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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] How do you replace the prop shaft seals on a Amel 55

Colin - ex SV Island Pearl
 

Hi Bob

Thank you very much for this information. Sounds like a great boat and well worth considering in the future if and when we can afford to upgrade. Sounds like you had a great trip too, well done.

We sailed our SM53 over from Canary Islands and kept a log every hour of speeds, conditions etc all the way round for 3 months. 9.2 - 9.7 kts was typically top speed for the 53 with short bursts of 10.5. We did 12.5 max but that was only on a few occasions when surfing down big Atlantic swells, and averaged 160 - 175 nm most days often having good winds where we could easily have smashed the 200nm pd mark, but then loosing all wind again. Best 24hrs distance was 197nm. Also we never pushed the boat at all, just easy sailing all the way with around plus 1000 hours motoring mostly between Galapagos & Marqueas due to so many windless days, and since this was a delivery trip, I had to get back to work, and was paying a delivery crew by the day.

All in all it sounds like the 55 is slightly faster down or across wind but I am sure that this changes significantly in any upwind cruising situation. This is what many of us would no doubt like to know about, ie typical reasonable speeds with cruising loads on board at what angles to wind, as well as it's stability and heel in high winds without having the benefit that the 53 has of 1000L water tanks in its keel. For example I would love to be able to sail Brisbane to Fiji or Tonga each year, but this is into the trade winds and anything less than 30 degrees becomes too slow for good cruising.

It would be good to keep in touch. Do you have any cruising plans ahead? We had been thinking of selling our 53 here in Australia and purchasing the exact same boat in the Med again (due to the pirate issues & the long trip around Africa) then cruising back around again from Europe, however, now have recently been leaning more towards sailing via South Africa and Brazil instead which would be interesting. These plans are still a year or two ahead though.

Best regards

Colin & Lauren Streeter
Island Pearl II, SM#332


On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 12:55 PM, renaissanceiii@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

Hi guys, had the boat delivered to Auckland, as there was a direct freighter from Belgium. Sailed in four legs over 3 weeks to Melbourne. Auckland - Opua - lord Howe island - Sydney - Melbourne.


The boat sailed beautifully, only 3 days were what you might call interesting with 30 knots and 5 meter swells just after rounding the top of NZ. Top speed was 13.5 knots average about 7.5 knot for the trip due to light winds.

The displacement hull speed peaks at about 9-9.5 knots then you start to surf which is a bit scary thus the 13.5 knot top I recorded on my gps log.

The yard had apprehensions as my two crew had never sailed before and the handover was short due to the freighter delays. Had two days to learn the boat and 2 calm days before the serious winds and waves in the Tasman Sea. My previous boat was a 42' 17 ton Fero cement center cockpit ketch so there were no surprises on handling. Compared with that old sea cow, the amel 55 was a pure delight. I am still enamoured with her but can't compare her to the previous amel hulls

Bob Grey
Renaissance III





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Colin Streeter
0411 016 445
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