Buying an Ovni 435 or Garcia from the other side of the world. Any advice?

[dejgoldie]

Hello, I am currently emailing brokers about an Ovni 435 in the Caribbean and a Garcia Nouanni that is on Yachtworld (in Italy) at the moment. I am in Sydney Australia.
The 435 is currently listed at 178K Euro, which is actually just out of my reach, so Im hoping they come down a bit. The nouanni looks like a beautiful boat, but I have concerns about headroom (I'm 6' 1") and the fitout. The broker is apparently unable to provide headroom figures or decent photos of the interior. The shots on yachtworld look like they've been taken with condensation on the lens (a big worry in itself) and suspiciously omit details like the aft cabins and the nav station.
Is there anyone out there who has first hand knowledge of the typical headroom in a Nouanni fwd and aft of the saloon? I know they were all custom interiors, but I assume there was a standard height of the floor beams? Also the broker says there are only single beds in the aft cabins, but other ones appear to have doubles?
Re Ovnis, any things to look for in a 2001 435?
I have been on board a few Ovni 43s but never a 435. Very few of these boats in Australia..
cheers
Dave

[Cormorant]

I don't know much about what you're asking, but I did meet this Swiss couple on a Garcia (not sure what model) this summer on Cape Cod. They plan to sell it here in the US in about a year.

Their blog has a lot of photos and maybe you can find some that show the headroom. . . .

Le voyage d'Ortemi sur les flots

Good luck! They're very interesting boats. I saw them scraping the bottom after they beached it near high tide.

[barnakiel]

An Ovni is just like any other boat. Expect issues as per boat's age and associated equipment failure modes. Being alloy hull corrosion is always an issue. Inspect thoroughly prior to purchase. A clean, sound one is a great buy.

I worked on a much newer 455 (?) and man that's the one to avoid. But my experience with the 435 was great (I only sailed one, not fixed it, and she was brand new back then). If I were to buy one, it would be the 435 model.

b.

[dejgoldie]

Thanks Cormorant, Ill chase them up.

Barnakiel, what are the problems with the 455? I've heard the twin rudders are a problem for steering under power..

[barnakiel]

You are not buying a 455 so do not worry. 435 and 455 must have been built by two completely different teams in two different boat building eras. I was on a brand new 455 getting her ready for an Atlantic crossing. We run i.a. into:
- hydraulic system full of bubbles,
- zero access to the service side of the genset,
- shorted windgen cables,
- etc..

All issues were fixable and related to clearly next to zero knowledge of their outfitters.

I have been on a 435 and on a 385 and none of these had any issues - the boats sailed great too.

If you like boats from Alubat have a look at Cigale - same boatyard just slicker.

b.

[careka]

Hey
send Jon, a mail and he will tell you al you need to know.

http://www.explorenorth.no

[ssmith]

Buying any boat so far away can be a problem. I bought an Cardinal 46 in Martinique while living in Maine. Going to see it on spec would be expensive so I did all the due diligence and negotiated the price with a refuundable deposit--sign unseen. (The boat had a recent survey but I resurveyed it.) The brokers hadn't done this before with a used boat but it worked out fine--despite money transfer and language challenges.

[steve.garlick]

I traveled from NSW, Australia to Turkey to inspect our boat. We wanted a different kind of boat to the normal production boats, and we found her ( a Bowman 40). The process was pretty scary, with lots of unknowns, but we got a unique boat located where we wanted to start cruising. That's a big consideration. We're really happy with the end result.