Amel 64 Specs and Used Buyer's Guide

The last of the big Amel ketches

The Amel 64 occupies a particular place in the history of the La Rochelle yard. It was the biggest boat Amel had built when it appeared, and it was the last flagship to carry the two-masted rig that had defined the brand since the 1960s. Amel dates the 64 from 2010 to 2019, and in that period the company expanded its Périgny plant with a new 4,000 square meter building specifically to produce larger models like it. Its replacement, the sloop-rigged Amel 60, launched in 2019.

Yachting World described the 64 as one of the first 60-plus footers truly designed for a couple to take bluewater cruising, and that is the right way to read it. It is not a racing yacht, not a charter boat and not a vessel that needs crew. It is a very large, very well equipped cruising home that two people can sail.

If you are searching for an Amel 64 today you are shopping used, and the supply is thin. That makes knowing the boat in detail more valuable than usual.

Between the Super Maramu era and the modern sloops

Up to the launch of the Amel 55 and Amel 64, every Amel had been largely designed by Henri Amel himself, who died in 2005. Yachting World notes that the new models took a more mainstream style while keeping the hallmarks: the ketch rig, the hard shelter over the cockpit, and the transmission and propeller in the trailing edge of the keel. The 64 and the smaller 55 appeared at much the same time and share their updated design features.

In January 2015 Amel showed a 64 at Boot Dusseldorf, its first indoor show for the model, fitted with new lighter-colored wood interiors that broke with the deep tones of older Amels. Buyers can find boats in either the classic darker woods or the light, modern finish, and the choice affects how dated an interior feels more than any structural change does.

The yard then moved on. The Amel 50 of 2017 and the Amel 60 of 2019 dropped the mizzen, adopted plumb bows and twin rudders, and brought in the Berret-Racoupeau studio. That makes the 64 the end of a lineage, which is part of its appeal for traditional Amel owners.

Four furling sails, all of them electric

Amel's own brochure lists a 58 square meter mainsail, an 88 square meter genoa, a 30 square meter mizzen and a 35 square meter staysail, with options for a 198 square meter Code 5, a 130 square meter Code 0 and a 130 square meter gennaker. Every working sail furls electrically, the winches are electric, and all the controls are centralized in the cockpit. The point of the split rig is that no single sail is huge, so a couple can reef by degrees without anyone going forward.

The air draft is 23.5 meters, about 77 feet, which is lower than the Amel 60's taller sloop mast and helpful for some fixed bridges. Draft is 2.4 meters (7 feet 10 inches), deep enough to rule out some Bahamas anchorages.

How does it sail? No magazine test of the 64 is easy to find, but Yachting Monthly's test of its sister, the Amel 55, gives a fair guide: sedate and very comfortable rather than quick, with a helm that felt heavy when overcanvassed with too much mizzen, and a boat that spends nearly all its time on autopilot. Expect the bigger 64, on a 56-foot waterline, to cover long distances steadily rather than to sparkle in light air.

A cockpit roof that slides out over the whole cockpit

The Amel signature is a central cockpit under a rigid shelter, and the 64 adds an electrically controlled rigid extension that slides out of the shelter roof to cover the entire cockpit. In tropical sun or a cold rain it turns the cockpit into a room. Visibility from the helm is good, and with every control centralized in the cockpit nobody needs to leave it to handle sails.

Aft of the cockpit there is a sun deck reached directly from the helm area, and the transom folds down to make a wide bathing platform. On boats with the tender garage, that same transom becomes the launching ramp for the dinghy, so there are no davits hanging off the stern.

Three or four cabins, with or without a garage

Amel offered two interior plans. The three-cabin version gives more space to each cabin and the saloon; the four-cabin version suits families or owners who sail with friends. Both carry the same level of fit and finish, and both include an equipment list that would be expensive options elsewhere: a 160-liter fridge and a 160-liter freezer, oven, microwave, dishwasher, washer and dryer, and a generator. Headroom on the plans is 1.95 meters, about 6 feet 5 inches.

The second choice is the stern. The tender garage version swallows the dinghy behind the folding transom, while the layout without the garage gains storage aft. A boat with the garage is easier to manage at anchor for a couple, and usually the more sought after on resale.

Whichever plan you find, every Amel was delivered by a factory technician during a week of handover, and many owners kept records of that commissioning. Ask for them.

Thrusters at both ends and long-range tankage

The 64 carries 1,400 liters (370 gallons) of diesel and 900 liters (238 gallons) of water, with a 180 hp engine. Retractable bow and stern thrusters are fitted, which matters on a boat whose propeller sits in the keel and produces almost no propwalk; on the smaller 55, Yachting Monthly found getting prop wash over the far-aft rudder difficult in close quarters. Light displacement is 34.1 tonnes and loaded displacement 38.8 tonnes, on 8.5 tonnes of ballast, so this is a heavy, stable boat.

Amel's systems philosophy is that everything electric has a manual backup and that maintenance access should invite owners to keep things working. On a used 64, that means the condition of the electric equipment is the main cost driver, not the hull.

• Fuel 1,400 L (370 gal), water 900 L (238 gal)
• Engine 180 hp, retractable bow and stern thrusters
• Light displacement 34.1 t, loaded 38.8 t, ballast 8.5 t
• Air draft 23.5 m (77 ft), draft 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in)

Buying a used Amel 64

Because so few were built, the right boat may be in Martinique, the Mediterranean or partway round the world, and a survey trip is part of the cost. Start with the rig: standing rigging on both masts, the four furling systems and their motors, and the electric winches. Then look at the drivetrain in the keel, the thrusters, the generator and the watermaker. A boat that has completed a circumnavigation is not necessarily tired, since Amel owners tend to maintain obsessively, but the paperwork should prove it.

Owners cruise these boats far afield; one Cruising World contributor rafted up to a brand-new 64 in the Panama Canal locks. Treat that kind of history as a positive if it comes with records, and budget for a refresh of sails and electronics on any boat approaching ten years old.

Amel 64 or Amel 60?

The two boats are about the same length but very different in character. The 64 is a ketch with a keel-mounted propeller, an optional tender garage, a sliding cockpit roof and a more traditional Amel feel below. The 60 is a sloop with a carbon mast, plumb bow, twin rudders, a resin-infused hull and a brighter, more modern interior, and it sails better in light air.

For a traditionalist who likes splitting the sail plan into manageable pieces, or who wants the garage, the 64 is the better fit and costs less. For someone who wants the newest boat, warranty support and livelier performance, the 60 is worth the premium.