Off Watch
We’d set sail from a marina in Southampton, England, on a cool, blustery day last September, bound for an afternoon of yachting on the famous waters between the Isle of Wight known as the Solent. At the wheel of Märta
III, a spanking clean, recently launched Oyster 575, my colleague, Cruising World advertising director Ted Ruegg, was wearing a smile that appeared to have been plastered on. Dodging fast ferries, towering cruise ships, laden tankers, Cornish crabbers and black-carbon-sail raceboats, Märta III was sailing fast and well, leaning into the fresh 25-knot southwesterly on a tight reach, with the speedo cresting at 10 knots flat. Cool.
Our host for the day, Oyster’s chief commercial officer, Paul Adamson, urged me to duck below and have a listen. I did as instructed, and heard … nothing. Absolute silence. It was quiet as a church at midnight. I popped back on deck, to the whistling wind and rushing waves — man, it’s bloody breezy out! — and was met with Paul’s own knowing grin. It seemed to say, “See? Pretty solid, right, mate?”
Pretty damn solid indeed. At that very instant, it was nearly impossible to believe that just eight months earlier, in February, Oyster Yachts went into liquidation, the company’s future very much in doubt. Heck, just a few months before that, we’d named the elegant Oyster 745 the Best Luxury Cruiser for 2018 in our annual Boat of the Year contest. What in the world had happened? Or, for that matter, was happening? Was this lovely, impressive, memorable sail just a dream?
It’s a complicated story, one that would probably make a fine case study at the Harvard Business School. Here’s the
Reader’s Digest version.
Oyster was founded in 1973 by a larger-than-life British yachtsman and entrepreneur named Richard Matthews, who built it into one of the world’s most successful and respected marine brands. In 2008, Matthews sold the company to a venture-capital concern, pocketing tens of millions in the deal. Oyster switched hands to another private equity group four years later. Then, in July 2015, Oyster was dealt a catastrophic blow when one of its boats, a 90-footer called
Polina Star III, lost its keel and sank off the coast of Spain, the only good news being that the crew reacted quickly and spectacularly, and nobody was lost. Claims of rampant mismanagement — accompanied by a whole lot of bad publicity — eventually followed. The end result was the liquidation announcement last winter. It appeared that the fated Polina Star III wasn’t the only thing that had sunk. So had Oyster. But, not so fast. Less than a month later, riding in to save the day like a well-heeled white knight, was a businessman named Richard Hadida, who’d made his fortune in online gaming. Not coincidentally, Hadida was also a sailor. In fact, he owned an Oyster, an 885 called Lush.
Here’s where the corporate tale becomes something altogether more interesting.
Lush was originally owned by another outsize personality, Formula One auto-racing legend Eddie Jordan, who circumnavigated in the Oyster World Rally 2013-14 with a pro skipper, Paul Adamson. Yes, the same chap who is now part of the company’s new management team (and who took us sailing on Märta III).
Old friends Jordan and Hadida later became partners in Lush,
though the latter has since bought his pal out. It’s like a nautical version of All in the Family.
If there were any doubts that Oyster is back, for Ted and me they were dispelled on visits to the company’s new production facilities, in Wroxham and Southampton. Both boatyards were absolutely humming, fulfilling orders taken before the company’s troubles began and actively writing new ones. While the executive offices are staffed with newcomers, there are plenty of familiar faces on the floor of people who’ve worked for Oyster for decades. Sure, there’s been controversy of late, but like the phoenix that rose from the ashes, Oyster appears to be all the stronger for its travails.
Which brings us back to our little outing off the Isle of Wight, where we dropped the hook for lunch off Osbourne Bay. Then, it was back to Southampton, all in a day of Very Proper Yachting. Just like it was on the Solent, for Oyster, as it was aboard Märta III,
there was clear sailing ahead.