Amel Yachts

Amel

Shipyard founder Henri Amel (born 1913, died 2005) was a pioneer of "composite boatbuilding". His wealth of experience and his appetite for innovation still shape Amel yachts today.

Sailing today's 50- and 60-foot yachts from Amel, it's hard to believe that this yard too started out small in the truest sense of the word: with small production runs, small budgets and small boats.
Yet take a closer look at the current Amel yachts and it quickly becomes clear that the boatbuilders and designers at this quintessentially French yard have stayed true to their old principles: building rugged, long-lasting boats that are technically up to date, do without any frills and can still be called "luxury yachts".

In search of constant innovation

The Amel Yachts team has been following this path since 1962. Which means that more than half a century of craftsmanship and a correspondingly vast wealth of experience goes into every single yacht. And that is to be taken literally, because Amel yachts are almost always one-offs.
Until a few years ago, work was generally carried out on "only" one yacht at a time in the Amel yard halls in La Rochelle; today two to three yachts are laid down and built simultaneously.
Just like other traditional French yards, Amel Yachts has remained true to the original company spirit inspired by founder Henri Amel (whose real name was Henri Tonet). What may read as something of a paradox in the context of the word "tradition" is part of the plan at Amel: "Amel, or the search for constant innovation" has been the yard's motto for decades.

Pioneer in composite materials

Henri Amel (born 1913) founded the yard in 1965, but had already been a passionate sailor and water sports enthusiast in his youth. During the Second World War, he noticed as a soldier that the landing craft used by the Allied forces coming ashore in France were often made of a polyester composite. Since the Americans were unwilling to reveal their "secret" of how the composite was made up, Henri Amel developed his own fiberglass fabric, with which he laminated the interior walls, hull and deck and joined them into a single unit. The result was a tough and absolutely watertight structure.

With the small cruiser "Copain" (buddy), Amel created a crowd favorite right at the start of series production. The 5.25 m boat was built over six years until 1968. As early as 1966, Amel launched his first 11 m production ketch; twenty years and five model ranges in different sizes later, the legendary Super Maramu was developed. To this day, the 16-meter ketch is something of a legend among boatbuilders.

Over a period of ten years, the Super Maramu was built at Amel without any fundamental changes. In 1997 a new design was drawn up for the 16 m ketch, which was then successfully produced until 2006. In 2000 the Super Maramu was named Boat of the Year by the American magazine "Cruising World".

Europe's Yacht of the Year, "Luxury" Category

The Amel 64 was presented in 2016 and the Amel 50 in 2017, which the following year was voted "Best European Yacht in the "Luxury" Category. In 2019 the revised version of the Amel 60 replaced the previous model.

Yard founder and "driving force" Henri Amel died in 2005, but had "left the field in good order" and left behind a functioning shipyard that was innovative in every respect. Until the very end, Henri Amel influenced the design and equipment of Amel yachts. And this even though the passionate sailor had been completely blind for long periods of time due to a war injury.