An Amel is a special boat. Built in France, and the design and build was overseen by Henrie Amel, a true character in the sailing world, in the best sense of the word. http://www.amel.fr/en/lhistoire/
Amels inspire true devotion on the part of their owners, to the point that they are regularly referred to as “cult boats”. Some of the design features are unique, and in my opinion, almost all of the “unique” features are improvements over standard boat design.
All of the text here was taken from the broker’s listing of our boat when it was for sale. I’ll personalize it as I have time.
LOA: 52 ft 6 in
Beam: 15 ft 1 in
LWL: 41 ft 4 in
Minimum Draft: 6 ft 2 in
Maximum Draft: 6 ft 7 in
Displacement: 35840 lbs Full Load
Ballast: 12320 lbs
Dry Weight: 31360 lbs
Total Power: 77 HP
Engine Brand: Perkins/Volvo
Year Built: 1996
Engine Type: Inboard
Engine/Fuel Type: Diesel
Cruising Speed: 7 mph
Maximum Speed: 8 mph
Fresh Water Tank: (264 Gallons)
Fuel Tanks: (158 Gallons)
The interior accommodation is finished in plantation grown African mahogany with a semi-gloss polyurethane varnish. The overheads are cream colored vinyl. The sole in the saloon and galley are teak covered plywood with carpet in the staterooms.
The guest stateroom has a very large V-berth with provided filler panel and cushion that then converts this V-berth into a large double berth to port with a single berth to starboard. There is a writing desk hung on the bulkhead that easily folds down or up as required. The guest head has a vanity with wash basin, manual Jabsco marine toilet with holding tank, and an integral shower.
Just aft of the head area is the saloon. The saloon is separated from the forward accommodation by another watertight collision bulkhead with a watertight door. The saloon contains a very spacious U-shaped dinette with table to port with a couch/love-seat to starboard. Outboard of the couch is a pull out pilot/sea berth with a privacy curtain. Outboard of the sea berth are lockers. A virtually identical locker arrangement is outboard of the dinette to port.
The full sized navigation station is aft of the saloon to starboard with the U-shaped galley directly opposite to port, the navigation station faces outboard with a large chart table and a pylon seat. There is storage inside the chart table for navigation supplies as well as two drawers and two lockers just beneath. Just next to the navigation station is a large hanging locker, for jackets and foul weather gear.
The passageway to the aft cabin contains a single berth with the battery containment compartment beneath. This is a superb seaberth that will guarantee a restful sleep in even the worst of conditions as it is located quite low inside the vessel and very close to the forward/aft pitch axis.
The owner’s stateroom is all the way aft and has a yet another genuine full height watertight collision bulkhead at its entry with a submarine style watertight door. There is one more genuine full height watertight bulkhead (that’s four in case you lost count!) at the extreme aft end of the owner’s stateroom, partitioning this cabin from the huge lazerette accessed from on deck. The owners stateroom has an en-suite head to port that contains a vanity with wash basin, a manual Jabsco Marine toilet with holding tank, and an integral shower. There is a double berth to port with a custom mattress.
GALLEY
The U-shaped galley is located in the portside after quarter of the saloon. There is plenty of counter space for meal preparation and an abundance of storage both in and about the galley so that the sailing chef can have all the conveniences found in a shore side kitchen without the usual clutter present in most fully equipped sailboat galleys.
- Double Sinks
- Stainless Steel four Burner Gas Stove
- Gas Oven with infrared broiler beneath Stove
- Microwave/convection Oven Air Fryer
- Front Access Refrigerator/Freezer 24 Volt
- Two Top Access Deep Freezers 24 Volt
- Galley Ventilator Cowl/24 Volt
CLIMATE CONTROL and VENTILATION
There are two 8000 BTU air conditioners installed, one in the saloon, and another one in the aft stateroom. There are Three 220 volt resistance element heaters installed, one in the forward cabin, one in the saloon, and another in the aft stateroom. These heaters keep the boat comfortable inside when the outside temperature is 40F.
