Q&A: Richard Hadida

Richard Hadida had an unusual combination of life experiences before he acquired U.K. builder Oyster Yachts out of insolvency in 2018. He’d spent some time during his early working years overseeing boa constrictors at the London Zoo, and he went on to co-found the casino software company Evolution Gaming. It wasn’t until about age 30 that he discovered a love of sailing, after he chartered a bareboat to get to his sister’s wedding in the Greek Isles.

“I had seven friends with me, and we just set sail from Piraeus for Lesbos, and I successfully got everyone in and got them all back and, you know, and that was my discovery moment,” Hadida says. “I thought to myself, I could literally point this boat at Jamaica. I mean, I could. And that gave me this incredible sense of freedom.”

Since 2018, he has helped to bring Oyster Yachts back from its financial downturn. And his taste for new experiences is still intact all these years after his sailing adventure in Greece: In January, Hadida set off from Antigua with his wife, Ali, and their 2-year-old son, Harry, for a 16-month circumnavigation as part of the 2026-27 Oyster World Rally. They joined this fifth iteration of the rally aboard Hadida’s Oyster 885 Lush, which is where Soundings Trade Only caught up with the family as they were making their way toward the first rendezvous point, in Panama’s San Blas Islands. (This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.)

It sounds like when you chartered that 42-foot sailboat in Greece for your sister’s wedding, you didn’t just fall in love with being at the helm. You fell in love with the cruising lifestyle.

We invented a drink called the Derby Drifter, because the boat was called Derby. We wanted to see whether we could create a drink. We’d all go into bars and say, “Could we have a Derby Drifter, please?” And they’d say, “What’s that?” And we’d say, “What, you don’t know?” It’s one part Baileys, one part vodka, and there was something else. … And then you could have it reefed or unreefed. Unreefed has a shot of ouzo in there, as well. We did that all over the islands with the idea that coming back in 20 years’ time, you would say, “Can I have a Derby Drifter?” And they’d go, “Certainly. Would you like it reefed?”

After that, you chartered quite a few Oysters, and eventually you co-owned the Oyster 885 Lush with your friend Eddie Jordan of Formula One fame.

We became incredibly close. I loved him, and he loved me, and we loved Lush. We had this shared love for years, and then I ended up buying him out. Lush is everything that you need in a boat: four cabins en suite, a crew. She can go in any conditions, anywhere. She’s already been around the world once. I’ve got memories of my little — my larger boys now jumping off here and jumping off there and laughing here. There’s too many memories, and I love it too much. I’m never going to change this boat.

Oyster had a long and well-respected history and was known for building high-end sailing yachts, but there were some serious financial issues after a few sales that involved private equity firms. What made you want to take on the challenge of addressing those issues?

It went into administration. I had Lush at the time, and I couldn’t believe that it got into administration because everyone I’ve ever met, they’ve all said, “One day I’ll have an Oyster,” or, “One day I’d love to have an Oyster.” It’s the Rolls-Royce of adventure yachts, so I was shocked. I just felt I was at a life point where I thought to myself, This is something where I can really contribute, you know? I could take this on. I’ve got the bandwidth. I think I’m the right person for it. When I entered the process to bid, there were 14 other bidders, and I just thought, You know, I really, really, really hope that I win.

Once you took ownership of the Oyster yard, what did you have to do to address the financial problems?

They had boats in build. It was just badly run. And it’s taken us a long time to get visibility into the business. No one had a clue what the bill of materials was. No one had a clue how many man-hours it takes to build a boat. 

You also brought back Oyster founder Richard Matthews as a board member. 

He came on the board and helped out a lot. And he’s now coming around the world on this rally with us, which is cool.

He’s sailing with you on Lush?

No, on his own boat. It’s an Oyster 882, hull No. 1. I’ve got carpe diem tattooed on my wrist. So I said to Richard about six months ago, “Look, Richard, if you want to come on the rally, I’ll give you a free ticket. There’s like a $100,000, whatever it is, a ticket to do the thing. So I said, “I’ll give you a free ticket. All you’ve got to do is come.” He said, “I’ve got this commitment and that commitment.” So I said, “OK, well, the offer is there.”

And then about three months later, he wrote to me: “Great news. We’re coming.” When I met him just before we left for here, I’m like, “Can you show me your wrist?” And he’s like, “What?” He thinks I’m joking, but at some point he has to get carpe diem tattooed, too.

He’s leaving a little later than us because he wants to merge his children’s school holidays with the Galapagos, but he’s really confident he’s going to catch us. He hasn’t actually done a rally before. Lots of crossings, but never a circumnavigation. So it’s about time.

We’re running a dry boat, which is something that, you know, I’m not very familiar with. I said, “Richard, do you run a dry boat?” And he said, “Well, let me put it like this: When I won the trans-Atlantic race in 1974, by the time we came into America, we were dangerously low on Burgundy.”

That’s so much fun, that the founder and current owner of Oyster are both out on the rally. And from what I’ve heard, the yard is turned around now, businesswise, and the order book is solid. 

