Design and Construction
The Ovni 37 is a welded-aluminum hull built by a French yard that has constructed its boats entirely from 100 percent welded aluminum since 1973, including deck and coachroof rather than composite structures. The hull material here is aluminium anchor, and the keel is iron rather than lead or a cast bulb. With a length-to-beam ratio of 3.19 and a ballast ratio of 41 percent, the hull form is moderately narrow for its length yet carries a substantial fraction of its displacement low. The wetted surface measures about 409 square feet, and the boat's immersion rate is 1,215 pounds per inch, meaning it sits deeply and resists being driven down by load. Alubat's method of precision-cutting marine-grade plates and hand-welding them inside and out by master shipwrights frames the construction context of this mid-eighties design.
Rig and Handling
The boat carries a cutter rig, a versatile arrangement for offshore work, with sheet specifications that reveal the working scale of the sail plan. The jib and genoa sheets each run about 37.7 feet at 14 mm diameter, the mainsheet is roughly 94 feet of 14 mm line, and a spinnaker sheet measures about 83 feet at the same diameter anchor. The draft is shallow and variable, ranging from 1.80 to 2.10 feet depending on load — a hallmark of the lifting-keel concept Alubat pioneered with the Ovni 28 in 1978. The theoretical maximum speed of a displacement hull this length is 7.3 knots, setting the upper bound for sustained passage performance.
Accommodations and Layout
The immersion rate and wetted surface imply a volume-bearing hull suited to loaded cruising.
Known Issues
The iron keel and aluminum hull combination is stated as built.
Refits and Ownership
The cutter rig's sheet dimensions offer a baseline for replacing running rigging.
The Verdict
The Ovni 37 is a mid-eighties Philippe Briand design built in welded aluminum by Alubat, with an iron lifting keel and a shallow, load-dependent draft that suits gunkholing and shoal-water cruising. Its specifications — 41 percent ballast ratio, 3.19 length-to-beam ratio, 409 square feet of wetted surface, and 1,215 pounds per inch immersion — describe a deeply loaded, moderately narrow cruiser whose theoretical top speed is 7.3 knots. The cutter rig and documented sheet lengths frame a traditional offshore sail plan.
Pros
- All-aluminum welded construction by an established French yard
- Shallow, load-variable draft from 1.80 to 2.10 ft via iron lifting keel
- Cutter rig suited to short-handed or offshore sailing
- Strong ballast ratio of 41 percent for stability
Cons
- No interior, issue, or refit detail beyond bare specifications
- Iron keel rather than corrosion-resistant alternative (per built specification)