Max Oertz

1871-1929

Germany

Born 20th April 1871, Max Oertz was a naval architect, a builder, engineer, and later a pioneer of aviation, with experience in Finland and St. Petersburg before developing his yard near Hamburg.

Around the time Oertz was working in Hamburg the Kaiser developed a keen interest in yacht racing – and not just as a participant. He wanted to develop a yachting culture in Germany that could rival that of the British and Americans. Max Oertz played a leading part in that development and his name became inseparable with the emergence and rapid development of the German yacht industry at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century.

He designed many class racing yachts and later he was given the prestigious job of designing the Kaiser’s schooner, ‘Meteor IV’, to race against ‘Britannia’. His output was both prodigious and successful.

Other well-known Oertz designs are ‘Felca’, ‘Lims’ and ‘Samoa’.