The world is his oyster

While Richard Matthews released ties with the world-famous Oyster Marine yacht-building business in 2008, the presence of the Oyster brand can still be keenly felt as the visitor enters the well-known Fox’s Marina and Boatyard in Ipswich, on the banks of the River Orwell. My trip is to interview Richard himself, and as I enter his first-floor office overlooking the busy yard and marina complex, not surprisingly there is strong evidence of his seafaring exploits and yacht racing in particular, with photographs of elegant oceangoing craft caught at acute angles adorning the walls.

I begin by asking Richard how he became involved with the business of building yachts. “I achieved my first sailing trophy aged 11 and won the East Coast Offshore Championship as a skipper in 1973,” he explains. “By then I was running a successful tea and coffee vending machine business, designed by Holman & Pye of West Mersea, which, with the formation of Oyster Marine as a business, allowed the yacht to be raced as a tax-efficient preproduction prototype.”