Engineered for adventure - Oyster Yachts

Oyster SouthamptonThe Oyster 825 is the latest model to be builtat the Oyster facility at Southamptonprestigious classics as Altair, Thendara, BelleAdventure, Ticonderoga and probably the mostfamous J-Class of them all, Velsheda. SYS willcontinue to carry out these type of refits onclassic yachts under this well establishedbrand name.Over the years, the company gained anenviable reputation for being able to restorevirtually anything to its former glory—andoften beyond. “Velsheda probably involvedmore work than a new build,” remarkedHarvey Jones, the Oyster Group technicaldirector. “But the same craftsmen who didsuch a great job on her are now building thenew Oysters. We move their skills betweenvarious projects, resulting in a consistentlyhigh standard.”The Southampton yard fitted Leopard with anultra-lightweight carbon interiorTaking a tour of the Southampton facility,we began in the design office, a modern twostorey brick building in the shadow of themain construction halls.In charge of the design team is WayneHuntley, who demonstrated the workings of apowerful 3D design package.“The whole office works with Catia, acomplex package used predominantly in thecar and aerospace industries,” he said. “It’s apowerful tool, so my job is to work out whereit can be used most efficiently. We take all theengineering spaces and fully 3D model them,and also model the accommodation, unless it’sa straightforward refit job. We have to becareful not to over-engineer some items, butwith the production Oysters, we modelvirtually everything.”Gyrating on the screen was a complexplan of the new 885, with many of theparts fully colour coded. This, we were told,is a production model to identify notonly the type of material being used,TOp viewDescribing himself as a‘fanatical’ yachtsman,David Tydeman is atrained naval architectand Lloyds surveyor. Hebegan his career in Britishshipbuilding, working for 15 years in theNorth Sea oil industry before runningBeneteau UK. He has been a flag officer ofthe Royal Ocean Racing Club and owned astring of 16 race boats that have provideda ‘reasonable’ trophy cupboard. In the mid‘90s he bought the Melges 24 licence andset up the class. Tydeman has alsoworked in the private equity sector,overseeing large mergers and acquisitionsin the City of London .“It’s nice to be back in the leisureindustry, although I didn’t expect to haveto dust off my Lloyds surveying expertisewhen joining Oyster—it’s been helpfulwhen dealing with the superyacht buildsin Turkey!Into Europe“When it comes to markets, we’reexpanding the geography. If you lookat our sales record over the last twodecades, it’s been 70 per cent English/American until five years ago. We had leadtimes of perhaps two to three years; andwere selling easily only in English. But overthe last three to four years, as we’ve beenputting more determined marketing intoEurope, that’s been changing. Now wemarket in five languages, and we’ve liftedthe styling of the boats, the engineering,the production, and the emphasis onowners’ regattas.“We sell boats to people who wantto go sailing. We build boats to have anadventure on, so it’s a lifestyle choice.“I would like us to be a truly globalbrand, although we’re being selectiveon overseas marketing. After all, we’renot talking about building 100 boatsper annum—we’re still only building to acapacity of about 20 to 30 per annum,David TydemanOyster Group CEODavid Tydeman is a ‘fanatical’ yachtsmanwith a little less whilst things are quiet,but we just want to change the mix. Weaim for us to have as strong a reputationin Europe as we have in the UK.“We’re pretty stretched on the successof the 825 and 885, but are still workingon a couple of feasibility studies withOyster clients who would like a biggerboat built in Southampton.“We want to make it known that SYSis clearly part of the Oyster group. Ourbest big boat talents are here, refittingeverything from large motoryachts tolightweight racing yachts, and doinga lot more customising of the biggerOysters than most people are aware.The engineering team’s expertise herehas been a core part of delivering the100 and the 125 models in Turkey. It’simportant that we keep the SYS brandsynonymous with the things it used todo, particularly the association with theclassic yacht refits.“Future market trends are anybody’sguess, but we’ve made some changesrecently, and we’re as lean as we needto be. We have invested in new products;we’ve got a fantastic marketing team andwe’re selling boats. We have some newprivate individual shareholders who makefast decisions and don’t have to report tobanks or committees. This relationship isworking, so we’re doing well. I can see ourstrong position continuing.”“Future market trends are anybody’sguess, but we’ve made some changes recently,and we’re as lean as we need to be”DECEMBER 2012 | www.SUPERYACHTBUSINESS.net 41