Husumer Shipyard

Husumer Schiffswerft operated at Husum on the North Frisian coast of Schleswig-Holstein, building the kind of vessels the German Wadden Sea demands: shallow-draught steel passenger ships, ferries, fishing boats and workboats designed for a tidal coast where getting the draught wrong is not an option.

The yard is best known in yachting circles for the 1982 passenger vessel now sailing as Sanssouci Star — a 53.5-metre, 446 GT steel ship with a 2.7-metre draught, MTU propulsion and a 7,000 nautical mile range, later converted into a distinctive private and charter yacht. Its origins as a commercial North Sea vessel are precisely what give it the range and robustness that a purpose-built yacht of the same length rarely matches.

Husumer's yachting output was incidental rather than deliberate, but conversions of its hulls continue to appeal to owners who prefer working-ship engineering to yacht-industry finish.