Design and Construction
Alubat built the Ovni 35 from welded aluminum, both hull and deck, continuing the yard's all-metal approach rather than adopting composite deck structures. The hull itself is aluminum, while the keel is iron—a lifting centerboard arrangement that lets the boat settle to roughly 1.8 feet loaded and extend to about 6.7 feet when the board is down. That versatility is the heart of the design: she can poke into shallow marinas yet stand up to ocean passages. At 11 feet 10 inches beam against her length, the length-to-beam ratio sits at 3.06, giving a moderately beamy plan for the era, and the 41 percent ballast ratio (4,850 pounds of iron on an 11,905-pound displacement) speaks to a stiff, purposeful little cruiser rather than a lightweight racer.
Rig and Handling
The boat carries a masthead sloop rig with a working sail area of 756.7 square feet for mainsail and jib combined. Her theoretical hull speed is 7.2 knots, and the wetted surface runs about 398 square feet—modest for the length, which helps the shallow-board configuration move efficiently. The sheet specifications are unusually complete for a period design record: jib and genoa sheets are both 36.1 feet long at 14 mm diameter, the mainsheet runs 90.2 feet at the same diameter, and a spinnaker sheet measures 79.4 feet. An immersion rate of 1,175 pounds per inch means she loads heavily for her size, a function of the aluminum structure and ballast, and the 28.5-foot waterline underpins a comfortable motion in a seaway.
Accommodations
The available record offers no descriptive interior detail beyond the hull's aluminum construction and the stated dimensions, so the living space must be judged from the envelope alone: 36-foot-9-inch length, near-12-foot beam, and 5,300 pounds of ballast-displacement margin. The centerboard trunk necessarily intrudes on the saloon floor, as it does on all lifting-keel Ovnis, but the beamy 3.06 length-to-beam plan suggests a roomy midsection consistent with the yard's cruising intent.
The Verdict
The Ovni 35 is a serious aluminum voyager shrunk to a manageable size. Briand's early-eighties hull pairs a shallow-draft centerboard with a stiff, beamy aluminum body and a complete, well-documented rig specification that makes re-rigging straightforward for an owner. She is not a floating apartment—the documentation is silent on creature comforts—but as a go-anywhere shallow-draft sloop she is coherent and purposeful.
Pros
- All-aluminum welded hull and deck from a dedicated aluminum yard
- Lifting iron centerboard gives 1.8–6.7 ft draft range for marina and offshore use
- Complete sheet and rig dimensions documented for the masthead sloop
- Stiff 41% ballast ratio on 11,905 lb displacement
Cons
- Keel type unknown beyond iron construction
