Seagrass may be all prevalent in many popular anchorages but that does not make it invincible

When a yacht drops anchor in a seagrass meadow and leaves a divot, or an outboard motor propeller makes a scar, how long does it take for the seagrass to grow back? A lot longer than you probably think. Neptune grass in the Mediterranean, turtle grass in the Caribbean and similar species around the world are the redwoods and oaks of marine ecology: they’re extremely slowgrowing and can live for thousands of years. When damaged, they take decades to recover – or they might never grow back at all. However, they can be restored and 11th Hour Racing is funding some groundbreaking work in this field.

Seagrass propagates mainly by growing its rhizomes in a mat that spreads out just a few inches beneath the sea floor. If a hole is made a bit deeper than that, the seagrass can’t regrow unless the hole is filled in with sand or sediment brought by waves or currents. But quite often waves or currents can make the hole bigger. What starts as a small divot soon becomes a huge crater as the edges of the substrate under the mat of rhizomes are eroded and washed away, leaving an entire meadow of seagrass much more vulnerable to the next storm.

Anchors and outboard motors do a lot more damage than most sailors imagine. But a severe storm can wipe out an entire ecosystem, driving large pieces of flotsam – trees, parts of buildings, boats ripped from their moorings – across seagrass meadows, carving long, deep scars that just get bigger over time. That’s what happened in Puerto Rico in 2017 when two category five hurricanes, Irma and Maria, destroyed great swathes of seagrass and mangroves.

Why should we care about marine plants and trees in the wake of a natural disaster that kills thousands of people and wrecks the homes and livelihoods of many thousands more? Because seagrass and mangroves, like salt marshes, are natural storm protection barriers that absorb huge amounts of wave energy and prevent coastal erosion. They also play a crucial role in maintaining water quality and support the lifecycle of fish species that communities and entire nations rely on for food.

There’s another big-picture reason for all of us to care. While science points clearly to manmade climate change as a major cause of the increase in severe weather events that we’ve witnessed in our lifetimes, it also identifies coastal wetlands as one of our best solutions for confronting and curbing climate change. Together, healthy seagrass and mangroves form a ‘blue carbon’ ecosystem, also known as carbon sinks, that can store up to 10 times as much carbon per hectare as a forest on land. But the reverse is also true. When blue carbon ecosystems are degraded, they release similarly huge amounts of stored carbon back into the atmosphere – and right now, in most parts of the world, they are in sharp decline.

Slow-growing seagrasses like Thalassia (turtle grass) and Posidonia (Neptune grass) store far more blue carbon than their own weight, sequestering it in the substrate. Mangroves do the same and also store large amounts in their trunks, roots, limbs and leaves. Restoring them not only mitigates against some of the worst symptoms of climate change, like flooding and erosion, it also helps to combat the root cause. On top of all the obvious benefits for local ecosystems and communities, seagrass and mangrove restoration projects can, if done right, offer organisations and individuals an effective way to offset their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis.

To compensate for the carbon generated by the Vestas 11th Hour Racing sailing team during The Ocean Race 2017-18, 11th Hour Racing has been collaborating with The Ocean Foundation on blue carbon projects in Puerto Rico. They used The Ocean Foundation’s Seagrass Grow Calculator to convert the team’s carbon footprint to an approximate dollar value. ‘We have retrospectively increased our investments to include onsite training for the local community to fund the education programme around blue carbon certification. This is important to us as we have a net positive approach for our team, a determination to leave a restorative impact in our wake, both environmentally and socially,’ says Damian Foxall, sustainability manager, 11th Hour Racing Team.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, The Ocean Foundation and its local partner Conservación Conciencia identified Jobos Bay on the south coast of Puerto Rico as a suitable site for seagrass restoration. Crucially, all of the necessary infrastructure was already in place to make the project viable. The western part of the bay is managed by the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, with staff who were keen to restore their seagrass meadows but lacked the additional resources to do so. One of the Foundation’s go-to seagrass restoration experts, Manuel Merello, had restored a patch of seagrass in Jobos Bay 10 years prior, so proof of concept was already established. ‘All the pieces were in place,’ says Ben Scheelk, The Ocean Foundation’s programme officer leading the Blue Carbon initiative. ‘And that’s essential. To work on public land, you need a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers and they won’t issue a permit unless the people doing the work are credible.’

