The Boat

Fidelio is an Ovni 43, built in France in 2000. A little over 13 metres long, she is made of aluminium (hence the industrial "battleship grey" appearance). We bought her in France in 2008 having decided to take a break in 2009 and do some sailing as a family.

Being aluminium, the boat is relatively light and easily sailed. She is also unusual in having a lifting keel which allows her to dry out on the beach, up some quiet creek or in small drying harbours. With two small children this was appealing and although there are some compromises involved with both the aluminium hull and the keel arrangements these are outweighed (for us anyway) by the advantages. The lack of keel is visible in the photos below which show her as I first saw her on the hard.

We sailed the boat back to the UK (Plymouth) in May, an assorted crew of Woods family and friends, in a trip which mainly involved visiting restaurants all along the French Atlantic coastline. Some pictures of this trip are below.