Any Ovni Owners / Sailors Out There ?

[neelie]

Hello All

I am interested in buying an Alubat Ovni as a long term live aboard and blue water cruiser.

Is there anyone out there with direct experience of this design? I'd be very interested to hear of your opinions regarding ease of maintenance and how comfortable or otherwise it is when underway.

Personally, I am attracted to its ability to manoeuvre in thin water and the ugly but robust hard chinned aluminum hull. (reef?? what reef? )

There is lots of negative talk about the poor stability figures of this design but lots of them have done intrepid high latitude voyages so maybe the numbers don't always tell the whole story.

[careka]

Well this one is old, but anyway.
i have a 365 Ovni sitting in front of our house, it had a knockdown in a storm in the northsea 14 days ago, the mast was under wather and the 2 guyes unbord was in the sea. they had the lifelinehookep up so when the boat came back up again they where in the cocpit again. They did get the knockdown du to high speed racing down the waves, and then planting the bow in the wave at the bottom, this agin made the boat go sideways, and the nexst wave turned them down.
The boat have now damage due, to this and, no wather got inside the boat.
they have been away sailing it from france Brasil, carib usa, grennland iceland, and where on there way from Iceland direct to norway when it happend.

i think the OVNI is a dam good boat.

[freetime]

Ovni FAQs — JimmyCornell.com

.....If he use a ovni it is good enough for us all.... I like it, and the twin rudder and the flat bottom, good for speed. I have not sailed any ovni but checked one 445 last boat show here. Love it, and also the targa to put electronics on. And i would like to sail it in big waves and harder wind.

[bitman]

if you don't like the

Originally Posted by neelie

and the ugly but robust hard chinned aluminum hull. (reef?? what reef? )

then have a look at the Allures yachting, votre voilier aluminium...

not sure if those allures is something for you as they start at 40 feet and the smallest alubat ovni 365 start at 36 feet.

[barnakiel]

My friends are sailing a older Ovni 385. We sailed part of our circumnavigation together - along the coast of South Africa. I spent some time on their boat and they had only words of praise, and no wonder because she sailed like a dream and power-sailed like a train.

The new ones are supposed to be even better and last year the Yachting Monthly reviewed one giving it top marks. And I find them pretty, if a bit on steroids.

The other case was when we met an older Ovni in the islands of Pacific (Mangereva, Gambier Islands). This one was 32 ft and came the way from Patagonian Channels. The owners were very satisfied and did not report any issues.

I do not see why there should be any issue with stability. But I did look at Ovni and Southerly in the local boatyard and thought - so once they are upside down - how to these come back ... ;-)) But I think I am just an old prick that is not willing to adapt. Probably had the money would run to the shop and buy an Ovni myself (or a Garcia, or an Atlantic).

Their hardware is top spec and the cruising rig (anchor rollers, etc.) way above the market standards.

BTW Have a look at the Atlantic - alu and not bad either - from Dick Zaal, Holland.

b.

[bitman]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

BTW Have a look at the Atlantic - alu and not bad either - from Dick Zaal, Holland.

b.

those atlantics are being build in the town where i was born . i really do love them but you need some real cash! they are bullet prove really heavy build go any where cruisers starting from 36 feet all the way up to 51 feet.

if you look at my avitar, it's me sailing an alubat ovni 385

[neelie]

Too late guys.. we ended up getting a fiberglass cat when my wife won the battle of the boat choice. Hard to compete with "unlimited" space, storage and a fancy interior.

Our cruising plans have since changed - we would now like to sail to the Med. and base ourselves in the South of France. But there are no marinas which will accept a Cat on the Cote d'Azur. A dirty little secret of Cats is that it is very difficult to find somewhere to park one.

And, BTW, I still lust after an Ovni 455.

[freetime]

I did not wanted to say it before, but if NOT will buy a cat i will buy a ovni. So i understand you...

