Infused with the spirit of great wine - Oyster Yachts

Sarafin 

Infused with the 

spirit of great wine 

Oyster’s first superyacht, the 30.80-metre “Sarafin” has now set sail in the 

Sea of Marmara. BOAT EXCLUSIVE had a taste helming this refined white 

Dubois design and discovered what lies behind the sloop’s evocative name. 

Text Martin Hager Photos Selim Kemahli 

56 BOAT EXCLUSIVE 1/12

“Sarafin” in the Sea of Marmara: 

this 30.80-metre Oyster 100 sails 

close-hauled, sporting 493 square 

metres of North sails. Generously 

sized loungers aft of the working 

cockpit are a great place to chill out. 

The Turkish builder RMK Marine 

laminated the 105-tonne Dubois 

superyacht at its modern facilities. 

BOAT EXCLUSIVE 1/12 57

Sarafin 

Shaded spot: the Australian owner requested a hard-top bimini above the guest cockpit. The middle section consists of a weather-proof 

fabric panel that can be easily opened. Children can play in the relative safety of the cockpit, well away from the sheets and halyards. 


A glance at Nemo’s kingdom: 

large windows in the hull provide 

plenty of light in all the cabins. 

If “Sarafin” heels the leeward 

windows provide fascinating 

underwater views. The tender is 

transported on the foredeck. 

BOAT EXCLUSIVE 1/12 59

Sarafin 

Owner’s suite in the stern: the TV pops up almost inaudibly from the sideboard. 

Guest cabins: walnut and light-coloured fabrics dominate here, as elsewhere. 

Not a cloud in the sky and just shy 

of 30 degrees, even at ten in the 

morning. That is quite normal 

for mid-September in the Turkish yacht- 

building capital, Tuzla. The only problem 

is that the flags at the RMK facilities are 

hanging limply from their flagpoles. Not 

exactly ideal for getting a good impres- 

sion of how the new Oyster flagship 

performs. “A steady offshore breeze of 

up to 20 knots usually gets up around 

midday,” says Murray Aitken, the like- 

able Oyster superyacht division sales 

director. The air shimmers above the 

jetty where “Sarafin”, the snow-white 

Oyster 100, is moored and we kill time 

by going on a tour of the impressive 

facilities at RMK Marine, which is part 

of the Koç Group and which was com- 

missioned to build the award-winning 

British brand Oyster’s range of super- 

yachts. The builder put itself on the map 

in 2010 when it launched the 52-metre 

Sparkman & Stephens ketch “Nazenin V”. 

RMK covers half of the development 

costs for these new Oyster superyachts 

and has invested considerable sums in 

modern construction facilities. 

World vacuum record 

“We laminate Oyster 100 and 125 hulls 

in one piece here, using the vacuum- 

infusion method. As far as I know, we 

are the only builder that manufactures 

hulls in this way,” Hamish Burgess- 

Simpson, the project manager respon- 

sible for construction of the superyacht 

fleet, proudly explains. “However,“ he 

admits, “you are really on tenterhooks 

during that couple of hours when the 

vinyl ester resin is added to the carbon/ 

Kevlar/e-glass matting mixture, the ten- 

sion is so great.” One mistake and the 

entire hull is a write-off. Four tonnes of 

resin are added to the Oyster 100 mat- 

ting. The vacuum sucks 6.2 tonnes of 

resin into the Oyster 125 hull mould, 

which is almost 8 metres longer, in four 

hours. That is a world record, according 

to Burgess-Simpson. In order to be able 

to temper the hulls post-infusion, the 

Turkish builder constructed Europe’s 

largest curing oven, at 40 metres long 

by 12 metres wide. “We store the hulls 

for 48 hours at 60 degrees here, this 

stabilises the laminate structure,” says 

the project manager. 

