Bootswerft Heistracher

Description

Bootswerft Heistracher is a Bavarian boatyard established in 1890 by Franz Stöffl on the northern shore of Fraueninsel on the Chiemsee. What began as a workshop producing freight barges and working boats for the monastery, island residents, and fishermen gradually evolved into a full-scale boat manufacturing operation across four generations of the Heistracher family. Following Sepp Heistracher's entry into the business in 1912, the yard shifted toward pleasure craft, producing dinghies, dinghy cruisers, and keel yachts. A motorboat powered by an aircraft engine and capable of 75 km/h was completed in 1928. After 1947, the second generation embraced new materials, building lightweight sport and cabin boats from waterproof marine plywood at a time when many competing yards still worked exclusively with solid timber. Racing dinghies with hulls over 8 m long and a planking thickness of just 10 mm were among the more technically demanding projects of that era. An order for 20 racing powerboats delivered to Rhodesia and bowstems for wooden minesweepers supplied to a Bremen yard for the Bundesmarine illustrated the range of commissions the yard was willing to undertake. Electric propulsion became a defining specialization from 1957 onward, when the yard developed low-resistance displacement hulls specifically suited to electric motors. Fiberglass construction was added in 1962, and the Eccura brand now represents the yard's proprietary electric drive systems, combining brushless three-phase synchronous motors with vector control, digital motor controllers with integrated diagnostics, silent high-performance planetary gearboxes, and carbon fiber three-blade fixed propellers. Motors, gearboxes, and controllers are water-cooled, and the systems are offered in configurations ranging from 1.3 kW outboard units to 55 kW steerable, trimmable outdrives paired with lithium battery packs of up to 60 kWh. Since Peter Heistracher joined the yard in 1986 as the fourth generation, the current product range spans three electric motorboat series in the Sprint line (600 Sprint at 6.00 m, 670 Sprint at 6.70 m, and 820 Sprint at 8.20 m), all built using carbon fiber vacuum sandwich lightweight construction. The yard also produces the traditional Chiemseeplätte sailing boat, a 6.40 m unity class with a history reaching back to plans drawn in 1932 and standardized in 1954, as well as custom working boats in fiberglass, aluminum, and stainless steel for water rescue services, harbor authorities, sailing schools, and ferry operators.