Fuel for debate

On the surface, it may seem that the great debate where boats are concerned is about monohulls vs. multihulls. Once you get beyond that though, you’ll see that there are a huge number of different monohull designs, each with their own proponents.

To begin, there are the various rig choices: sloop, cutter, ketch, yawl, schooner. Then we have sail choices: traditional sails, roller furling (headsail, mast, boom), gaff rigged, etc. And then we have the boats hull shape/design: center cockpit, aft cockpit, full keel, fin keel, etc. And last but not least, we have the hull’s contraction material: fiberglass, aluminum, steel, ferro cement, wood. As you can see, there are plenty of choices, and where choices and boaters are concerned, you have the fuel for great debates.

Where does the Amel, one of the boats that we’ve been looking at, fit into this? Almost all Amels are ketch-rigged, center-cockpit boats made from fiberglass. While the earlier ones (pre 1985) had traditionally raised main sails, the more recent ones have roller furling main and mizzen sails (that feature alone sparks great debate). While not the only boat that we have been looking at, it does have a number of features that we really like, most notably the deep center cockpit. Click on the pic below to bring up a larger version of the image which lists some of the other Amel features.