Several folks have asked for pictures and more detail on our boat. Haven't gotten around to doing a lot of photography, but there's one outside shot below. The detail that follows is probably way more than most of our friends will care to read, and a bit basic for the hard core boating crowd, but here goes.
It’s an Amel SUPER MARAMU, built in 1990. She’s 16 meters long, or about 52-53 feet. Her draft (depth of keel below the water line) is 2.05 meters, and her beam (widest part of the boat) is 4.6 meters. The boats are built in La Rochelle France, on the Atlantic coast. One of the reasons we chose this boat is that they are designed and built to be relatively easy to sail – usually by a couple. This makes them, from a sailing ease perspective, more comparable to most boats around 42-46 feet long. Needless to say, the extra size gives our family of 5 a bit more space.
From a sailing perspective, she is a "Ketch Rig". That means she has two masts, the forward, main mast taller than the aft, mizzen mast. The advantage of this is that it gives you a bit more flexibility in putting up more or less sail for high winds. For us, it feels mostly like it’s one more boom we have to avoid with our heads. More important about the rig is it’s design for easy sailing. All three sails (main, jib and mizzen) are furling sails – meaning they wrap around themselves for storage. Further easing the task of sailing, the main and jib have electric furling, and the main winches that are used for trimming the jib sheets are also electric. But probably our best friend of all is the Bow Thruster. This is a device that, as the name implies, helps move the bow to one side or the other. It’s a small motor with propellers on both sides that sits just below the waterline in the bow. Given the way mooring is done in Europe, and the need to maneuver the boat in fairly tight spaces (and, oh yeah, our relative lack of mastery maneuvering a boat this large), we love this baby. It better not crap out on us!
The boat is what is called a "center cockpit" design. This means the cockpit – where you helm the boat and spend most of your "on deck" time, is – you guessed it – in the center of the boat. This is distinguished from many boats which have the cockpit at the aft of the boat. The two designs have their pros and cons, but the primary features of a center cockpit is a more comfortable aft cabin (which Deb and I enjoy) and a more protected ride in rough/wet weather. Our cockpit has the further feature of the helm at the front of the cockpit (more like a power boat feel) rather than at the rear – which is more common. The disadvantage of that is a less open feeling when you’re at the helm, but the advantage is an even dryer ride in rough whether. It’s a very solid, quite heavy boat, built to withstand long and difficult passages. We like all the safety and stability features that brings with it. It does make it a bit less responsive and slower than some more sleek cruisers in it’s class, which sometimes frustrates Deb, the dingy sailor of the family. But all in all we are very pleased with our choice.
As for cabins, the most spacious room is the salon/galley/navigation area – where we really got the benefit of a 52 foot boat versus those in the mid 40’s that were our alternatives. It really is a very comfortable place to spend our time indoors. For those of you less familiar with boating, don’t get the wrong idea about spaciousness – it’s still only about 12’x12’, with 6’6" headroom in the center. But that’s very good size for a sailboat. The other notably large room is the engine room. At first we thought that was a waste of good space, even though many boaters sing its praise. After our first few engine repairs we understood why cruisers like that use of space so much. The aft cabin (Deb and Steve) is very comfortable with a double bed, and a couch that can hold a kid if need be. Also a head (bathroom) back there. Then there is a "quarter berth" that is Sarah’s room. We must walk through it to get to the Salon, but it’s a full size bed, with a full compliment of storage, and quite a nice and cozy room. That goes into the salon, at whose other end is the door to the fore cabin. There is a head, a hanging closet, and the "v-berth" at the bow. This has two single beds on either side, which Danny and Adam occupy.
Other things notable to life on board include our gas BBQ that hooks onto the rail and is where we do as much cooking as possible (keeps the galley cooler), and our dingy. We recently replaced our smaller one with a used 3.5 meter Zodiac with a 10HP engine. The kids love the upgrade (so do we) because we can make it in to dinner from our anchorage with all five of us even if there’s a good head wind, and it’s even powerful enough to pull an inner tube and have some fun.
We have learned very quickly that your view of what’s good changes quite quickly when you think about your boat as a "sailing boat" versus a "home". Often the best features for the two uses come in direct conflict. And while we’ve had more problems and necessary repairs that we would have liked we are overall very pleased with the craft we have chosen for our transportation and our home.