Peter had shared a number of Half Raters over the years, with his most successful being Fulmer, which he shared with John Penn. Fulmer was lost on her mooring in one of Trearddur's infamous storms and Peter never really found a boat that went as well. With the Stirler family he bought Shellduck over from Abersoch and hoped, that as one of the later boats, he would have a fast boat. It never quite worked-out that way and when it became clear that number 100 could be built in time for the Class Centenary, Peter couldn't resist the opportunity and commissioned Oystercatcher.
In rebuilding Merlin, John Jones had come up with a 'best of breed' hull shape that took the best bits of the fastest boats. With the each batch of boats, the Seabird hull shaped evolved and differed in length, beam, stern shape and rocker. It was clear that the sweet spot was something of the Dot/Turn shape with a narrower beam than the 95/96 boats that were built in the 1960s. Oystercatcher was made to the same shape as Merlin, which went onto be used in all of John's subsequent builds and re-builds (albeit with a tweak to the transom).
Oystercatcher was originally going to be painted navy blue, but John Jones persuaded Peter to varnish the hull and show off the beauty of his work; "you can paint her after a few years, once she has raced a bit", he said. Legend has it the the pine planking used to build her, was recovered from a chapel floor and had been saved by John for his next Half Rater build. So good did she look, that she has remained varnished ever since.