It’s midday. The flags are still 

motionless, hugging their flagpoles, yet 

“Sarafin’s” captain, Lachie Paramor, 

decides to put to sea. “We have got 

members of the press on board, so 

we’ve got to offer them something,” 

Oyster is using the 100 to target a new clientele 


Sarafin 

Deck details: the pushbutton-operated curved glass sliding door lets you into 

the deckhouse. The control panels incorporate all the instruments needed to 

operate the sails and the engine, whilst the emergency control unit is concealed 

in the lazarette. BOAT EXCLUSIVE editor Martin Hager enjoys his day’s helming. 

says Paramor with a laugh. “There will 

be wind, no worries!” Aged only 26, 

the Sydney-born captain is one of the 

youngest in his profession. “I previ- 

ously served on board the owner’s 

Oyster 68. We did a lot of sailing,” the 

dynamic skipper explains. Her Aus- 

tralian owner and his family ordered 

“Sarafin” in order to circumnavigate the 

globe together. A tour of the modern 

yet cosy interior of this 100-foot sloop 

demonstrates that the Oyster 100 is 

a great choice for such an adventure. 

Thus there are handrails everywhere 

on board to provide purchase even in 

rough seas, the engine room is spa- 

cious, bright and easily accessible, 

and the cabins are well-suffused with 

light, thanks to the twelve large, 36 milli- 

metre thick windows in the hull. 

“We selected an optimum height for 

the windows,” Murray Aitken raves. 

“In each cabin you get a fabulous view 

of the water rushing past your window. 

In the master suite, thanks to their 

height, you can even watch the dolphins 

playing from the comfort of the bed.” 

Walnut-dominated interior 

The layout is conventional, Oyster’s de- 

sign team accommodated the full-beam 

owner’s suite in the stern, whilst the 

owner’s children and guests are accom- 

modated in two guest cabins forward of 

the master stateroom. The deckhouse 

saloon separates the foredeck section, 

featuring two twin crew cabins, the gal- 

ley and lower saloon from the guest ac- 

commodation in the yacht’s aft section. 

This lower saloon, located aft of the 

galley, features a rotating flat-screen TV 

and a sofa arrangement and functions 

as an entertainment and relaxation al- 

cove. The spacious interior is however 

dominated by walnut, white ceiling pan- 

els, light-coloured fabrics and Italian 

marble in the bathrooms. As is stand- 

ard on semi-custom yachts, the owner 

can choose any interior he likes. Oyster 

allows the owner to alter the layout. 

Even if the RMK team reduced the 

thickness of the marble slabs to 5 mil- 

limetres before they were used in the 

bathrooms, the new Oyster is no light- 

weight. 105 tonnes displacement at 

a ballast fraction of just under 23 per- 

cent – performance cruiser figures tell a 

different story. “We don’t have an urge 

to make our Oyster yachts as light as 

possible,” Aitken explains. 

“That’s not in line with our philoso- 

phy. Like all Oysters, superyacht range 

models are designed to be robust, com- 

Large windows in the hull let a lot of light in below 


Sarafin 

fortable and to handle well. Yachts, 

in which you can circumnavigate the 

globe, go on long cruises and yet feel 

safe and comfortable at all times, even 

if the weather is cold and inclement.” 

The naval architects also attached 

great importance to excellent standards 

of sound insulation. They developed an 

effective insulation system in coopera- 

tion with the Dutch insulation experts 

Van Cappellen. Layers of insulation ma- 

terial on the transverse bulkheads and 

the engine room walls combined with 

an interior that to “floats” within the hull 

ensure absolute quiet on board. 

The glass door opens electrically 

The deckhouse saloon, which features 

a dining table to starboard and a navi- 

gation point opposite, is certainly one 

of the most pleasant spots on board, 

thanks to huge, wraparound windows. 

An electrically operated, curved glass 

sliding door, which like the yacht itself 

is Lloyd’s Register- certified, opens qui- 

etly at the touch of a button, providing 

access to the guest cockpit, which is 

covered by a hard-top bimini. Two fac- 

ing seating arrangements are an invita- 

tion to relax, well away from the sheets 

and halyards. Children can play here in 

safety. The crew can conjure up a re- 

freshing sundowner or two from the 

built-in refrigerators beneath the tables. 

The builder installed the working 

cockpit, dominated by the two carbon 

wheels plus instrument panels, aft of 

the bimini. A flush-mounted deck hatch 

leads to the lazarette, which houses 

both a diving compressor and the 

Lloyd‘s-prescribed emergency control 

system. The crew stows a 4.20-metre 

Castoldi jet tender in the bay forward 

of the Hall Spars carbon-fibre mast. 

