oyster harbor yachts

Advertisement

• Name * First
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Discover Charleston CHARLESTON IS YOUR OYSTER: 5 BEST OYSTER BARS IN TOWN

Whether you’re a longtime oyster aficionado or are falling in love with them for the first time, you’ll notice right away that oysters from different regions have distinct flavors. Unlike most delicacies, oysters don’t get their flavors from a sauce or seasoning, they develop their unique salty brine from their environment. The coastal waters surrounding Charleston SC have their own ecosystem and produce oysters with a flavor that you won’t find anywhere else. For the freshest oysters, best variety, and enjoyable atmosphere, you’ll want to visit these 5 local oyster bars when you’re in the Holy City:

Leon’s Oyster Shop  An old school body shop turned casually sophisticated oyster & poultry spot, Leon’s has earn itself a James Beard nomination and a reputation for some of the best oysters in town. Designed with the comfort and ease of southern living in mind, the restaurant serves up flavorful oysters three ways (raw, fried, or Oysters Casino) alongside lowcountry staples including fried chicken and black-eyed pea salad. The casual yet intimate dining space, tasty menu, and variety of oysters are all topped off with a dessert of soft serve & sprinkles on Upper King Street.

Pearlz  Oyster Bar This self-acclaimed “eclectic little oyster bar” in West Ashley or on downtown Charleston’s famed East Bay Street, offers a full raw bar with local and Gulf oysters and locally caught seafood. With oyster options from oyster sliders to southern fried, or even oyster shooters, you really can’t go wrong. Their full bar provides crafty cocktails, cold beers, and a lively environment.

Bowen’s Island  Popular with Charleston locals, you could miss this gem if you don’t turn down the right dirt road on your way to Folly Beach. This authentic lowcountry oyster joint overlooks the water on a 13-acre island and serves up some of the best locally harvested oysters in town! Steamed or fried, you can get your local oyster clusters in full or half trays and shuck them like a local from any of the decks or event spaces. More than just oysters, the menu includes fried shrimp platters, homemade hushpuppies, and their take a on a lowcountry boil, Frogmore stew.

The Darling Oyster Bar  Charleston charm meets vintage chic in this popular local oyster bar in downtown Charleston. Located in a restored 115-year-old storefront on King Street, its bright green booths give it the feel of a diner that might have operated in the same space 60 years ago. With a full 14-seat raw bar, The Darling offers 6 different types of oysters, both local and from afar, king crab, ceviche and more.  The perfect spot for weekend brunch,  serving up Shrimp & Grits, Lobster & King Crab Roll, and Chowder Fries (made with local clams).

The Ordinary  A Southern seafood hall and oyster bar with a commitment to support local and regional fishermen, crabbers, oystermen, farmers and producers. The sophisticated atmosphere in a restored, historic bank building reflects an upscale menu which features Smoked Mahe Pate, Vermillion Snapper, and their speciality, Oyster Moscow (a raw  oyster  topped with creme fraiche and caviar with a splash of vodka). Taste some of the best raw East Coast oysters with all the accoutrements, or crispy oysters with steak tartare, or even smoked oysters with hot sauce. Any way you slice it, The Ordinary is anything but that when it comes to local oysters and seafood.

Local lore says, ” you should only eat oysters in months with the letter “R,” so help yourselves to all the oysters you can eat from  September  through  April  but take a break from them  May  through  August.”  While it’s true that  “oyster season” used to be considered just the colder winter months, thanks to local oyster farmers working to support Charleston’s booming culinary scene, locals and visitors alike can now shuck locally harvested oysters year round.

If you’re planning a trip to Charleston and you want to put oysters on the menu, our concierge team can make a reservation at any of these local restaurants, or even arrange a private oyster roast for friends & family at any of our luxury vacation rentals. That’s about as classic lowcountry as you can get!

Trending Posts

Which Plantation Should You Visit in Charleston SC?

