Davi - to add to Jamie's comment, I've had 4 or 5 breakers fail since my boat reached about 15 years old. Your A54 is getting to that point, so I wouldn't consider it surprising to see a failure. Fort

Right you are, Eric, the WInslow would be a super choice and I was close to buying that. It's an exceptionally designed life raft. As I recall the soft pack would fit nicely in my SN port cockpit laza

Hi Alan, Yes, I do just open the lazarette and lean it back. But, with the life raft on top it is pretty heavy to lift it the first 45 degrees or so, so gas struts would be nice. The life raft is, I t

Hi Eric, Yes, I did consider putting the life raft in the cockpit port locker, but found that space more valuable for frequently used things. Dinghy stuff, fishing tackle box, maintenance stuff and li

Hi Paul and Lady Annita, I have also been toying with adding gas struts to my aft locker because that is where I have my life raft and it is pretty heavy to lift up (more so every year :-) Some though

So Gary Golden is Al Golden's son. I believe Al, whose company was IMIS, started the Jackline policy underwritten by Markel Insurance Co. Then (likely with Gary in the mix) IMIS merged (or was sold to

Hi Dan, Others have commented that you should be fine with what you've got plus, perhaps, some sheet gasket material. Under your #3 though - tricks, traps or learnings - I'd add to be sure to replace

I used to strip my old cruiser-racer every 2-3 years and did my Amel when I got it in 2000. No worries whatsoever about stripper on gel coat. I used the most aggressive one I could find, and that was

HI Mitchell - my pleasure; glad it helped. Regarding the design, one of my pictures show the manufacturers label on the upper unit - it was CATEP France with a Model and serial number. A google search

Hi Ofer, Do you know where the leakage was from, other than "the inside part of the water heater"? Having had 5 tanks fail in the 5 years since you got the boat is pretty amazing. Have you asked the f

Hi Mitchell, Were you able to go through the pictures in the "C-Drive - Technical " photo album? You'll see my unit with the fairing material cut away. That exposes the cover plate on the front of the

Hi Mitchell, I did leave the upper unit attached to the trumpet and lifted the whole assembly together. But if you can get a lifting line around the trumpet itself that may work just fine. I recall ha

Mike - I've rewired mine so the standard fans operate when either main engine or genset is operating plus I have a manual "on" position so I can run the fans with no engine (when working in the engine

Hi Mike, I suspect there is nothing new on this nor any particular consensus - it may well have migrated from engineering to philosophy ;-) If yours is fine you may want to follow the adage of, "If it

Hi Pat, I've removed and replaced mine (after gelcoat touchup) maybe 4 or 5 times. It takes about 5 minutes to take them out and maybe 45 minutes to put them back. Another hour to scrub and rinse befo

Ah, the Zen of fixing your boat in exotic ports!

Hi Steve, I'm not aware of a gelcoat color number scheme and after many years of sun you may not get a perfect match even if you had the original factory color. However you can easily get an excellent

James, I got mine from US Distributor: Drivetech Automation; 5401 NW 102nd Ave #146; Sunrise, FL33351 954.746.9800. They were $220 each plus tax & shipping (a few years ago). You will have to grind of

Hi James, That looks like the standard reduction gear on Amels of that era, like my SN. If so, it may be a Bonfiglioli Model VF44 Configuration P1 70 P63 B14 B3, which is readily available from many s

Hi Thomas, Definitely not broken beyond repair. If, as Bill suggests, you can get a new plastic gear that would be super. If not, you can actually repair the old one quite easily - search for my old p