Richard Hadida: Carpe Diem With the Sailing Yacht Lush

A single night at sea can rearrange your entire life. Richard Hadida re-traces the moment it all clicked, when a fast-tracked sailing course and a charter for his sister's wedding turned into a 3 a.m. watch under the Milky Way, a guitar in the cockpit, and the sudden feeling of “Now I get it.” It’s a story about how bluewater sailing gets into your bones, even if you thought you already understood the water.

While he also shares - in a refreshingly honest way - why he bought Oyster Yachts, he reflects on the heart of sailing itself: the quiet, the rhythm, and the way a sailing yacht makes the journey the destination in a way powerboats rarely do. He connects that feeling to sustainability and long range ocean travel, then brings it full circle through the Oyster World Rally, where he’s circumnavigating with his wife Ally and their young son Harry. From deserted islands off Panama to weeks of island hopping in French Polynesia, he shares the family moments that feel like time slowed down, and the philosophy that drives it all: if your health, your opportunity, and your dream line up, why wait?

If this conversation sparks something in you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs a push to “go now,” and leave a review so more listeners can find it.

Transcript

The Spark That Started It

Diane M. Byrne 0:47

I think a good place to start is to start with your aha moment, if you will. The moment when you knew to your core that a sailing was going to be your future. I think that moment was pretty incredible. It was when you decided to charter a sailboat for your sister's wedding over in Greece. What I find even more interesting is that you grew up sailing. So what changed in that moment when you chartered that sailboat?

Richard Hadida 1:18

So I did lots of boating holidays as a young boy with my parents and friends, and we would go up on canal boats and Norfolk Broads, which is a sort of area in Britain where you can go sailing around into little motor cruisers. But I never actually did, you know, I sailed in little dinghies and stuff, but very, very small amount of sailing. So the thing is for me, it was uh a discovery when my sister was getting married, because I was familiar with motorboats and done some sailing, but very little. Uh so I then did the course, you know, the the the competent crew in the day skipper course, and then chartered the boat from Piraeus specifically for my sister's wedding. So I, you know, it was literally, that was my first ever sail anywhere properly on my own, or yeah, obviously, I had friends with me. Uh so something drew me to go and do the day skipper, but it was really focused on the fact that I just thought, what a fun way to go to my sister's wedding uh would be by sailboat.

Learning Fast For A Wedding Sail

Richard Hadida 2:18

So I just learned specifically for that one trip, and then halfway across from Pyrenees across to Lesbos, we were sitting there at night, and my friend Michael was playing his guitar, and he was playing I think Floyd wished you were here. And we and it was like three or four in the morning, and I just looking up at the stars in the Milky Way, and I thought, oh my god, now I get it. But I that was my Eureka moment, and I never forget it to this day.

Diane M. Byrne 2:46

That's amazing. You know, I also think it's safe to say that your journey in acquiring oyster yachts is pretty incredible because it's unlike any other yachting enthusiast buys shipyard story, right? Most of the time, unfortunately, we're used to a story where someone buys a struggling shipyard to basically rescue their project, make basically get it out the door, make sure everything can be completed on time. And it doesn't usually end well. And that completely is not your story. You didn't have a yacht under construction, yet you felt compelled to buy the brand. So what was it that made you really feel so compelled

Why Buy Oyster Without A Build

Diane M. Byrne 3:34

to do so? Because very easily you could have continued chartering, you could have continued enjoying time with your good friend Eddie Jordan on his vote. Yeah, what changed for you?

Richard Hadida 3:47

Yeah, I was actually with Eddie at the time, staying at his place down in Cape Town with my family. And I just read in a newspaper that oyster had gone into administration, and and yes, it's true. I've got no vote in Bill, but I've I've always admired the brand. Not admired the brand, but you know, I I love the brand. And I shared this oyster with Eddie, uh the 885, that I'm on now today, going around the world on again, because he went around the world on Lush in in 2012. And so it was just again, it I it it sounds impetuous, but it's not, you know, I I I never thought that the opportunity would come, so that's why it never came across my radar. But when I see that it's in administration and a whole bunch of people are trying to buy this company out of administration, and I just thought, well, hold on a second, I think I I think I'm the perfect fit, and I think I'm at a perfect life moment to take on something as big as Oyster and to give it the focus it needs. And the brand is spectacular. So if you ask anybody on the planet, if you want to go on a luxury blue water sailboat, where should you go? Everyone would tell you, go to Oyster. That's how strong the brand was. And of course, these days, if you ask Brock and Chat GPT, what they'll still say, oyster oyster. So I think um, from my point of view, I just thought I was at the right life stage. I I know I haven't got experience building boats, but I I understand what it is to own an oyster, and and I so I know what the client wants, what the customer wants. And so I just thought the brand, the company needs love and guidance and help to bring it up to the next level, which is what I've been doing for the last few years. And now I find myself doing the World Rally, which is the most incredible thing I've ever done in my life. Um and again, that probably wouldn't have happened. I don't know this, but maybe it maybe it would, but maybe it wouldn't, you know, if had I not bought the business. But here I am.

