Hi Rink, I cant agree with you on this. Nor do I think an insulting crack at Texans is appropriate. Bill is always consistent. Polite, firm and unwavering. It does us no harm to have such a strong Amel advocate. Anyone who wishes can ignore him. As well as being sound advice, retaining the "fleet" as near to original is doing us all a big favor as it maintains the value of our unique vessels. Because of the work he does Bill has seen instances of modified Amels that have turned out less than satisfactory. I know of one new owner who has spent a small fortune replacing failing/failed modifications to restore the boat to Amel standard. As to the arches, personally I think they are ugly

Bill, please keep up the good work

I will add two comments. Possibly  hours in estruries or harbours like the Chesapeake and Delaware water with suspended silt will cause more rapid wear,Secondly..oil floats on water and I cannot see how oil could run or drip out the bottom. My observation is that when the seals begin to fail the oil level rises as well as becoming milky as the volume is increased by the addition of water.

Regards

Danny

SM 299 Ocean Pearl