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Case study: Oyster Marine

LONDON, England -- When Richard Matthews first won Britain's East Coast Offshore Championship in a Hustler 25.5 called UFO, he wanted to repeat this success and commissioned designers Holman and Pye to draw up a prototype 10-metre cruiser racer.

During production, it became known as the UFO 34. Launched in 1980, this was Oyster's first product, and more than 150 of these yachts were sold.

Matthews founded Oyster Marine 27 years ago. It is now the world leader in the construction of Bluewater cruising yachts, with Matthews its chairman.

The UFO 34 led to the creation of a range of cruising and cruiser racing yachts from eight to 24 metres with designs by Holman and Pye, Stephen Jones, Carl Schumacher and most recently Rob Humphreys.

More than 1,000 yachts have been built and the company has twice won the Queen's Award for Export.

Oyster Marine, which introduced the concept of a "deck saloon", has its marina headquarters at the head of the River Orwell in Suffolk, near Ipswich, east England.

Construction of boats takes place at yards in the UK, employing more than 500 craftsmen, and more recently at McDell Marine, New Zealand.

The latest and largest project is the development of the 31-metre Oyster 100 cruising yacht with interior by Dick Young that will take Oyster into the superyacht market.

These plans have been reinforced with Oyster taking a controlling interest in SYS, the Southampton-based yard.

The events in New York on September 11 and the subsequent downturn in the market have not yet affected Oyster, which has a strong order book well into 2003.

The group is expecting a turnover of $30 million for 2001, up from $26 million in 2000.

Matthews has always fostered the racing aspirations of his Oyster owners, encouraging them to take part in cruising rallies worldwide.

This led in April 2001 to the first Antigua Oyster Rally, which attracted 33 Oyster yachts for a mixture of racing and partying. The next Oyster rally is scheduled for 13-19, April 2002.

Matthews, an accomplished off-shore and in-shore racer in a series of yachts called Oystercatcher, is now sailing Oystercatcher XXIV, an Oyster 62 that he took on an extended cruise to the Artic Circle this summer to make a film documentary.

One of his most successful racers has been the 12-metre Crusader, Britain's challenger for the 1987 America's Cup in Perth.

In 1995 he was chairman of a British America's Cup syndicate that failed to raise sufficient funds for a challenge.