Diane M. Byrne 5:51

Yeah, I want to get to the world rally in a second, but I I also wanted to get your view on a statement you had said that I thought was interesting. You had said that sailing, and and I'm paraphrasing here, but sailing provides something that a power yacht just can't. So if you were going to be sitting down with someone who was looking at buying their first sailing yacht, how would you describe what that feeling is and how would you describe what that experience is?

Richard Hadida 6:20

So there's something about when you're alone in the ocean and you have silence except for the wind and the creaking of all of the, you know, everything on the boat has a has a rhythm and a sound about it. There's the sound of the water and the wind and everything. But that's it. And and you just you you you glide along. Now, obviously, you can be in situations

What Sailing Gives That Power Cannot

Richard Hadida 6:46

where you're, you know, got waves crashing over it, it can be very extreme, sort of white knuckle ride as well. But fundamentally, most of the sailing you do, or the most of the sailing I do anyway, is is beautiful, serene. We sail for days at a time for longer passages. But there's just something about it which is it is hard to describe. Um, but I've spent a lot of time on motorboats, and the engines go and you drive there through the seas and you get to your destination. And that's what people on motorboats tend to want to get somewhere so they can do something. And so that the the transit part of it is just it's like being in a car. That is the mechanism to get to where you want to get to. Whereas, and it sounds like a cliche, and it probably is a cliche, it definitely is a cliche thinking about it. But um, sailing is about the journey. We're not blasting anywhere. We're going with, you know, powered by the earth, by by the nature, by the elements. There's something very free about it, something very real. So, from from my point of view, um that's something that can't nothing else can give you that, you know. And the the funny thing is, we're now in a world where everyone's talking about 2030 and emissions and sustainability and not filling the planet full of carbon dioxide from your great big twin diesel engines that you have on your Modial. And everyone says, what's the next thing? You know, how can we get to a sustainable transportation around the planet? If you want to travel around the planet and not harm it, then saline's the only way to go. No one's ever going to produce a battery boat that can charge itself with enough power to be able to drive. I mean, it it's impossible, right? We all know that. So anyone that sort of thinks that there is some sort of clever thing that could be done, there isn't. So the only way to get around the planet in an ecologically sensitive way is on a sailboat. So you have that as well, but it's not just about that. Like I say, it's about the experience. I I would rather any day sail somewhere than drive there, smashing through the waves in a hurry to go to some restaurant or whatever it is, what other other mission that the motorboat person has. And and like our world tour here, the World Rally, we do these passages five, six days, the longer ones, because you eat up the miles because you're sailing 24 hours a day. So we're doing more than a thousand nautical miles every four days. You know, we've been in French Polynesia now for six weeks, going from island to island to island with no with no passage more than a few hours. And then you've got your beautiful boat where you feel like it's home. I've got Harry on board, and and we just drop our anchor and we go and explore a deserted desert island, and you have a moment there, and yeah, it it's very hard to explain how incredible every day is because there's always new sites uh and always, you know, new things, new

Life Aboard The World Rally

Richard Hadida 9:52

places to explore, and lovely people to meet just it's remarkable.

Diane M. Byrne 10:00

So on this circumnavigation right now, with your son Harry, with your wife Ally, I I think a lot of us would love to be kind of flies on the wall because it's so different from what any of us would ever experience. But I I have two questions for you. First, why do the circumnavignavigation now? Harry's two. You could have waited until he was four or he was six since the rally is every two years. And then secondly, what moments have really been the most special doing this as a family?

Richard Hadida 10:36

Okay, well, I can answer the first question. I have carpe diem tattooed on my wrists, and that is to remind me to seize the day just in case I forget, which I won't,

Carpe Diem And Going Now

Richard Hadida 10:48

but you never know. And Eddie Jordan, who was there with me when I bought Oyster, tragically died last year. He was as fit as a fiddle and 76 years old, and suddenly he was gone. And I was talking about it with my wife, and we were saying, Should we do the 28 one or 31? And she's like, Well, look, you've got that tattooed on your wrist for a reason, surely. And right now we're healthy. Harry's too, you know, he's you don't have to take him out of school. I mean, we would have homeschooled him anyway, so there's no problem doing it four or six. In fact, there's lots of children on this rally that are older kids, so it's something that happens all the time. But the point is, if you've got the opportunity and the health, and we've got the boat, why wait? So if everything, if everything is aligned, go now. And I've I know people that kick the can down the road and kick the can down the road, and you know, they're like, oh yeah, we're gonna do the 26th rally, and then they now talk about the 28th rally, and then you hear them talk about the 2030 rally, and at some point you kind of run out of life. So I I I would just say go for it. You know, if you've got the opportunity, then yeah, I think you take it.

