This month was a not-so-productive month in terms of bringing forward my refit project of the King´s Cruiser 33 – after a long winter I started with finishing the yacht´s safe in the fore cabin (read it here and here) and I agree that this isn´t the most important of items to do. Anyway, I then switched to another “important” point on my list: The half model of the Oyster. Yes, that one is finished now too.
It all began some months ago when I came back from 2018 Duesseldorf boat show and was still enchanted by the wonderful lines of the Oyster 745 which I liked so much that I came by the boat each and every day of the show admiring this dream yacht. I put together some offcut Teak left over from previous projects and made the half model by transferring the nice hull shape of Tom and Rob Humphreys. Here´s the first part of the half model-project.
The rest was a no brainer: I just had to paint the white hull with some details like the decorative blue stripe, the cat-eye windows of the salon, of course the signature hull-windows of salon and owner´s cabin and some details in the cockpit, like cushion, the steering posts and some other stuff. I skipped the idea to add winches and other more tiny details because I was planning to mount this half model in my own sailing yacht – and there it´s gonna be rough some time.
But why an Oyster? Well, you see, for me this yacht is currently the pinnacle of what a luxurious blue water boat should be looking like. I absolutely adore the lines of the boat, the rounded shape of the deep V-hull, the raised salon with the signature “cateye”-windows and the tall, beautiful rigging. For me, she is a true beauty.
Where to put the Oyster in my boat?
So I took the finished model and went to my King´s Cruiser. The boat is very, very tiny compared to the Oyster but I would say both feature some classic lines and so for me it´s a good idea to put the half model up onto the forward bulkhead in the salon. But where?
I sat down on the benches to either side of the dining table (well, you need lots of imagination to visualize the dining table here) and was putting on a sticker where my head ended to mark the lowermost possible position of the half model. Stepping back from the bulkhead, I saw the problem …
Trying to fit the model to the (slimmer) port side part of the bulkhead, I realized that the space needed for putting up the model here just isn´t there. No way to have the model mounted to the port side. I guess it would be better to have the gauges put up here again, like the barometer and hygrometer, just where the three instruments have been placed when I bought the boat. But where to put the Oyster then?
Same with starboard – the width of the bulkhead is sufficient of course, but as well the model is too big for the space available. I can either hang it lower but then the back of the people´s heads sitting here would always bang into the model – it wouldn´t last long, the rudder blade would be the first to be broken off. Well, that´s a disappointment. No way to have the Oyster mounted inside my yacht. But, if you ask me, it was predictable: You simply cannot fit a 74 feet boat into 33 feet …
Like Oyster yachts? Here´s more to classy British blue water sailing:
Sailing a Rolex: Aboard the Oyster 757
Complete walkthrough of the Oyster 745
Future of long range sailing: Talking to Rob and Tom Humphreys