In 1905 the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, the former Württemberg King Wilhelm II, was made a truly imperial gift: The sailing boat ‘Skidbladnir’
She was built in the shipyard of Max Oertz in Hamburg and later named Albatros.
Henceforth she sailed until 1918 under the Royal flag on Lake Constance (the Bodensee). After the fall of the Monarchy she repeatedly changed hands and was re-rigged from single-mast gaff cutter to a yawl (gaff rigged on the main and bermudan on the mizzen).
In 1936 she was acquired by Heinrich Seidl, founder of the first single-handed sailing school in Germany, and made her the flagship.