CONFIGURATION and CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
The cockpit area in the AMEL SUPER MARAMU is situated deep within the vessel for enhanced security and to minimize undesirable motion. The steering station is in the forward port side quarter of the cockpit where it can be completely protected from sun, spray, and rain. The cockpit is exceptionally comfortable as the seat backs and the seats themselves are ergonomically designed to conform to the human anatomy with subtle curves in just the right places. As we tend to live in the cockpit, AMEL went to great lengths to make this area the most comfortable room in the house. The hard dodger protects the cockpit from the sea and spray while the extendable/pull out Bimini keeps the sun and rain away when needed, and allows the stars to shine though when desired.
Both the forward and aft deckhouses are bordered by sidedecks that are unencumbered by rigging or equipment. It is quite easy and safe to make your way about the decks on board the SUPER MARAMU.
The hull is an evolution of Henri Amel’s cruising keel and skeg hung rudder philosophy that he helped popularize for cruising boats in the early 1950’s. The raked bow with semi-rounded forefoot provides a fast yet sea-kindly face to the waves. The wide low aspect ratio keel gives up maybe a couple of degrees in pointing ability in providing an exceptionally strong and secure mount for the external ballast. All 1000 liters/264 gallons of fresh water are carried in the stub keel, not only providing a double bottom but keeping the weight of the water quite low in the boat (and not in tanks under settees where they would rob storage). The keel has long wings, which not only aid stiffness and weatherlyness, but also act as pitch stabilizers when going 5 knots or better. The keel has a flat bottom and is wide enough to allow the boat to stand, unsupported, on the keel.
The propeller is mounted on the trailing edge of the keel where it is well immersed and very well protected from sea junk. It is also not under the bed in the owner’s cabin, as in most center cockpit designs, allowing you to sleep when powering. Propeller noise is effectively marginalized.
The rudder is hung from a massive full-length skeg assembly that can support the entire laden weight of the vessel in case of a grounding.
The hull’s run aft is wide enough to support powerful reaching performance yet shaped with a gradual buoyancy increase when immersed in waves to impart a steady ride in a sea way. In conjunction with the same gradual buoyancy increase in the bow, there is a very predictable and linear motion at sea. This is a very sea-kindly boat.
CONSTRUCTION:
All AMELS, since 1967, have been built with AMEL designed bi-axial fiberglass cloth. This is a flat woven fiberglass cloth that is much stronger in sheer and tension than conventional mat and woven roving laminates. It is lighter, stronger, and just better. The hull is molded in one piece incorporating one piece/non-spliced lengths of bi-axial cloth running from bulwark, down through the keel/centerline, and up to the opposite bulwark. In the same fashion, the next series of laminates run from the bow lengthwise to the stern, again, employing one piece/non spliced lengths of bi-axial cloth. The deck assembly is built in a similar fashion. While the hull is a solid fiberglass laminate with no core, the deck assembly employs a core of Baltek vertical end grain balsa in strategic horizontal areas to enhance stiffness and is insulation from heat and noise. There are also substrates of “Iron Wood” in the deck assembly where cleats and the windlass are installed to easily accommodate the increased compression and shearing loads in the foredeck.
While the completed one-piece hull is still in the mold ALL the furniture and structural bulkheads are installed. After all the structural assemblies are completely installed, the separately completed deck assembly is joined to the hull (again, while it is still in the mold) with six layers of the same bi-axial cloth used in the primary laminations, around the entire hull to deck interface. What this accomplishes is the elimination of a conventional hull to deck joint. The hull and deck are married with a homogeneous fiberglass matrix, which insures a strong and leak free hull and deck join for the entire life of the vessel.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
12-Volt D.C. Ships Engine Start System.
24-Volt D.C. Ships House Supply System
220-Volt A.C. Ships Shore Power/ Inverter System
110-Volt A.C. Ships Inverter System
The 12-Volt D.C. ships engine start system draws from one battery to provide starting current to both the main engine and the generator. This battery is charged by a 50 amp 12-volt engine driven alternator and/or by an 18 amp 12-volt alternator on the diesel generator. This battery is totally isolated and can not be co-mingled with the house supply batteries. It can, however, be jumped from the house supply batteries with the provided jumper cables if it ever needs to be. There is a used but serviceable starter for the Volvo among the spares.