Top 20 “Bucket List” Things to Do on Your Next Trip to Charleston, SC

CHARLESTON IS YOUR OYSTER: 5 BEST OYSTER BARS IN TOWN

Impeccable. Every Time.

Recent posts.

Discover Palmetto Bluff: A Lowcountry Resort Steeped in Southern Charm

Jump in! 5 Water Activities to Stay Cool in Charleston this Summer

Exploring Palmetto Bluff: How to Plan the Perfect Lowcountry Getaway

Browse categories.

• Discover Charleston
• Explore Palmetto Bluff
• Home Services
• Managing Your Rental
• News From The Team
• Plan Your Vacation
• Wedding Destinations

• Skip to main navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to footer

Since 1987, Oyster Harbors Marine has been serving customers with the highest level of professionalism in yacht sales, brokerage, and service.

Our award-winning team of dedicated sales and service professionals stands ready to help you with all your boating needs and to promote and maintain the boating lifestyle.

Beginning with our original full-service marina and sales office in Osterville on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, Oyster Harbors Marine has since added a network of sales offices in Falmouth, MA, Marion, MA, Hingham, MA, Danvers, MA, Newport, Rhode Island, Essex, Connecticut and South Freeport, Maine.

Recognized as one of the top performers in the boating industry, OHM sells only the highest quality yachts. With a Five Star Dealer Certification and our adherence to the Marine Industry Consumer Bill of Rights, we stand ready to match every customer with the right yacht at the best possible price; and to service and maintain that yacht in the best condition.

We invite you to browse our website and to call or visit us at one of our New England locations to begin the search for your next boat, and the wonderful lifestyle afloat that we all enjoy so much.

Our Brokers

John Bibeau

• [email protected]

Rife Boston

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

George Fearons

• [email protected]

Brittany Friel

• [email protected]

Greg Gaillard

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

Rick Graham

• [email protected]

Greg Hoffman

• [email protected]

Nikki Pennacchia

• [email protected]

Blaine Richmond

• [email protected]

Dale Robertson

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

Willie Thomas

• [email protected]

Matt Whelan

• [email protected]

Chris Zyskowski

• [email protected]

Contact Service

Job offerings at oyster harbors marine, stay tuned for upcoming vip events..

Hot on the trail of 56 superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs and subject to seizure

• Published: Mar. 06, 2022, 2:04 p.m.

French authorities have seized the yacht Amore Vero linked to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, as part of EU sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The boat arrived in La Ciotat on Jan. 3 for repairs and was slated to stay until April 1 and was seized to prevent an attempted departure. (AP Photo/Bishr Eltoni) AP

• The Associated Press

The massive superyacht Dilbar stretches one-and-a-half football fields in length, about as long as a World War I dreadnought. It boasts two helipads, berths for more than 130 people and a 25-meter swimming pool long enough to accommodate another whole superyacht.

Dilbar was launched in 2016 at a reported cost of more than $648 million. Five years on, its purported owner, the Kremlin-aligned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, was already dissatisfied and sent the vessel to a German shipyard last fall for a retrofit reportedly costing another couple hundred million dollars.

That’s where she lay in drydock on Thursday when the United States and European Union announced economic sanctions against Usmanov — a metals magnate and early investor in Facebook — over his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

“We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, addressing the oligarchs. “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”

But actually seizing the behemoth boats could prove challenging. Russian billionaires have had decades to shield their money and assets in the West from governments that might try to tax or seize them.

Several media outlets reported Wednesday that German authorities had impounded Dilbar. But a spokeswoman for Hamburg state’s economy ministry told The Associated Press no such action had yet been taken because it had been unable to establish ownership of the yacht, which is named for Usmanov’s mother.

Dilbar is flagged in the Cayman Islands and registered to a holding company in Malta, two secretive banking havens where the global ultra-rich often park their wealth.

