960s was the end of this era heralded when Brunhilde Meyer, the grandmother of Patricia and Christopher Meyer, recognized the signs of the times. They got into GfK boat building and manufactured work boats for the Danube power plants and tour boats for reservoirs in a mixed plywood/polyester construction. In the 1970s, the new material was not only used to build custom-made boats for mission and surveying organizations, but also for sailing and rowing boats for rental and private customers. In the mid-1980s, the family took the next step. The first pleasure craft harbors were built on the Danube, which meant that parking spaces, maintenance and services were in demand. A little later, with the representation of the Swedish shipyard Nimbus, the trade in sports boats was also entered; today Meyer represents the brands Quicksilver, Yamarin, Buster, Flipper, Bella and Aquador and is a sales and service partner for engines from Yamaha, Mercury and Volvo Penta.
On safe feet
In-house production, trade and service are still the three pillars that carry the shipyard and ensure its success in roughly equal parts. For Christopher Meyer, who graduated from a technical college in mechanical engineering and always wanted to take over his parents’ business, it is precisely this diversity that makes it so appealing. “In another company I would miss the variety,” he believes.
Leaning back and coming to terms with the status quo, that would be comfortable, but it’s not the attitude of the young at all. “A lot has happened for us in the last three years,” says Christiane during a tour of the extensive shipyard premises. The seventh winter storage hall was recently put into operation, with a PV system on the roof for self-sufficient power supply. Due to the long waiting list, it was already fully booked before it was completed … A total of 130 boats are currently being looked following by Meyer Bootswerft – it’s good that Patricia and Christopher can still count on their parents’ support if there is a need for the man or woman .
You can read the entire company portrait in Yachtrevue 9/2022, at the kiosk from September 2nd!