The wind starts to blow as “Sarafin” 

SPECIFICATION 

LOA: 30.80 m 

LWL: 28.62 m 

Hull speed 2.43√LWL: 13 kn 

Beam: 7.57 m 

Draught: 3.90 m 

Displacement: 105 t 

Materials: Kevlar, carbon, e-glass 

Ballast: 24 t 

Ballast fraction: 22.9 % 

Rigging: sloop 

Rig: Hall Spars 

Above-deck mast height: 43.40 m 

Sails: North Sails (Carbon, Spectra) 

Sail area: 493 m² 

Sail load rating √AS/3√D: 4.70 

Engine: Cummins 

Engine performance: 265 kW 

Propeller: Bruntons Varifold 

Generators: Onan, 2 x 27 kW 

Winches: Lewmar 

Furler: Reckmann 

Glass: Yachtglass 

Rudder system: Lewmar Mamba 

Bow thruster: Lewmar 

Navigation systems: B&G, Simrad 

Communications system: Simrad 

Naval architect, exterior styling: Ed Dubois 

Interior design: Oyster 

Classification: Lloyd’s 

Builder: Oyster Marine / RMK, 2011 

Conventional layout: the deckhouse saloon separates the foredeck section 

with accommodation for the crew of four, the galley and the lower sa- 

loon from the guest accommodation in the aft section. The owner’s suite, 

featuring a Lloyd’s-compliant emergency escape hatch, is located aft. 

Oyster matches the interior layout to each owner‘s brief 


motors her way past Mr. Koç’s private 

island in the Bay of Tuzla. As if some- 

one flicked a switch, the wind is gust- 

ing all of a sudden, forming whitecaps. 

“It was like this these past few days 

during our initial sea trials”, says Lachie 

Paramor. So you can rely on the after- 

noon thermals. The B&G sailing instru- 

ments show a speed of 25 knots up top, 

so it’s time to set the sails. Lewmar cap- 

tive winches operate the main halyard 

and sheet, joystick control is so simple 

and the hydraulics act quickly. The main- 

sail has been set, with one reef, within 

a minute. The Reckmann furler on the 

foredeck swings into action and unfurls 

the staysail. Heading back towards the 

coast close-hauled, “Sarafin” heels, the 

sheets creak a little and the fun factor 

increases by the minute. The displays 

show a true wind speed of 24 knots, 

whilst the log shows 9.5 knots at a true 

wind angle (TWA) of 35°. That is impres- 

sive for a cruiser that is not designed 

purely for out-and-out performance. 

The Lewmar Mamba steering system is 

really responsive, making the rudder 

feel good and carrying out steering 

commands instantly. 

Reliable midday thermals 

After tacking, Paramor is up for it. He 

bears off and wants to see 12 knots 

on his display. Sailing steadily with 

the wind abeam at 80 degrees to true 

makes it happen. It was a wonderful 

day’s sailing, rounded off superbly in a 

dockside restaurant with a chilled bot- 

tle of Turkish Sarafin white wine. “Yes, 

there is a link,“ says Murray Aitken with 

a smile. “During the evening when we 

sealed the deal to build the debut Oys- 

ter 100, “Sarafin’s” owner and I were 

sitting here in the mild evening air and 

we treated ourselves to a couple of 

glasses of this fabulous wine.” Choos- 

ing a name for a yacht can be so easy. 

Powerful looks: 

the Oyster brand 

oozes strength 

and performance. 

PANTAENIUS 

YACHT INSURANCE 

Pantaenius – 

always at 

your Side! 

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Hamburg ∙ Tel. +49-40-37 09 10 ∙ Monaco ∙ Tel. +377-97 98 43 43 ∙ Plymouth ∙ Tel. +44-17 52 22 36 56 

www.pantaenius.com 

* Pantaenius America Ltd. is a licensed insurance agent licensed in all 50 states. It is an independent corporation 

BOAT EXCLUSIVE 1/12 incorporated under the laws of New York and is a separate and distinct entity from any entity of the Pantaenius Group. 

65 

GER11075 www.hqhh.de

Infused with the spirit of great wine - Oyster Yachts

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