Still, in the industry that caters to the exclusive club of billionaires and centimillionaires that can afford to buy, crew and maintain superyachts, it is often an open secret who owns what.

Working with the U.K.-based yacht valuation firm VesselsValue, the AP compiled a list of 56 superyachts — generally defined as luxury vessels exceeding 79 feet in length — believed to be owned by a few dozen Kremlin-aligned oligarchs, seaborne assets with a combined market value estimated at more than $5.4 billion.

The AP then used two online services — VesselFinder and MarineTraffic — to plot the last known locations of the yachts as relayed by their onboard tracking beacons.

While many are still anchored at or near sun-splashed playgrounds in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, more than a dozen were underway to or had already arrived in remote ports in small nations such as the Maldives and Montenegro, potentially beyond the reach of Western sanctions. Three are moored in Dubai, where many wealthy Russians have vacation homes.

Another three had gone dark, their transponders last pinging just outside the Bosporus in Turkey — gateway to the Black Sea and the southern Russian ports of Sochi and Novorossiysk.

Graceful, a German-built Russian-flagged superyacht believed to belong to Putin, left a repair yard in Hamburg on Feb. 7, two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. It is now moored in the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad, beyond the reach of Western sanctions imposed against him this past week.

Some Russian oligarchs appear to have not gotten the memo to move their superyachts, despite weeks of public warnings of Putin’s planned invasion.

French authorities seized the superyacht Amore Vero on Thursday in the Mediterranean resort town of La Ciotat. The boat is believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

The French Finance Ministry said in a statement that customs authorities boarded the 289-foot Amore Vero and discovered its crew was preparing for an urgent departure, even though planned repair work wasn’t finished. The $120 million boat is registered to a company that lists Sechin as its primary shareholder.

On Saturday, Italian financial police in the port of San Remo seized the 132-foot superyacht Lena, which is flagged in the British Virgin Islands. Authorities said the boat belongs to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin and among those sanctioned by the European Union. With an estimated net worth of $16.2 billion, Timchenko is the founder of the Volga Group, which specializes in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure assets.

The 213-foot Lady M was also seized by the Italians while moored in the Riviera port town of Imperia. In a tweet announcing the seizure on Friday, a spokesman for Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the comparatively modest $27 million vessel was the property of sanctioned steel baron Alexei Mordashov, listed as Russia’s wealthiest man with a fortune of about $30 billion.

But Mordashov’s upsized yacht, the 464-foot Nord, was safely at anchor on Friday in the Seychelles, a tropical island chain in the Indian Ocean not under the jurisdiction of U.S. or EU sanctions. Among the world’s biggest superyachts, Nord has a market value of $500 million.

Since Friday, Italy has seized $156 million in luxury yachts and villas in some of its most picturesque destinations, including Sardinia, the Ligurian coast and Lake Como.

Most of the Russians on the annual Forbes list of billionaires have not yet been sanctioned by the United States and its allies, and their superyachts are still cruising the world’s oceans.

The evolution of oligarch yachts goes back to the tumultuous decade after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, as state oil and metals industries were sold off at rock-bottom prices, often to politically connected Russian businessmen and bankers who had provided loans to the new Russian state in exchange for the shares.

Russia’s nouveau riche began buying luxury yachts similar in size and expense to those owned by Silicon Valley billionaires, heads of state and royalty. It’s a key marker of status in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and size matters.

“No self-respecting Russian oligarch would be without a superyacht,” said William Browder, a U.S.-born and now London-based financier who worked in Moscow for years before becoming one of the Putin regime’s most vocal foreign critics. “It’s part of the rite of passage to being an oligarch. It’s just a prerequisite.”

As their fortunes ballooned, there was something of an arms race among the oligarchs, with the richest among them accumulating personal fleets of ever more lavish boats.

For example, Russian metals and petroleum magnate Roman Abramovich is believed to have bought or built at least seven of the world’s largest yachts, some of which he has since sold off to other oligarchs.

