Oyster Marine commissions Dubois to produce two superyachts 8/5/07

Two of the most successful names in British yachting have teamed up to create a new range of series built Superyachts.

Double Queen’s Award yacht builder, Oyster Marine, has commissioned Dubois Naval Architects to produce a Dubois Oyster 100 and a Dubois Oyster 125. Manufacture of the new designs is expected to take place at RMK Marine, Istanbul, Turkey.

Starting with the 100, both yachts will be built from female tooling in modern, composite materials. This investment in tooling will allow the Dubois Oyster 100 and Dubois Oyster 125 to be marketed competitively by Oyster in a growing international market in which Dubois designs are regarded as world leaders.

There are more than 30 Dubois designed yachts over 100 feet afloat and by the end of 2007 no less than 40 Dubois designs will have been launched, the largest at 188 feet, with several others in build.

Now in its 34th year, Oyster already has some 1,100 Oyster yachts in commission and, until now, the largest model in the Oyster range has been the Oyster 82, of which twelve examples have been sold.

RMK Marine in Turkey is a member of the Koç Group, which is among the top 200 companies of the Fortune 500 list worldwide and who represent 10% of Turkey’s GNP. RMK Marine is currently building a 170 footer, which will serve as a useful benchmark for buyers of the new Dubois Oyster Superyacht Range.

Richard Matthews, founder and Chairman/CEO of Oyster, said: “We are excited that at last we can offer a competitive range of large yachts designed and built with detail and quality that we expect will raise the bar, even by current Superyacht standards.”

Ed Dubois added: “It’s a unique opportunity to combine a real depth of experience from Oyster, who we consider to be the world’s best series composite producer, with Dubois Naval Architects’ breadth of design knowledge. The decision to plan and develop two designs simultaneously demonstrates the commitment behind this really exciting project.”