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Re: Maintenance costs for Amel yachts

islandpearl2_sm2k332
 

We on Island Pearl II agree with every comment above.

Island Pearl II is our 7th cruising yacht over the past 15 years of sailing, and the best by far!. We have had some really nice (and far newer) boats before purchasing this 2001 model Amel Super Maramu 2000, but this boat, for a world circumnavigation, is far better than everything else you could ever imagine out there! Trust us on this one, as we are still out there now, (currently in Tonga, depart for Fiji on Sunday  - see live tracker below)  along with many other very nice expensive brands, however we would not trade our 2001 Amel for any of them, as we have had ABSOLUTELY ZERO issues, and I cannot think of a single boat that has sailed with us all the way around the world now, which has not had multiple major issues to date, especially when we all hit the Indian Ocean!

We complete our circumnavigation on her in  Brisbane, Australia on 1 November 2019, and will then sell to pursue other on-land interests for the next five years, (will be a very sad day for me in particular after 8 years in this wonderful Amel community!)  but can tell you that these boats are robust, almost over-engineered, and because of the incredible quality and robust engineering foresight that has gone into these boats, you can have extreme confidence in the total Amel System. 

Simply find a good well kept Amel, take advice from this group (including experts like Bill Rouse and Oliver) who you can reach via this site,  then learn to do all your maintenance yourself (learn from others on this site - never trust anyone to do anything on your boat without you personally there and looking over their shoulders and every detail if you need expert help!, and make sure you service everything meticulously (eg we service both genset and Yanmar 75HP every 80 - 120hrs when the manual calls for 200hrs). Ensure you put good fuel in at all times (we triple filter every drop of fuel, and have a good fuel polisher built in too), and do your mast, rig, sails, and all inspections meticulously before every ocean crossing. If you do this I can assure you your Amel will look after you instead of visa Versa! We have has 50+knots and 6m swells in whiteout conditions in the mid-Indian Ocean, and all felt totally safe out there where others did not, and some did not make it. The Amel 53 gave us total confidence and simply dealt with it all easily in her stride.

Best of luck, you have come across the safest sailing vessels out there in the ocean, and they sail really well too.

Colin Streeter
Tonga today, Fiji next week.



On Fri, Aug 23, 2019 at 5:40 PM ngtnewington Newington via Groups.Io <ngtnewington=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
My penny’s worth.
Amelia is my third sailboat but I also worked as a professional yacht captain for nearly 20 years on numerous vessels. 

I have to say that, in general, my Amel 54 is the best engineered of any boat that I have run or owned.
And therefore not excessively expensive to run.

As with all boats there are some compromises I do not like but they are minor.
It is fair to say that the more modern Amels have quite a lot of systems that need looking after and there are a lot of electric motors etc etc. The thing is, compared to just about any other sail boat the access is great. Generally the systems have been installed with a view that at some point they will need to be either serviced or replaced.

What you need to do is:
1. Learn to fix everything yourself
2. Make sure you have a really good tool kit
3. Learn to love fixing things, and learn to love and enjoy the whole engineering aspect of owning an Amel.

This group is a great resource and as a novice you can not do much better than get Bill onside to help you.

One more piece of advice. When you first buy your Amel do not just start chucking money at it (unless of course you buy a project) just get to know your boat and climb the learning curve....

Good luck
Nick
Amelia anchored Ionian
AML54-019

On 23 Aug 2019, at 06:09, Orion Martin <poonz1@...> wrote:

Hi John,

Thank you and to the other participants in this topic for your time and insights. Your post with the story about how you came to know Amel yachts was a great read, this was exactly the kind of anecdote I was looking for that describes the discovery and eventual fondness for the SM of which I am currently experiencing. I agree with Mark Erdos that I have made an ill-informed assumption about maintenance costs for Amel yachts, hence why it was important to reach out to fellow Amel enthusiasts and ask them about their thoughts concerning this subject. As a consequence, I feel more excited about the prospect of purchasing a SM in the near future, and will take the good advice concerning having an experienced Amel surveyor check the boat when it comes time to purchase. Many thank to all once again.



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Colin Streeter
0411 016 445
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