The 24-volt D.C. ships house supply battery banks consists of eight 12-volt/110 amp hour A.G.M. marine batteries, in series connection by pairs, providing 464 ampere hours of capacity at 24-volts. These batteries are charged by the following; a 60 amp 24-volt engine driven alternator as well as the a 220V inverter/charger, and a 3500 Watt 24V DC generator.
All the ship’s batteries are secured within and locked down inside of a fiberglass containment system that is both waterproof and vapor proof.
The 24-volt DC 3.5 KW ship’s diesel generator is a WhisperPower unit with a fresh water-cooled three-cylinder diesel power plant. It is mounted in the engine room on hydro-feet and a sound box and is nearly noiseless in operation.
ENGINE
77 H.P. PERKINS/VOLVO Marine Diesel, 4 cylinder. 4 cycle. Fresh water-cooled. 2.7:1 Hurth mechanical reduction gear. 1:1 AMEL designed and constructed U-DRIVE system. Three bladed MAXPROP automatic feathering propeller. Racor secondary Fuel Filter. Engine mounted primary fuel filter.
The engine, and most all of the vessel’s machinery, is mounted in a very spacious engine room that allows easy and unencumbered access to all the machinery for inspection, service and repair. This is a true step in/stand up engine room that contains all the noise, heat, and mess of the machinery thereby keeping it all out of the accommodations.
STEERING
Pull-pull rack and pinion system employing sheathed stainless steel cables/rods. The cables run in greased “tubes” and have no wear points as in systems that use wire and pulleys. There is a finely engineered and fitted emergency tiller system provided that would allow one to steer from atop the aft trunk cabin.
THROUGH HULLS
There are three ballcock type valved through-hull below the waterline and, three ballcock type through hulls above the waterline, and a removable transducer for the fathometer. The rudder shaft has a conventional stuffing box.
GROUND TACKLE
As with all genuine cruising boats, the ground tackle aboard the SUPER MARAMU is sturdy, well engineered, and easy to deploy and retrieve. The primary anchor can be set and retrieved from the cockpit without effort with the windlass remote control. Specific ground tackle includes:
- Double Bow Rollers
- Remote Control for Windlass-at Helm
- 300’ 3/8” Anchor Chain
- Mantus M1 105 Lbs. Anchor
- 40 Lbs. FOB anchor, 50’ Chain/200′ Nylon Rode
- Vetus Lofrans 1500 Watt Windlass – 202
- Digital Chain Counter in Cockpit
- Automatic Chain Wash Down
SAFETY GEAR
The SUPER MARAMU has C.E. A/Unlimited Offshore rating as well as a French Merchant Marine class A rating. Specific safety items include:
- 4 Watertight Bulkheads
- Double Bottom around the Keel
- Watertight Battery Compartment
- Watertight Engine Room
- Stainless Tube Life Rails
- LED Masthead Tri Color Light
- LED Deck-level Running Lights
- LED Masthead Anchor Light
- LED Foredeck Flood Lamp
- Engine Alarm System
- Stove Gas Safety Solenoid
- M.O.B. Horse Shoe Buoy
- Lee Boards for Each Berth
- Automatic Bilge Pump
- Manual Bilge Pump
- Engine Room Halon System
- 3 Dry Chemical Fire Extinguisher
- 2 Stainless Handholds/Transom
- Boat Hook/Pole
- 1 Halon Fire Extinguisher/Engine Room
MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT AND ENHANCEMENTS
15 G.P.H. 24-Volt Watermaker
10 H.P. Retractable Bow Thruster
Passarelle/Gang Plank Sturdy Swim Ladder
Clothes Washing Machine
Two Cockpit Tables
Two Waste Holding Tanks
30 amp 50’ Shore Power Cord
Cockpit Shower
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