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The first load of woodware to the Landamores Yard, Wroxham.
An Oyster 82 in one of the purpose built halls at OYS (capable of taking yachts up to 40 metres).
The Oyster 125-01 and 100-02 in the Oyster hangar at RMK Marine, Turkey.
The Builders’ Tale The East Anglian corner of England where Oyster is based has a centuries-old tradition of shipbuilding. Proud of that heritage, Oyster has always drawn on local skills for virtually every aspect of design and build. Landamores, on the edge of the Norfolk Broads in Wroxham, provided in 1973 the very first boat to nascent Oyster Marine, and in all but name still builds every yacht up to the Oyster 725, the Oyster building division of Landamores having just recently been directly acquired to become Oyster Yachts Wroxham (OYW). All key personnel and the decades of experience remain in-house and on the job with uninterrupted production in a purpose-built modern facility with seven bays and ample land space for much planned extension. In 1983, as the order book filled and capacity dictated, Windboats, another renowned Wroxham yard, was also contracted to satisfy Oyster’s strengthening market, and continued to deliver world class craftsmanship in beautifully constructed yachts. It is only the recent drawing in-house of the shipyard side of the business that now sees this relationship change to providing local extra capacity only if required by OYW. With an eye to the burgeoning south coast business, Oyster established an office in Southampton’s Shamrock Quay in 1984 and entered a refit and then a new building arrangement with local world-famed classic yacht restorers Southampton Yacht Services (SYS). Their traditional customised yacht building skills matched Oyster’s evolution handsomely well. Building from mid-size to now all the larger Oysters up to the 89ft (27m) 885, SYS has over time been acquired by Oyster. The dedicated Oyster division is renamed Oyster Yachts Southampton (OYS) while classic yacht work continues under the SYS brand, as a part of the Oyster Group. All three yards receive hull and major component mouldings from another East Anglian specialist, Bridgeland Mouldings who, like all the preferred contractors, have increased their physical scale in line with the evolution of Oyster’s lengthening fleet. A special venture with a fourth yard, RMK Marine in Istanbul, Turkey, was entered into in 2007 to begin the development of the custom-built Oyster 100 and 125 with the world’s largest single vacuum-infused hull construction in a specially built hall and enormous autoclave oven. In 2002, to serve the increasing Pacific client base and strip transportation costs, Oyster contracted with New Zealand yard McDell. Their focus was on the 49 and 53, and also Oyster’s retro-modern motor launch, the LD43. When the initial currency exchange benefits reversed, the relationship ceased in 2010.
summer 2013
OYSTER news
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