Oyster Yachts has announced the start of work on its largest ever vessel.

The Oyster 118, drawn in partnership with Humphreys Yacht Design, will be 35 metres in length and will offer 700 square metres of interior space, enough for a total of 12 guests supported by six crew.

Oyster chief executive David Tydeman said: “We have been working for nearly three years in close conjunction with Humphreys Yacht Design developing the specification and design and we’re really proud now to announce the contract to start work. Tooling will commence in April.”

The company, a member of the EADT/EDP Top100 listing of the 100 largest companies in Suffolk and Norfolk, builds and commissions its larger yachts at Southampton, to where its head office was transferred from Ipswich last year.

Smaller yachts are built at Hoveton in Norfolk, with Ipswich still being the base of the commissioning of these vessels.

The first 118 is expected to be launched in December 2017 with sea trials taking place in the Solent for a spring 2018 handover.

Mr Tydeman added that tooling and additional construction facilities were being created to enable work on a second 118 to overlap with the first, meaning a potential to produce up to four of the new vessels by the summer of 2020.