“Tikaani” is Inuktitut (Inuit) word, that means ” Wolf”.
Tikaani is a 2008 Ovni 495 built by the Alubat Shipyards in the Atlantic town of Le Sables d’Olonne in France. Ovni yachts are recognized as “go anywhere” aluminum cruising yachts, and are usually only built to order.
She is a cutter rigged , fully aluminum, monocoque vessel ( hull, deck and internal supports are all of aluminum) with a lifting swing keel. She is 15 metres long and 4.5 metres in beam (width). With her keel down when sailing, she draws 2.8 metres, but with the keel up draws on 0.95 metres (meaning that we can access very shallow anchorages, or even allow the boat to sit on the bottom in tidal areas).
She was hull #1 of the Ovni 495 design, so we suspect she was built as a display of the new model for Boats Shows. While we do not know her full history, what we understand was that she was launched and sailed in France for a couple of years before being purchased by the owner prior to us, who had her sailed across the Atlantic to Isle de Madeleine, where she was sailed about 3 weeks a year, and spent the remainder sitting in the boatyard. Tikaani has four cabins: a double cabin and two single bunks are forward, and two queen beds aft. We have presently converted the aft starboard cabin to a storage area for our “stuff” (spares, folding bikes etc).
When we found Tikaani (she was then known as Cynops), she was getting very little use, and spent most of her time out of the water in the boatyard in Cap aux Meules on Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine. As such, she was a “low mileage” find but need a lot of “refurbishments” and “updating”… TLC and $.
We converter her to a proper cutter rig (adding the furling staysail), replaced the main genoa furler ( that had gotten completely gummed up with Isle de Madelaine dirt and salt) replaced every ball bearing on the deck equipment and more than a few blocks, replaced all the standing rigging and most of the running rigging.
Tikaani is equipped with a 75 hp Volvo Penta diesel as her primary engine (providing propulsion and power) as well as a 7 kw Fisher Panda diesel generator for electrical power.
Since purchasing her, we have also added a 480 watt solar panel on the arch and increased our house battery bank to 600 ah, so our time “off the dock” is really only limited by our food supply (with both a day fridge and chest freezer), water (2 x 430 litre tanks) and fuel ( 2 x 300 litre tanks). We figure we are good for about 6 weeks without getting too complicated.
We gutted the old navigation system and replaced it with an integrated B&G system so we have a wonderful new chart plotter at the helm, 3 new displays, with VHF/AIS all integrated into the system.
As she is a “European”boat, her AC power system is 220 v, so we installed an inverter to provide limited 110v (North American) power for charging batteries/computers etc.
For communication, we have the vessel VHF for ship-to-ship and Coast Guard shore stations. We estimate we will be in cell range about 60% of the summer, and for the rest we have a temporary starlink system.
Alubat has been producing aluminum yachts since 1973, and gained much of its reputation for the development of their lifting keel Ovni series. The Ovni 495 was the largest yacht in the Ovni range at its time of construction. The last Ovni 495 ( hull 11 I believe) was produced around 2020, and the design has been retired (replaced by the Ovni 490).
Sailing Tikaani 