UFO 34
yacht x
UFO 34 is a cruising and racing fibreglass monohull sailboat class. It is a sloop based on a design by Kim Holman. The design features a spade rudder and a Bermuda rig with a large, overlapping headsail. Over 150 UFO 34s have been built both in the United Kingdom and Australia.
The UFO 34 is a seaworthy yacht for offshore voyages, including extreme weather conditions, which also performs well in yacht racing. UFO 34 yachts competed both in the disastrous 1979 Fastnet and 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht races, where lives and yachts were lost in the extreme conditions. UFO 34s performed effectively in both races, winning class IV in the Fastnet race and retiring without incident in the Sydney to Hobart.
Production history
Unidentified Flying Object won the Royal Yacht Squadron's de Maas Cup at Cowes in 1974 and many other races. This first yacht was designed for Richard Matthews by the British naval architects Holman and Pye as a 32 ft prototype for the Three-Quarter Ton class in the International Offshore Rule. The design was developed into the UFO 34, which became the first yacht produced by Matthew's company Oyster Marine.
The public source identifies “UFO 34” as yacht x. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around yacht.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “UFO 34”, the useful work is to connect “yacht x” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q39070017. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1998 and 1974.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow UFO 34 primary sources, UFO 34 archive and yacht research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “UFO 34” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.