Restoration work started in 2018 and the simple, low-cost method of seed dispersal was swiftly ruled out. Thalassia seeds have a very low germination rate and it just wouldn’t work in such a large area. ‘Given the scale, we needed a more labourintensive but efficient approach called modified compressed succession,’ Scheelk explains. ‘To repair a hole or scar, first we bring in biodegradable sediment bags – sometimes hundreds of them – and stack them in the hole to re-grade the surface. The real issue is to get the edges repaired. If they’re too steep, the seagrass can’t grow.

Above: seagrass and mangroves combine to form a blue carbon ecosystem that not only mitigates against some of the worst aspects of climate change, such as flooding and erosion, but also helps to combat the root causes. People and organisations can invest in blue carbon restoration projects to voluntarily offset their own carbon footprints.

‘Then we take fast-growing pioneer species like shoal grass or manatee grass from a donor bed, wrap them around a metal stake and put these planting units in the sediment bags. They quickly spread, stabilise the sediment and prevent further erosion. This creates the right conditions to allow the climax species, Thalassia, to overtake them in time. We’re speeding up what nature would do over many decades, compressing that into five to ten years.’ Bird stakes – PVC pipes with wooden perches on top – are then placed in the seagrass to provide a natural source of fertiliser.

After a successful pilot, the next phase added five acres of seagrass and an acre of mangroves to the restoration plan. A series of workshops trained locals in repair and planting work. People from other parts of Puerto Rico came to learn and took the skills back to their own restoration projects. Hundreds of mangrove seedlings were raised in greenhouses at the University of Puerto Rico. The project’s success attracted more funders and a massive expansion is now planned, restoring 500 acres of badly degraded habitat in the eastern part of Jobos Bay, with the added challenge of hydrological works to restore the natural flow of water that has been altered by a road and canals serving two power stations.

Above: shallow seagrass meadows like this are very vulnerable to damage by outboard motors – after which they may take decades to recover

Building on the success at Jobos Bay, 11th Hour Racing is now helping The Ocean Foundation to start another restoration project in the famous Bioluminescent Bay – the brightest in the world – on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Again they’re working with a local organisation, Vieques Conservation & Historical Trust. Outside help is needed as the community has such limited resources that four years after the hurricanes, they are still struggling to rebuild their island’s only hospital.

‘The bay took quite a beating from the hurricanes in 2017,’ Scheelk says. ‘There was a lot of destruction at the mouth of the bay and it’s eroding away. The concern is that if it widens, the nutrient balance will be thrown off and the dinoflagellate plankton that causes the bioluminescence will get flushed out into the ocean. That would devastate the island’s economy as all the ecotourism is based around that bay.’

After securing the mouth of the bay with two acres of mangroves, and some seagrass if a permit is granted, the plan is to restore the mangroves all around the bay, about 50 acres in total. ‘11th Hour Racing provided vital funding at the very beginning and we leveraged that money to make the project happen, which is how we got to where we are today,’ Scheelk says. ‘And now they’re helping us in Vieques. It’s been a remarkable relationship.’

The snag with blue carbon projects, he explains, is that while the potential benefits are enormous it takes a very long time to get a project certified, which must happen before funders can receive tradable carbon credits in return for donations: ‘You won’t know how much carbon has been offset until long after the work has finished.’ Carbon sampling can’t be done for a decade after planting and full benefit may take a century. But a restored seagrass meadow can thrive for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years. ‘Mangroves are a bit different but both species are very long-lived,’ he explains. ‘They can effectively store carbon forever.’

To calculate and offset your own personal or organisational carbon footprint by investing in blue carbon habitat restoration work, go to Oceanfdn.org/calculator and join The Ocean Foundation’s Seagrass Grow programme.

Click here for more information on 11th Hour Racing »

From the humblest garage build to the fastest maxi racer the Gougeon Brothers re-wrote the script when it came to modern boatbuilding

Faster, Higher, Tougher, Stronger is best known as the motto of Olympic achievement but it could equally apply to the spirit of innovation that the founding Gougeon brothers brought to the West System brand which endures more than half a century later. Dave Johnson, sales director of Wessex Resins and Adhesives, licensed manufacturers of West System products within Europe, has seen an explosion of that pioneering spirit over the past year. ‘It’s wonderful to see our products being used across such a diverse range of waterborne craft, from standup paddleboards to some of the AC75s in the recent America’s Cup.

