History of HETI

She is regarded as an icon of sailing and Hamburg's yacht building tradition - sailing yacht HETI. Designed by the famous yacht designer and shipyard owner Max Oertz, she was launched in 1912. She was built in Hamburg at the shipyard of Max Oertz in Hamburg-Neuhof. The well-known yacht designer had also designed it. The client was the Lübeck wood merchant Hermann Eschenburg (1872 - 1954), who named it after his youngest daughter Hedwig (1906 - 2002) - called Heti. Eschenburg sailed in the following years with his racing yacht sometimes more, sometimes less successful various regattas on the Baltic Sea. Eschenburg won the Kieler Woche several times with the Heti. In 1923, however, he had to sell a yacht for economic reasons.

The buyer was the Berlin industrialist Max Hamers, who moved HETI to the Wannsee and renamed it into TRAUM. In the 1930s she came back to Kiel, but no longer as a racing yacht: She was re-rigged to a yawl and used as a cruiser. During the World War II and afterwards she was used as a houseboat.

After the war HETI changed owner and name several times: Heinz Harmssen from Bremen sailed it under the name NATHURN. Later he sold her to the Hanseatic Yacht School Glücksburg, which renamed her SEESCHWALBE. In 1966 she went to Flensburg as MOBY DICK.

There she stayed only a little more than a year. Then Peter Himstedt and Karl Massberg from Hamburg bought HETI. They had it repaired and rebuilt at the Heuer shipyard in Finkenwerder. The bow was given its present shape and the hull was covered with a plastic layer. HETI got a one-masted high rig as well as a machine. And again a new name: As SATURN she won regattas again, among them the Blue Ribbon of the Lower Elbe several times.

In 1978 Himstedt and Massberg sold HETI again. She received a new name and a new berth: The new owner Friedrich Goebel renamed the boat to ROMEO and moved it to Imperia in Northern Italy. The home port, however, remained Hamburg. She also successfully participated in regattas in the Mediterranean. In September 1998 the schooner AELLO collided with her and severely damaged the mast.

Owner Goebel donated his ROMEO to the Hamburg association "Jugend in Arbeit e. V.", which was to restore the boat. In 1999 it was brought to Hamburg by ship. But not much happened in the next few years.

In 2001, the "Hamburg Maritim Foundation" was founded, which took over part of the association's ships, including HETI. For the necessary work on the 12er - among other things HETI should get her original gaffrigg again - however, the means were missing. A group of sailing enthusiasts therefore founded the association "Freunde der Segelyacht HETI" in 2001, which made it possible with donations to restore HETI to her original condition.