In 2010, Abramovich launched the Bermuda-flagged Eclipse, which at 533 feet was at the time the world’s longest superyacht. Features include a wood-burning firepit and swimming pool that transforms into a dance floor. Eclipse also boasts its own helicopter hangar and an undersea bay that reportedly holds a mini-sub.

Dennis Cauiser, a superyacht analyst with VesselsFinder, said oligarch boats often include secret security measures worthy of a Bond villain, including underwater escape hatches, bulletproof windows and armored panic rooms.

“Eclipse is equipped with all sorts of special features, including missile launchers and self-defense systems on board,” Cauiser said. “It has a secret submarine evacuation area and things like that.”

Eclipse was soon eclipsed by Azzam, purportedly owned by the emir of Abu Dhabi, which claimed the title of longest yacht when it was launched in 2013. Three years after that, Usmanov launched Dilbar, which replaced another slightly smaller yacht by the same name. The new Dilbar is the world’s largest yacht by volume.

Abramovich, whose fortune is estimated at $12.4 billion, fired back last year by launching Solaris. While not as long as Eclipse or as big as Dilbar, the $600 million Bermuda-flagged boat is possibly even more luxurious. Eight stories tall, Solaris features a sleek palisade of broad teak-covered decks suitable for hosting a horde of well-heeled partygoers.

But no boat is top dog for long. At least 20 superyachts are reported to be under construction in various Northern European shipyards, including a $500 million superyacht being built for the American billionaire Jeff Bezos.

“It’s about ego,” Cauiser said. “They all want to have the best, the longest, the most valuable, the newest, the most luxurious.”

But, he added, the escalating U.S. and EU sanctions on Putin-aligned oligarchs and Russian banks have sent a chill through the industry, with boatbuilders and staff worried they won’t be paid. It can cost upwards of $50 million a year to crew, fuel and maintain a superyacht.

The crash of the ruble and the tanking of Moscow stock market have depleted the fortunes of Russia’s elite, with several people dropping off the list of Forbes billionaires last week. Cauiser said he expects some oligarch superyachts will soon quietly be listed by brokers at fire-sale prices.

The 237-foot Stella Maris, which was seen by an AP journalist docked this past week in Nice, France, was believed to be owned by Rashid Sardarov, a Russian billionaire oil and gas magnate. After publication of an earlier version of this story, AP was contacted Sunday by yacht broker Joan Plana Palao, who said his company represents a U.S. citizen from California who purchased the Stella Maris last month. He declined to disclose the name of the buyer or the person from whom the boat had been purchased.

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a new round of sanctions that included a press release touting Usmanov’s close ties to Putin and photos of Dilbar and the oligarch’s private jet, a custom-built 209-foot Airbus A340-300 passenger liner. Treasury said Usmanov’s aircraft is believed to have cost up to $500 million and is named Bourkhan, after his father.

Usmanov, whose fortune has recently shrunk to about $17 billion, criticized the sanctions.

RECOMMENDED • oregonlive .com

Laura Streib: Portland City Council District 2 Sep. 13, 2024, 3:58 p.m.

Opinion: Give Prosper Portland the tools to fuel city’s economic resurgence Sep. 15, 2024, 8:45 a.m.

“I believe that such a decision is unfair and the reasons employed to justify the sanctions are a set of false and defamatory allegations damaging my honor, dignity and business reputation,” he said in a statement issued through the website of the International Fencing Federation, of which he has served as president since 2008.

Abramovich has not yet been sanctioned. Members of the British Parliament have criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnson for not going after Abramovich’s U.K.-based assets, which include the professional soccer club Chelsea. Under mounting pressure, the oligarch announced this past week he would sell the $2.5 billion team and give the net proceeds “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, location transponders showed Solaris moored in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday. Eclipse set sail from St. Maarten late Thursday and is underway in the Caribbean Sea, destination undisclosed.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.