Originally Posted by neelie

Too late guys.. we ended up getting a fiberglass cat when my wife won the battle of the boat choice. Hard to compete with "unlimited" space, storage and a fancy interior.

Our cruising plans have since changed - we would now like to sail to the Med. and base ourselves in the South of France. But there are no marinas which will accept a Cat on the Cote d'Azur. A dirty little secret of Cats is that it is very difficult to find somewhere to park one.

And, BTW, I still lust after an Ovni 455.

[bitman]

ah, did you buy one from them Luxury yachts, power boats, catamarans designer, builder and charter agency - Sunreef Yachts to stay with aluminium?

[freetime]

Originally Posted by bitman

ah, did you buy one from them Luxury yachts, power boats, catamarans designer, builder and charter agency - Sunreef Yachts to stay with aluminium?

and have the lovely steeringposition like the lagoon 440. If you want to be alone at rainy nights...yes..hihi

[barnakiel]

Yeah, there are catamaran owners and monohull sailors ;-)))

But seriously, would not it be nice to have a cat and a mono, a classic and an Open, a tub and a skiff? After all, they are all so beautiful.

b.

[jens_elsborg]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I do not see why there should be any issue with stability. But I did look at Ovni and Southerly in the local boatyard and thought - so once they are upside down - how to these come back ... ;-))

b.

Barnakiel,

There are generally 2 different aproaches to designing the swing keels - with or without ballast. In the case wih the Ovni and the Allures the ballast (or most of it anyway) is build into the hull, which means they have the same amount of stability with the keel down or up. It also means that any collision with the keel will be a collision with less impact as the 2 latter designs have pins that are designed to break upon heavy impact and the keels will 'just' swing up.
In e.g. the Southerly's they are designed with a couple of tonnes of ballast build into the keel i.e. the righting power is quite different with the keel up or down. Needless to say the 2 different design also have different impact on the boats sailing abilities.

When that is said the 3 different types of boats are very different with the Southerly being quite a different price and interior design and the 2 others build in aluminium and IMHO the Ovni being slightly 'old' in design with Allures being a more innovative evolution of the Ovni.

[barnakiel]

Talking about "...the same amount of stability..." what do we mean? GZ? AVS? The area below the GZ=0? Roll resistance? ...

I believe the 'amount' of stability, however measured, does not matter. I think it is how the stability characteristics work for or against a specific design in critical conditions.

I love Ovnis and I think Southerly is a good design too and the Allures, Garcia, Atlantic and many more.

I just cannot visualise any of them coming back from a 'mortal' = mast looking at the bottom, knockdown without a huge external force to tip them back towards the positive side of the stability curve. This may be just my lack of imagination (I hope it is).

The same limitation with multi, but these at least do not sink when upside down.

b.

[jens_elsborg]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Talking about "...the same amount of stability..." what do we mean? GZ? AVS? The area below the GZ=0? Roll resistance? ...

I believe the 'amount' of stability, however measured, does not matter. I think it is how the stability characteristics work for or against a specific design in critical conditions.

I love Ovnis and I think Southerly is a good design too and the Allures, Garcia, Atlantic and many more.

I just cannot visualise any of them coming back from a 'mortal' = mast looking at the bottom, knockdown without a huge external force to tip them back towards the positive side of the stability curve. This may be just my lack of imagination (I hope it is).

The same limitation with multi, but these at least do not sink when upside down.

b.

I completely agree with you - I was thinking of AVS;-) Unfortunately Ovni does not supply that value (when I looked for i a while ago, could have changed without me knowing), but all the mentioned have all proved their worth through many years (the Allures of course being relatively recent on the market therefore not as 'battle tested' as some of the others). The Southerly I assume has an advantage with the ballasted keel...

[bitman]

to put another lifting keel yacht in the mix... Alliage, chantier naval aluminium : construction de voilier en alu, et bateau Ã* moteur avec coque alu deck salon yacht as an southerly...