‘We’re proud of the fact that we can trace the heritage of our products directly back to the Gougeon brothers in America, who back in the Sixties were the first people to start using epoxy for boatbuilding. These days, any Seahorse reader knows that building lighter, stronger, durable performance-optimised structures is definitely the way to go with any sailing boat where boatspeed = horsepower/weight, but it wasn’t so obvious back then.’

It was Meade Gougeon’s obsession with that formula that helped him become a multiple championship winner in the DN class iceboat. ‘Meade and his brothers looked at that small highly-stressed plywood one-design fuselage, and started using epoxy bonding and coating techniques that took the DN to a new level of performance,’ says Johnson. ‘It’s incredible to think that on the ice these small craft, even many decades ago, were matching or beating the performance of a modern AC75 on water. Both “runner” (skates) design and rig power/drag are prime design considerations with speeds of 40kts upwind and 65+ kts downwind. There are a surprising number of parallels, in terms of the pursuit of marginal gains in reducing surface and aero drag whilst increasing power to weight ratio with no loss of durability.’

Main picture: West System epoxy plays a crucial role in the construction process of many of the finest strip-planked modern classics, including the beautiful boats built by Spirit Yachts.
Below: at the other end of the spectrum, Pro-Set epoxy is used to build AC75s!

From those humble beginnings, West System has developed a range of battle-hardened, marine-proof products that work across the whole range of water craft, from wooden classics to the latest carbon composite extreme machines. ‘Here in the UK we see a number of people building dinghies and small race yachts in plywood. We see plenty of activity in the classic keelboat classes like the XODs, the Royal Burnham and Royal Corinthian One Designs, where our products are being used on numerous classic restoration projects.

‘At the other end of the speed range our product, Pro-Set epoxy, a sister brand to West System but for composite construction, is being used in projects where performance is the priority, where minimising weight and maximising strength is critical.’ One of the best examples of that is the Exocet, the International Moth design built by Simon Maguire, which has won most of the recent World Championships. ‘In the Worlds before last I think Simon’s boats occupied 19 of the top 22 places in the overall results. And all but one of every Exocet that has been built is still out there sailing. The only one that isn’t currently sailing is Simon’s own, which is hanging up in the ceiling of his workshop waiting to be finished!’

Additions to the current supply list include Ovington Boats in the north of England, builder of a wide range of epoxy composite dinghies and small keelboats including 49ers, Flying Fifteens, 505s and the Musto Skiff. Johnson recalls when Wessex supplied Ovington with Pro-Set laminating epoxy for building a run of more than 120 Mumm 30s, the iconic 30ft sports boat which these days is better known as the Farr 30. ‘Even more than a quarter of a century later most of these boats are still going as strong as ever,’ he says, ‘and some of them are doing extremely well on IRC handicap.’

With that heritage in mind, Johnson is particularly pleased to have earned the epoxy business at Ovington Boats. We strive hard to provide a technical advantage in terms of what we're prepared to do with testing and evaluation for any of our customers. Ovington Boats know that they will receive unparalleled technical support, whether it’s in providing advice on production related issues, or technical support on testing and development within our laboratory.

We’ve been doing this for 50 years but we’re never standing still. We're constantly evolving our epoxy formulations year by year, to make them safer to use and to explore anything that gives our products better physical qualities. We’re also making our epoxy easier to use, making sure that it's usable in a typical boat building workshop, which may not be a painted floor and a clean room type of environment.’

Above: West System epoxy is here used to laminate the timber hull frames and stringers inside this Spirit yacht. Even when working in a controlled environment, one of the major benefits of West System epoxy products is ease of use.
Below: back in the 1960s it was Meade Gougeon’s passion for competitive ice yachting that drove him and his brother Jan to develop the West System epoxies that revolutionised the way boats are built

For the explosion in “garage boatbuilding” during the past year of lockdown, Wessex Resins has seen a similar explosion in sales of West System epoxy. ‘It’s one of the only epoxies out there that will cure at low temperatures. So if you’re working in your shed at home, you would have supreme confidence in getting good results from our products.’

Ease of use is not just for the garage band though, it’s a relevant issue at every level of the sport. ‘Even in the America’s Cup you want something that’s relatively easy to work with. Even in a controlled environment you don’t want to be working with materials that are too fussy. Everything we create is designed to be usable in a boatbuilding scenario: the viscosities are perfect, the cure times are easy to achieve, the workshop conditions are relatively easy to achieve because you don’t need to generate high temperatures to get really, really good results.’

