Bavaria Yachtbau was founded in 1978 by Winfried Herrman, a window manufacturer, and Josef Meltl, a yacht charter broker. By 2006, the company had grown to produce approximately 3,500 sailing and motor yachts and employing 600 people. Bavaria Yachtbau is one of Europe's largest yacht manufacturers and is the biggest yacht yard in Germany. Bavaria Yachtbau is also one of the top three global market leaders for yachts ranging from 30 to 56 feet.
In June 2007 the US private equity investor, Bain Capital acquired the company from the founders. Although the exact price of the transaction was not disclosed, the purchase price was estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.3 billion Euros. After the market crash of 2008, Bain Capital transferred control to US private equity investors Anchorage Advisors and Oaktree Capital Management, which each took 45 percent of shares in October 2009.
In August 2010, Jens Ludmann was named spokesman of the management board. Prior to being appointed to this position, Ludmann was the Chief Engineer of Ford Motor Company.
In April 2013, Constantin von Bülow, a senior vice president of Oaktree Capital Management, became the new CEO of Bavaria. In July 2014 Bavaria Yachtbau bought the French catamaran producer Nautitech Catamarans. With this purchase, Bavaria Yachtbau has increased its product portfolio to include the growing catamaran sector.
On 7 January 2015 Lutz Henkel joined Bavaria Yachtbau as the new CEO. Lutz Henkel assumed his new responsibility on 1 February 2015 and replaced Constantin von Bülow, who became chairman of the board.
Today Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH has about 600 employees in Giebelstadt. 150 people work in the administration department. The yard in Giebelstadt is more than 656,000 square feet with approximately 230,000 square feet of production area.