Alubat

Alubat has built aluminium centreboard cruisers in Les Sables-d'Olonne since 1973, and has never built anything else. The formula was set half a century ago and never revised: a multi-chine aluminium hull, a fully retracting centreboard, all ballast carried inside. The boats are called OVNI, French for UFO; the English-speaking world calls them the Land Rover of cruising boats. Around 750 of them have left the shed on the Vendée coast, and Jimmy Cornell logged a fair share of his 100,000 aluminium miles aboard one.

The yard's survival is its second story. Receivership in 2013, a rescue by fourteen Vendée businessmen in 2014, and in October 2023 a buyout by seven of its own employees, led by Luc Jurien. The people who weld the hulls now own the company. Production continues with the Ovni 430, 450 and 490, and the yard's REFIT program returns old hulls to the market in near-new condition, which is one reason used Ovnis hold their prices so stubbornly.