Diane M. Byrne 12:02

Yeah, yeah.

Richard Hadida 12:03

Other question, which is my favorite moment of the rally, and it it really is hard, uh, because like I say, every day there's something new and uh sensory for me that you know that's different to anywhere that we've done previously. But there's a place called Cohiba, Cohiba rather, which is um off of Panama, and that's uh an island with a sort of jungle in the middle of it with beautiful parrots that fly over your head in pairs every night on their way back to the mainland. They kind of come out for the day trip and go back in the dusk, and it and it it's achingly beautiful. And we set up a camp there. We what we do as we travel, we often when we stay somewhere for a few days, we set up a camp and we've got canvas tents and canvas chairs, and we do this beautiful

Desert Islands Campfires And Dylan

Richard Hadida 12:50

camp. Um, and we then spend time off the boat there just enjoying it. And that was it was particularly, particularly beautiful. And then we realised we are the only people within hundreds of miles. We put uh the drone up and looked around, and you could just see this island with us, and you know, we could look hundreds of miles in every direction, not one other human being. It gives you an amazing feeling of a special, a very special sort of warm and fancy feeling when you know that you are the only person on the desert island with these beautiful parrots in the trees. And so that was fantastic. Um, and then some of the other things for me, you know, well, one of the one of the things we do do when we f when we when we find a location that we love, we go and make a beautiful sort of dinner set up, and we have tables and tablecloths and have fine porcelain and uh cut lead crystal glass and fine wines and stuff. And so a bit like on safari, you know, we we create these and under the palm trees on the beaches on these little places, we'll create some beautiful dining location with lights in the trees, yeah. And then we have dinner there. And we did one of these, which is why I'm remembering we do them probably every week, but did one two nights ago, and it was just beautiful. And after the meal, my friend Michael, who's the same Michael that I said at the beginning, the guy that was playing the guitars uh on my sort of inaugural life-changing trip to Lesbos. So he got the guitar out and we started singing Bob Dylan songs, everyone was singing along. And it was just like that's when you look around and you go, go, that's this is life. This is a moment in time that I'm never gonna forget. And there's been many things like that, but that's just to give you a couple.

Diane M. Byrne 14:48

Well, when you finish the circumnavigation, obviously you and Allie and Harry are going to have some really remarkable memories, dozens, if not hundreds, of memories and incredible experiences. Why what do you want the trip to have taught Harry in particular? And what do you think you will have learned yourself about how to follow a passion?

Richard Hadida 15:13

Yeah, well, if we take Harry, um he's on this boat, he calls he calls his home sailing boat lush because that's what her name is. And he doesn't call her lush, he just calls her sailing boat lush. So when he wants to go home, he goes, I want to go back to sailing boat lush. So by the time he's finished this, he would have lived here longer than any other place. And every day, you know, again, it's the same for me as the same for him. Every day he's diving off the boat. He went swimming last week with singrays, and they all came up and

What He Hopes His Son Learns

Richard Hadida 15:48

they were like kissing him and playing with him, and he was squeaking with enjoyment. So he sees incredible things. He's two and a half, and he's on the back of the boat pointing at sharks, and you can identify sharks and dolphins and whales and stuff. So for him, and also, you know, we're here with a crew, they love him, and obviously I love him and Ali loves him. So he's given, you know, he gets so much love and attention and adventure. Even last night, again, just to I'll just pick round one random thing. But last night we jumped in the tender, we went to a little Tesla Island that's about the size of I don't know, half the size of a football pitch. And um, and we went and played in the shallows, and he's running around on on the sand and in and out of the water, and he's and we were then we went out to water a bit deeper, and so he's got his little life jacket sort of swimming on, and he would go into the beach and he'd then swim back out to us again, um, and then giggle and go back to the beach. And it's just like, who gets to do that at two and a half? You know, this is like a that's a normal everyday, that's a boring Tuesday night for him.

Diane M. Byrne 16:57

That's great. Well, I hope he has many, many more boring Tuesday nights to come.

Richard Hadida 17:02

Exactly. Yeah, we've got Wednesday. What about Wednesday?

Diane M. Byrne 17:05

Right. Well, that is fantastic. Well, I can't wait to hear about his boring Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, etc.

Richard Hadida 17:15

Sure. It's been great speaking with you. Much success and much joy for you and your family. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Diane M. Byrne 17:25

Lovely to maybe maybe at the end of the circumnavigation we can speak again and find out about these wonderful journeys.

Richard Hadida 17:32

I I can give you updates. Uh yeah, because like I say, every day there's something.