We’d set sail from a marina in Southampton, England, on a cool, blustery day last September, bound for an afternoon of yachting on the famous waters between the Isle of Wight known as the Solent. At the wheel of Märta III, a spanking clean, recently launched Oyster 575, my colleague, Cruising World advertising director Ted Ruegg, was wearing a smile that appeared to have been plastered on. Dodging fast ferries, towering cruise ships, laden tankers, Cornish crabbers and black-carbon-sail raceboats, Märta III was sailing fast and well, leaning into the fresh 25-knot southwesterly on a tight reach, with the speedo cresting at 10 knots flat. Cool.
Our host for the day, Oyster’s chief commercial officer, Paul Adamson, urged me to duck below and have a listen. I did as instructed,…