The qualities of West System and Pro-Set epoxy have caught the eye of manufacturers outside of the marine industry, such as in wind turbine production where the epoxy was used for development work and creating high-precision tooling. Increasingly Pro-Set epoxy is being adopted by parts of the high-performance motor racing industry as a viable and much more affordable alternative to some of the specialist epoxies that have dominated that market. I’d love to be able to tell you the name of the motor racing company we’re working with now but they were purchasing an aerospace-certificated epoxy that was costing five times more than something we could supply that had actually been used in the America's Cup. This was considered an unnecessary expense as the components they were manufacturing didn't fly.’ So they are now using the same Super Toughened product that was used n elements of the AC75s built by American Magic and Team Ineos UK for the America’s Cup at the start of the year.

If anything sums up the way West System and Pro-Set products serve the very top to the grassroots of the whole marine market, it’s probably best embodied in the Vampire foiling catamaran. ‘There’s a guy in Brightlingsea on the east coast of England called Graham Eeles who’s been building all the rudders for Spirit Yachts for the last five years. Graham has been working in conjunction with a couple of sailors - Will Sunnucks and Kyle Stoneham - on the Vampire foiling project. It’s an amazing machine, a converted 20ft two-person multihull that can foil quite happily at 28 to 30 kts. Graham had a few of the Ineos Team visit his workshop before they’d built any of their own prototypes. So I asked Graham, ‘Why didn’t you join the team!’ and Graham said, ‘Because I like doing my own thing.’ That’s what a lot of our customers are like, making incredible boats like the Vampire but getting on with it quietly, doing it because that’s simply what they love doing.’

West System and Pro-Set are proud to provide the products and the know-how to support passionate boatbuilders like Graham Eeles and many other magnificent men and women in their flying and floating machines. It’s a continuation of that “can do” pioneering spirit embodied by Jan and Meade Gougeon more than 50 years ago, and it’s exactly the legacy those innovative brothers would have wanted.

Click here for more information on Wessex Resins »

Sails for an 81-metre Panamax three-masted schooner, total sail area 3,500sqm... that won’t be a problem, sir

For many sailmakers there is no greater challenge than designing, building and fitting superyacht sails. Exceeding 30m in length and never the same. Each is custom in design and build with unique dimensions and characteristics, professional captains and discerning owners who are making considerable investments into every aspect of their yacht. In a world of mass-production of even luxury goods, the customised quality of superyachts stands out as being unique, a level that Doyle Sails meets routinely not only in Palma but around the world.

Technology within sailmaking continues to strengthen and Doyle Sails is leading the fleet with constant innovation being offered to their clients around the world. The innovation is being driven by having the right people involved with every single project – leading experts in sail design and construction ensure that each sail being delivered is 100 per cent suited to that yacht. With the combined experience of a worldwide group of sailing and sailmaking experts this knowledge is applied to every sail.

Doyle Sails Palma is one of five major Doyle Sails’ superyacht hubs around the world. Managing Director Chris Sherlock partnering with Superyacht Sales Manager and Director Scott Zebny, alongside grand prix expert and Director Luke Molloy offer world class service and new sails to many superyachts from the stunning vista of Palma de Mallorca. The Doyle Sails superyacht network continues to be a force to be reckoned with, and with footholds in many of the world’s most prestigious superyacht hubs including Italy, New Zealand, Newport and the United Kingdom, it is no wonder they continue to grow market share.

Chris Sherlock’s experience is extremely hands-on, his professional sailmaking career is strengthened by spending more than three decades managing high profile maxi and supermaxi campaigns. The most prominent of these was in the long-term employment of the ever-effervescent Mike Slade and his Farr-designed Leopard 3, a 30m canting-keeled racing yacht that was not only a contender for elapsed time records soon after its launch in 2007, but had the added extra of being adaptable for racing and cruising charters as well. Being entered in most of the prestigious ocean racing events on the yachting calendar, the Leopard team always in transit with pressure to remain competitive and reliable to meet not only Slade’s needs, but those of his charter clientele as well.

Similarly, Scott Zebny started working with superyachts some 30 years ago in Fort Lauderdale, and was one of the early pioneers to bring a competitive sailor’s eye to this new and growing superyacht racing scene – coupled with his university degree in aerospace engineering, his attention to detail and understanding of how sails should work delivered exceptional value as well.

