The couple had been planning to circumnavigate for over five years and originally signed up for the Oyster World Rally 2022-23, but a major development project Evgeny was working on stopped him joining the adventure.
Fast forward to November 2023, Evgeny took ownership of his new Oyster 885SII – Satori II. Following a short handover, the yacht headed for Antigua via Gibraltar in time for the start of the Oyster World Rally 2024-25.
14 months later we spoke to Evgeny and Lawrie just after they had left Namibia on their passage to St Helena.
Evgeny: Normally there are four crew, me, my wife and guests – so six most of the time. And then possibly 3-4 other people.
Lawrie: I was very keen on Oyster from day one but had to do a sales job on Evgeny! As with any business project, he likes to understand what is available before he invests.
A key factor was the Oyster Family. It’s a really strong network and the resources Oyster can call upon is phenomenal…the after sales support, the warranty team, the socialising, the regattas and the Oyster World Rally. It’s a difficult package to beat – none of the other marques have the all-encompassing offering Oyster has.
Evgeny: We checked six or seven other brands and Oyster seemed to be the best. Others seem to build for very short passages, from one marina to the other. I wouldn’t choose any of them to go around the world.
Flexibility, quality and reliability are the most important factors. Oyster worked with us on the design and layout for our bespoke yacht. It’s our second Oyster – we liked our 745 a lot but to go around the world I wanted a bigger yacht with more private space. You get that with the 885 and the crew have their own separate dining and seating area.
Evgeny: Definitely yes! We got what we paid for and got what we expected – it’s a rare thing these days.
Lawrie: It’s met and exceeded our expectations. The comfort in sailing, performance and space – it’s what I’d hoped and imagined it would be.
The fleet has punished these boats on the rally with over 27,000 nm in 14 months. The average yacht won’t do that in its lifetime. So, things will go wrong, but the Oyster Rally technical support team are outstanding, they have incredible knowledge and experience.
Evgeny: They’re brilliant, just brilliant! Always available, they have enormous experience and they’re keen to help and they know how to fix things.
Lawrie: We’ve had a few issues, but nothing has stopped us from making passage. With any boat of our size, you’re going to have a snagging list. And given we took the boat from Southampton straight around the world, it’s only going to get longer. But Oyster have addressed issues on the way, which is fantastic.
Evgeny: That’s important, hiccups can happen anywhere. It’s impressive how Oyster deals with these things, how responsive they are and how happy to help.
A key factor was the Oyster Family. It’s a really strong network and the resources Oyster can call upon is phenomenal.
Evgeny: Starlink is a gamechanger and the IT system is better than before, very user friendly. You will laugh but we installed some serious filters to clean the water, so we can have a tap in main saloon with cold, tasty sparkling water! We use it 20 times a day, so we don’t need bottled water.
Lawrie: The tender well chillout zone has been good and lowering the coffee table in the main saloon to make one big daybed to chill out and relax is great. You can feel the quality in the materials, in all the products and finishes.
We use the autopilot and auto nav 99% of time, so we’ve hardly needed to get a paper chart out. The is PC loaded with the B&G Nav Suite, which is very useful and user friendly, we’re very pleased with that.
Lawrie: She’s performed very nicely, as expected. We’ve had some significant weather – on our delivery voyage through the Bay of Biscay we hit 35 knots of breeze, and she handled it superbly. We were doing 19 knots down waves, which I’d rather not have on my delivery passage!
We’re in 22 knots of breeze now, doing 12 knots in 2m waves. You can hardly hear anything apart from the squeak of a sheet. She’s a dream to steer, fingertip light on the twin rudders and with the spinnaker up, she goes like a bat out of hell!
Evgeny: You can hardly hear the weather inside. One time we did have waves going over the boat while I was inside having a conference call, but it was nice and calm inside, it felt safe!
Lawrie: A decent water filtration system and a robust water maker so you don’t have to carry bottled water. A big bank of lithium batteries with the means to charge them is vital on any boat. You need lots of battery chargers. We’re very happy with aircon system too, we can run it off the batteries.
Lawrie: Overall, people have been very comfortable with spacious bathrooms and comfortable beds. More hanging lockers would be nice but there’s only so much space on a 90-foot yacht.
The saloon is great, and the table is huge – you could probably get a million people round it for dinner!
Evgeny: Lawrie was crucial. We’ve worked together for many years, and this is our third yacht together. He has the knowledge to be a project manager, and he supervised on my behalf, as he did on the last two yachts.
Before his meetings with Oyster every month, he summarised all the questions to help us make decisions. He explained technical details I didn’t have knowledge of and liaised with Oyster’s project manager. This was the secret of success for me.
Lawrie: Andrew Martin, Oyster’s project manager is very good – we’ve built two yachts with him and would happily build a third. But I was there to look after Evgeny’s interests, so we always found the best solution for everyone.
Much of the minutiae is not for the owner – rope colours for instance. And because I’ve built other yachts, I know what questions to ask and to keep an eye on things during the build and testing.
Evgeny: I would strongly recommend owners visit the boat shows. Look at other boats, visit and look at the Oyster model they are planning to build. Talk to people, figure out what works and what doesn’t. For example, the dropdown screen and projector in the chillout well is expensive but people have used it a lot on the rally.
Lawrie: We are very happy with what we have overall. She performs as we expected her to perform, Oyster has looked after us as we expected and more. The rally has been a great experience, and the ownership experience has been good.
She performs as we expected her to perform, Oyster has looked after us as we expected and more.
