Flensburger managing director Rudiger Fuchs has been replaced after delays at the German shipbuilder.
The company said its owner, Siem Industries, has brought in one of its executives Alexander Gregg-Smith, who was in charge at the yard for six months in 2016, according to the NDR website.
Fuchs had been the boss since 2016, but the yard has been hit by delays to ferries contracted by Irish Ferries and Brittany Ferries in recent months.
Flensburger said in a statement that delays had caused substantial losses, but that it has developed a plan to finance the yard.
Siem Industries supremo Kristian Siem and the new boss have met federal minister of economic affairs Bernd Buchholz for talks on the future of the yard, but no state aid has been pledged, reports said.
At a staff meeting, employees were told they should receive their January salaries.
The yard is still building a delayed LNG-fuelled ro-pax for Brittany Ferries, another ferry for Irish Ferries, two ro-ros for Siem Industries and two ro-paxes for the Tasmanian government.
Flensburger faced difficulties after 2010 as the ro-ro and ro-pax specialist sought to compensate for a lack of orders by building offshore well-intervention ships, heavylift semi-submersible units and seismic vessels.
Too many prototypes resulted in delivery delays and losses before Siem Industries stepped in as the new owner.
It then re-positioned itself in the market and negotiated some high-value cruise ferry orders.