‘Prior to joining the Doyle Sails team in 2019, I had been watching the group for a while. I was impressed by their continued investment in the right people and in technology,’ says Zebny. Take, for example, the design and build of sails for the 81m Panamax three-masted schooner Sea Eagle II. Everything about this project could be seen as challenging, but for Doyle Sails it was an opportunity once again to showcase their passion for delivering the best sails available, every time. The mandate was to produce impressive performance and easy sail handling, and with a combined sail area of 3,500m² across three rigs, it was a yacht that was nothing short of astounding. Each mast has in boom furling mainsails while the aft two have furling staysails which are used when reaching. A large furling Yankee provides the ultimate performance upwind offering a slightly easier set up when off the wind, made easier by sheeting to the same point when reefed.

Zebny continues, ‘I joined Doyle when this project was already well underway, but I was immediately impressed at how well their design team had collaborated with all parties – the designers at Dykstra Naval Architects and Mark Whiteley Design, the boatbuilders at Royal Huisman, the sparmakers at Rondal, the carbon batten suppliers at CTech. After taking three days to load the battens and the sails, on our first sea trial the sails went up without a hitch and looked amazing: the luff curve matched the spar bend perfectly, and the full-length batten systems were extremely wellmatched for the loads and presented no issues going up or down.

‘Also, the use of Structured Luff headsails and staysails meant the halyard loads were reduced to seven tons on a 2:1 system, as measured by a load pin,’ says Zebny. ‘Load sensors are on all the systems because there are particular sail load combinations needed on Sea Eagle II for the spar and standing rigging systems to maintain their integrity at their designed weight and strength. The sail systems need to be perfect to work effectively within these constraints as the owner travels the world, recently the owner has taken the boat across the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti and then to New Zealand with no issues in the sail systems.’

Another notable project is the new Baltic 68 Café Racer, a high-profile project that is turning heads not only with clever design and style innovations, but with its strong emphasis on use of environmentally sustainable technologies in the build and outfit of this ultra-modern day yacht. Here Zebny is working with the Doyle design team, designer Javier Jaudenes and sparmaker Marstrom.

‘This is an interesting boat: a high-performance luxury daysailer that places a high importance on sail handling,’ says Zebny. ‘The rig has no backstays, no runners and a very low angle spreader sweep, so this is the perfect application of a Structured Luff headsail to minimise headstay sag without resorting to massive rig loads.’

Above: Doyleʼs network of sail lofts offer superyacht size production facilities strategically located in Palma de Mallorca, Auckland, Hamble, UK and Newport, USA which effectively provides clients with full global coverage. The new Palma loft has 3,000m2 of sailmaking space which is enough to produce sails for the worldʼs largest yachts
Below: perfectly set Structured Luff sails on the giant three-master Sea Eagle II
Bottom: Doyle was involved throughout the design process for the new Botín 56 Black Pearl

Model calculations indicate mast jack pressure is reduced by 40 per cent, and the headstay load by 30 per cent, with the reduction in sag adding not only more efficiency to the flying shape, but two to three per cent more effective sail area as well. Running this through the VPP suggests thrust gains of up to two per cent. Ultimately it means less load, less weight and more luff projection forward, so more power (read speed)’.

Luke Molloy joined the Doyle team after completing the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race with Team Akzo Nobel as helmsman/trimmer and in charge of the sail programme. Luke continues to have active roles across a large number of Grand Prix programmes offering incredible value and relevance to all of his projects.

A true testament to this value is with the recently launched Botin 56 Black Pearl, a performance orientated offshore boat built at King Marine in Valencia where Molloy had been involved with the project discussions from their inception. With a sailmaker of this calibre included at an early stage and the Doyle Structured Luff technology, it allowed for performance improvements and a reduction in loads in the construction of the yacht, a concept that has been adopted by some of the world’s most prestigious naval architects.

‘I’ve raced on the previous Black Pearl, a Carkeek 47, and the team was impressed with the Doyle Cableless Code 0 and A3 sails that we delivered,’ says Molloy. ‘Being involved early gave us the ability to work with Botin Partners on deck layout options, as well as with the sparmakers at Southern Spars on the deck-stepped rig design, with Carbo- Link for the standing rigging, to optimise all features in these systems and collaborate this into our sail design. The sail selection for Black Pearl includes flying headsails and spinnakers geared towards leaving no gaps throughout the wind spectrum.’

