Krupp engaged the New York yacht design office Sparkman & Stephens, which has been very successful since the 1930s, for the construction of the yacht . As a regatta yacht, the Germania VI was deliberately designed for a worldwide sailing area, whereby Krupp's experience with the Germania V in deep sea sailing since 1955 was incorporated. Several times they took part in the regattas of Newport (Rhode Iceland) to Bermuda ( Bermuda races ) as well as on the race from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro in part. She started twice under her first skipper Hans Viktor Howaldt in 1966 and 1968 in transatlantic regattas that led from Bermuda to Skagen and Travemünde .
Foundation yacht
After Alfried Krupp's death in 1967, the yacht's future was initially uncertain. The son and heir Arndt von Bohlen and Halbach initially wanted to sell Germania VI because he owned his own 34-meter motor yacht Antinous . The general representative Krupps and executor Berthold Beitz was able to prevent the sale, as he would certainly not have been in the interests of the testator. They agreed on a cost-covering charter solution with the acquisition of the former boatswain, a Eckernförder yacht sailor , Fiete Mahde, but failed because of the high maintenance costs of the yacht. In 1971 the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation therefore took over the yacht Germania VI for a symbolic annual charter amount of DM 2,000 according to an agreement between Arndt von Bohlen and Halbach and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Krupp Foundation, Berthold Beitz . The current maintenance costs were also borne by the Krupp Foundation. In 1979 the Krupp Foundation acquired the yacht for a symbolic purchase price of DM 1. Today, the Germania VI sails as a training ship mainly in the North and Baltic Seas. But she also shows the flag as an ambassador for German sport (Berthold Beitz was a German IOC member) at the Olympic sailing competitions in Kiel in 1972, off the east coast of the USA in 1976, in Tallinn / Reval in 1980 and in front of Barcelona in 1992 .
The yacht is maintained by the Krupp Foundation. The crew of Germania VI varies from 12 to 17 men. The bases are Kiel (in front of the Kieler Yacht Club (KYC)) and in winter in the Travemünde sports boat harbor (Böbs shipyard). The Germania VI is looked after by a permanent boatman (Günter Bunke since 1983). During a hurricane on the night of August 27th to 28th, 1989, the yacht was so badly damaged at its berth in Kiel that it practically became a total economic loss. Berthold Beitz decided that the Germania VI should be preserved. The very extensive repairs at the Böbs shipyard in Travemünde, during which the entire interior had to be removed, amounted to a new building. Just in time for the Kieler Woche in June 1990, the yacht was ready to sail again. In June 2003, after 40 years of service, the Germania VI covered a distance of 219,378 nautical miles on its own keel, according to the logbook , which corresponds to the distance from the earth to the moon.