We’re great. When I bought the company, I walked into these half-built boats in these massive yard buildings, and there was no staff. Everyone had gone. And now we’re building boats. We’re improving the boats. We’ve got new boats coming out. I’ve got a fantastic new CEO who’s at the top of his game. So the future is bright. And I think it’s really good for us to do this rally. I’m hoping that we’ll get some positive vibes from the world, because, you know, we’re actually here with a baby circumnavigating.

Not many people would undertake a 16-month circumnavigation with a 2-year-old on board. When did you decide to do the rally?

We went to the coming-home party in Antigua with the last rally, in April last year. All of the returning boats were there, and there’s like a hundred people there, and they’re so excited, and they’re all in tears and emotional and making speeches, and everyone’s crying. We are sitting here looking at each other thinking, God, these people have had a true experience of a lifetime. That’s when we thought we must do it at some point. Let’s do it in 2028 or 2030. And then it was Ali. We got drunk one night, and she said, “Let’s do it in 2026.” She said, “Why bother having carpe diem tattooed on your wrist if you’re not going to live by it?”

Ali, were you a sailor prior to this?

No, I’ve never sailed. Lush is the only boat I’ve ever sailed on.

That’s a lot to handle, being a new sailor on a circumnavigation with a 2-year-old.

Harry has a nanny, who I was very keen that she would join us on the trip. So part of hiring her was kind of establishing whether it’s something that she would be interested in doing. Out of all the CVs, she was the one who had a lot of scuba-diving experience, so I thought maybe she could be a good fit. And it’s worked well. I think she’s found sailing intimidating, like we all do, but she’s really engaged with it now and doing watches.

So you all are sailing the boat? Richard, you don’t have crew sailing with you?

We have crew, but we are doing a rotation so that we do the same hours as them, and we treat ourselves the same. We’re in passage mode right now. Ali was seasick for the first couple of days, but by day four, she was down below cooking. We take our watches like everyone else. There’s no difference. We eat with everyone else. We work our passages, and then when we get to the San Blas — which actually was Eddie Jordan’s favorite place on the whole of the world rally — we’ll go back into hotel mode, five-star mode. 

We were doing three hours on, six hours off, around the clock, which is quite hard, in my opinion, and now we’ve got the nanny doing the night shift with the captain to keep two people on that. So that gave us an extra shift, like an extra watch shift. So we’re now lucky enough to be able to do three hours on and nine off. Oh, my God, what a difference.

How are you feeling now, Ali?

I used to get seasick quite a lot and just feel a bit unsafe or uncomfortable being on the boat. But if I’m involved in the sailing, I seem to be way more relaxed on the boat, you know? And when you wake up in the night and you hear all the noises and stuff, you’re thinking to yourself, Oh yeah, we agreed that we were going to do this at around 3 o’clock to get a better angle for the wind. I remember that, and it helps me to feel more at ease with what we’re doing. I don’t like the idea of just being a sort of clueless passenger who’s waiting for stuff to happen to them and wondering what’s going on. I like to know what’s going on.

Are you both planning to stay on board for the entire 16 months? Or will you be coming and going from the boat, Richard, maybe letting the crew handle longer passages?

The plan is every inch. It’s a very deliberate choice. I’ve sailed around the world. You don’t want to be sailed around the world. 

It’s only been a couple of weeks since the rally began in Antigua, but has anything surprised you or impressed you yet about the experience?

We left two Sundays ago, and the governor-general fired a cannon from the cliffside. It was quite spectacular to see 23 Oysters zooming up to a mark. And then it was really exciting. It was a brilliant sight to behold, to be part of. The next point where we’re all meeting together is in San Blas.

There are certain pinch points where we’ll all meet up, and we have our engineers come out and sort out snagging issues or what you have, but one of the boats found a little, tiny, beautiful restaurant on the beach in the San Blas. So they just put it on the group chat: “Anyone want to come for lunch in a week’s time?” And so everyone says, “Yes, yes, yes, put me down for 10 places, eight places, four places.” So basically, we’ve taken over the whole of this place. And that’s what Oyster is. It’s a global village. It comes to a place, and there’s a hundred people that just suddenly turn up and hang out. And you know, it’s fantastic.

You sound so excited about arriving in the San Blas Islands tomorrow. 

Well, we haven’t had a drink for five days.

What’s really interesting is the way the rally helps to keep Oyster owners involved with their yachts. This is a way you build community around the
brand, right?

Exactly. We sell so many boats to people that want to do the rally, so how can we do that if we haven’t done the rallies? That’s not why we’re doing it, but that’s one of the benefits of doing it. 

Speaking of selling boats, what is happening at the yard while you’re sailing around the world? Are there any new models on the horizon?

There’s a lot happening this year. Stefan Zimmermann Zschocke, the CEO, he’s a phenomenon. I don’t want to take his thunder, but we have a new yacht coming, which is larger. But I should probably let him talk about that, because he’s tasked with getting these things out the door. Personally, I can say that I wouldn’t do this trip on anything other than an Oyster. So it’s kind of handy that I’ve got one.

This story originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of Soundings Trade Only.