Sherlock, Zebny and Molloy are part of a 16-strong team at Doyle Palma’s new 3000m² facility just north of Palma in Marratxi, where at this size they are able to handle not only the assembly and servicing of superyacht sails, but also accommodate any requirements from their grand prix customers as well. Doyle Sails’ dedication to their client’s needs is complete, offering full service for the life of their sails: not only assembly and servicing, but also an eco-friendly laundry for washing sails and cordage and use of climate-controlled storage facilities to ensure sails are not damaged when not used. Even when their lives propelling boats are finished, Doyle Palma helps find re-purposed use of all that high-tech sail cloth into sailing-related accessories.

‘While my role since joining the team has been focused on sales,’ says Zebny, ‘being here in Palma at our new facility has reinvigorated my passion for seeing the elements of sailmaking come together under one roof to create sails for these magnificent yachts. We have a single-minded focus to put our clients' needs first, and at this facility we can achieve this goal.’

Click here for more information on Doyle Sails »

For their first new mid-size model to be launched in close to 15 years Oyster Yachts went back to a previously highly successful formula but now applied in a very different and contemporary modern package

The Oyster 495 cruising yacht is a major milestone in more ways than one. It’s the first entirely new model launched by Oyster since it was taken over three years ago by Richard Hadida, who has refocused Oyster Yachts on its core values. It’s the first new ‘sub-50ft’ sailing yacht from Oyster since 2007 and a lot of big-boat innovation has trickled down and been built in. And it's the first Oyster in a long time that’s been developed with the involvement of the marque’s founder, Richard Matthews, who rejoined Oyster’s board of directors last year. There’s clearly some pent-up demand, as six 495s were sold off plan before the first layer of laminate went into the mould a few weeks ago to begin the build of hull number one.

‘It’s a completely new Oyster,’ says Paul Adamson, Oyster’s chief commercial officer. ‘She is designed to appeal to younger owners and she’s full of innovative features. It’s a balance between preserving Oyster’s core values – safety and the ability to go anywhere in the world in luxury and comfort – while introducing benefits of modern, contemporary design. The hulls are lighter, yet incredibly robust with more emphasis on performance for excellent daily passage-making.’

Humphreys Yacht Design has drawn all Oyster hulls for the last 25 years, gradually building up data and knowledge that informs their designs. ‘The big step change came with the 885 and introduction of twin rudders,’ Tom Humphreys explains. ‘That allowed us to draw more powerful sections and carry more form stability, enabling us to subtly increase sail-carrying power with respect to displacement, resulting in quite a significant leap forward in performance without losing any of the key characteristics of high stability and comfortable motion which are so important in a blue water cruising design.’

‘The twin rudders are phenomenal,’ says Adamson, who skippered the first Oyster 885 around the world in the inaugural Oyster World Rally. ‘They operate in a freestream and that reduces drag and gives superb directional stability which also unloads the helm, which in turns unloads the autopilot.’

The design brief for the 495 was ‘very much a no-compromise, luxury blue water cruiser and an extension of the existing Oyster range,’ Humphreys says. ‘At this size the design extends into a very competitive area of the market and a huge amount of research and development was conducted by us and in the in-house Oyster team to find the sweet spot in terms of size for this new model.’

So what’s different? The 495 has a totally flush, uncluttered deck forward of the mast, a feature that was previously reserved for the larger models in the range. The sailplan is non-overlapping, with a 105 per cent Solent headsail that’s easy for a shorthanded crew to tack and gybe. The jib sheets have been moved away from the guest cockpit. But the 495’s strongest suit is arguably the sail-handling systems, which Oyster boldly claims are the most comprehensively automated on the market.

‘We’ve been working with Seldén on an electric-powered automatic outhaul that can be tensioned or slackened at the touch of a button, rather than on a winch,’ Adamson says. ‘Larger Oysters have hydraulic rams to do that but we wanted to keep hydraulics off this boat.’ With electric in-mast mainsail furling, electric sheet winches and electricpowered headsail and code zero furlers, almost any sailing manoeuvre can be done singlehanded from helm at the touch of a button.

