Attainable Adventure Cruising—What's New

A well protected rudder and prop are essential for cruising in remote waters

For us the choice of boat was dictated by our need for a traveling base camp for our wildlife photography interests, as much as for recreation. As the places we wish to visit are generally remote from civilization, we need a craft that can go virtually anywhere, for extended periods, and be as self-sufficient as possible – something like an ocean going 4x4. We think that the OVNI 435 more than fits that bill.

All OVNI’s offer the benefits of aluminium construction, including high strength to weight, resistance to penetration and abrasion together with integral fuel and water tanks. Combine this with the simplicity of modifying many elements of the construction and thus producing a semi-custom boat at the price of a good production boat, the package is attractive. In terms of what can be changed, the rule of thumb at the builders (www.alubat.com) seems to be that if it has been done before, or will not materially slow down the production line, then it can be accommodated at modest or no extra cost. As ours will be OVNI 435 number 104, the design-improvements and suggestions of the previous 103 buyers will ensure ours is as near to perfect as we can hope for.

Of the models on offer, the 435 has the most positive attributes of the range for us, including many “traditional” features such as a well-stayed cutter rig, a skeg hung rudder and protected propeller. The size is right for two of us to handle on our own, as well as being big enough to make a comfortable home with adequate tankage and carrying capacity. The sail plan is modest and well divided, and so should be easily manageable, important for us, as we both have backs that have seen better days!

The 435 draws 2’6”ft with the plate up, 8’4”ft with it down, and with a flat run along the centerline of the hull will sit upright when dried out on a level surface. Both plate and rudder are hydraulically controlled, and have an ingenious safety device in the manually operated pump, where copper plugs are designed to rupture in the event of either foil striking an object, allowing them to swing freely to avoid structural damage.

The benefit of true shoal draft like this opens up many cruising areas, and is ideal for the exploration we have in mind. Not only that, in many wild places, the ability to anchor further in can make a huge difference to comfort and safety in bad weather – with deep draft you are often sitting just too far out from shelter, sometimes exposed and uncomfortable. And it also means that in the event of maintenance or cleaning of the hull, you don’t need to head for the nearest marina Travelhoist, but simply find a suitable place to take the ground – autonomy, once again.

As for the looks, well you either love them or hate them: unpainted hulls may look drab, but mean no maintenance; chines are not everyone’s cup of tea, but add great rigidity to the structure, and so on. We think the 435 looks great - chunky, purposeful, and as Bill Tilman was fond of saying “fit to shunt ice”. She certainly does it for us.

There is a strong argument for buying a used boat for long distance cruising. The purchase price is initially more affordable, the boat often comes with a fairly full inventory, and may be well sorted out and ready to go.

Such boats do exist, but experience suggests that the reality is more likely to be just the opposite. The price, which on the face of it may seem attractive, often proves to be less so once the replacement of worn and obsolete equipment has been factored in – refits are never cheap. If your ambitions stretch beyond normal horizons then the equation becomes even more complicated, as suitable boats are few and far between. And upgrading even a well prepared stock boat to meet the needs of a totally independent cruising life will come at a premium price.

The desire for a metal hull narrowed our range of options further. Over several years we’d looked at many steel boats that might have fitted the bill, but all had what might be termed fatal flaws – no insulation, worn out equipment and rust, rust, rust! Such experiences began to divert the search from steel towards aluminium. At the same time more and more highly experienced sailors had turned to this light, durable material for their craft, especially where high latitudes were the destination – think S/V’s Aventura III, Hawk, Morgans Cloud, Northabout, Pelagic Australis, Seal, amongst others. Their reasons for making such choices were highly instructive and chimed with our own thoughts, so the search began for a suitable aluminium boat.

Aluminium boats in the UK are very rare indeed, although far more plentiful in Europe.
Boat builders in France have long seen the benefits of alloy construction, and the Dutch have followed suit, building on their mastery of the art of building in steel. Excellent used boats do come on the market, but we always seemed to hear about them too late – good boats at sensible prices were snapped up, and we undoubtedly missed a couple of beauties. At the same time, the usual mismatches in terms of our baseline, non-negotiable design features came up time and again.

Scrutiny of the prices helped to concentrate the mind – these boats hold their values incredibly well, a good thing if you own one, less so if you are looking to buy. When we focused on a couple of likely boats, worked out the cost of upgrading them to our requirements and added the inevitable bit extra, there was nothing much between them and a new boat, price wise. When we were faced with buying someone else’s compromise, however good the boat, the decision was made – we’d go for a new build. At least, too, with a new boat we stand a chance of having several years of relatively trouble free cruising.

So far we are happy with that decision. We have been able to build in many desirable custom features at remarkably little extra cost, one of the major advantages of building in alloy, and working with a builder who has done it all before. And we have had a major say in the interior, rig, deck and systems to create a boat that suits us from scratch. Time will tell whether we have got it right.