Oyster News 52 - Oyster Yachts

A DESIGNERS VIEW
Notes from Rob Humphreys
In an ideal world one would like a brand new
boat’s first outing to be in a soft but building
breeze, taking things gently through that
settling in phase and then into progressively
more wind so that issues like balance and
stability can be assessed. When the boat in
question happens also to be the first of a new
design then one’s hopes of just such a day
have a more poignant ring to them.
Of course it seldom turns out this way, but apart from the bitter cold our first sail on the new
Oyster 82 produced just what the doctor ordered. We left the dock with little more in the air than
an atmosphere of anticipation, allowing us to get the sails rolled out in fairly sedate fashion.
But much as it is important to get the feel of a new boat, it’s also important to get the first
photographs, because the maiden sail of the new Oyster 82 is nothing if not newsworthy. And
when the first (and only, it transpired) bit of sun beams through almost immediately, then you just
have to grab the opportunity and concentrate first on saying ‘cheese’.
It was a touch comical really. Posing to camera and trying to get the boat in the right setting and
backdrop, working in a very confined stretch of water that is the River Orwell and handling what
came almost to order as a fast-building, puffy breeze, and the one blurred head in the first photos
is yours truly, as I constantly snatched backward glances to see how the helmsman’s fingers
were having to deal with each enforced course change, each gust that came through.
Unfortunately for a designer, even the merest such glimpses can make or break his day,
depending on what his own shutters are telling him. Paul Bennett, Cygnus' Skipper, didn’t seem
to be having any problems at all, so perhaps it was time to take in the scenery, and then of
course to take one’s turn at the wheel.
Once the camera was put away we were out into a bit more space and a bit more wind, and I
have to say Cygnus was a joy to steer. Upwind, even in the puffs, it wasn’t so much one hand as
a couple of fingers, and when one needed to duck and dive around the navigation marks it was
very easy to pull her bow down even without calling on the trimmer’s help. Of course we were not
set up and calibrated to properly assess her VMG, but she clearly wanted to march upwind, and
as a platform she felt pretty rock-steady, giving a powerful account of herself.
Of course there are a thousand and one ways to assess a new boat, but three questions tend to top
the list by a country mile. Is she balanced? Yes. Is she stiff? Yes. Is the designer smiling? You bet.
20 www.oystermarine.com
“ONCE THE CAMERA WAS PUT AWAY WE WERE OUT
INTO A BIT MORE SPACE AND A BIT MORE WIND,
AND I HAVE TO SAY CYGNUS WAS A JOY TO STEER”