To optimise the cockpit for ocean cruising, it is split into three separate zones. The forward part is for guests, designed for relaxing but also for efficient watch keeping. The helm stations are separate and completely self-sufficient, with secure footwells and seats with solid backrests. Aft of the twin helms is a spacious, uncluttered aft deck that can be useful for entertaining. ‘There’s a really easy flow-through from one area to another,’ Adamson says.

Great care has been taken, however, to preserve Oyster’s core DNA. The new hulls still have excellent directional stability, for example. ‘It’s a big advantage for ocean cruising,’ Adamson says. ‘And if you get caught out with a bit too much sail up – which we all do from time to time – it’s no problem at all.’

The same goes for motion comfort, which is crucial on long passages, so the 495 does not have hard chines in her aft quarters like many other Humphreys designs. ‘For a moderate to heavy displacement design so much of the stability comes from the displacement itself, enabling more gentle lines and volume distribution along the yacht’s length,’ Humphreys explains. ‘Which is a benefit in terms of minimising wetted area across a range of heel angles and softening motions in a seaway compared to a more aggressively shaped hull form with chines.’

Excellent ergonomics is also part of the core Oyster DNA. The 495 is designed to be as comfortable as possible for a crew that may spend weeks heeled at 20°, which informs everything from the angle of the cockpit table corners to the shoulder clearance in the companionway. ‘We built an exact full-scale mockup of the boat from cockpit to transom.’ Adamson says, ‘to ensure that moving around the boat feels completely natural in a seaway.’

Above: the deck saloon provides a sheltered lee for the 495’s passenger cockpit, reducing the need for a sprayhood. Below decks it creates a magnificent bright and airy living space.
Below: the hull shape by Humphreys Yacht Design is optimised for motion comfort and sea-keeping, directional stability, high load-carrying capacity and balance. It’s also a lighter displacement yacht than the previous generation of Oysters with a greater emphasis on performance

Another of Oyster’s USPs, the ability to carry a good payload, has also been preserved. The 495’s full-bodied hull is designed to carry 2.5 tonnes of kit and stores on an ocean passage with a further 1.5 tonnes of fuel, fresh water and other liquids – without a significant effect on boatspeed, handling, motion or balance. You can’t say that about many yachts of this size.

‘We used our in-house design tools to develop and refine the hull,’ Humphries says. ‘However, in many ways the core naval architecture is the real driver in the development of our Oyster designs to facilitate their high load-carrying capability and ability to cover the range of rig and keel options on offer and the various optional extras that can result in some pretty big variations in displacement and centre of gravity.’

A lot of thought goes into things that other builders leave owners to figure out for themselves, like the boom preventer and the headsail poling-out system. ‘A huge number of blue water sailing miles have been fed into those setups, making sure they work flawlessly from the cockpit,’ Adamson says. ‘And there has to be a manual backup for everything.’ Despite the proliferation of automated, electric-powered systems, everything has been designed to make maintenance as simple as possible. There’s a full-height door into the engine room, where everything is laid out for easy access and clearly labelled.

The same thinking informs all aspects of the yacht’s interior. The U-shaped galley is a secure, wellcontained and practical configuration with excellent ventilation thanks to the front-opening saloon windows. And the large, forward-facing chart table is another key feature. ‘We know that most people spend very little time navigating with paper charts nowadays, but many of our owners have a business to run and they need a place to work from,’ Adamson explains. ‘And a chart table is the best place to fit modern comms equipment like a computer and satellite phone.’

A full-beam master cabin is another part of Oyster’s core DNA and the three vertical windows have become a signature feature of the brand. ‘They let in a huge amount of natural light and keep you connected to the outside world,’ Adamson says.

The electric-powered, cassette-style bathing platform is a new feature. It makes good use of the space between the twin rudders and frees up stowage space in the lazarette. Adamson explains 'the cassette is more versatile than a traditional fold out transom platform. For example, When you’re berthed stern-to a low dock, it can be used as a passerelle – you extend out just the amount that’s needed.’

Renewable power sources are of course available. To generate sufficient power for all systems on passage, Oyster uses a combination of solar panels, a Watt & Sea hydrogenerator and quick-charging lithium-ion batteries. ‘We are looking at all sustainable options such as hybrid drives’ Adamson says. ‘We’re very focused on the green agenda but very clear that we don’t want to greenwash. Sailing yachts are fundamentally a hybrid and we think there’s a growth opportunity as the motorboat market starts to shift back to sail.’

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