We don’t want to make this blog too gushy so we will be brief when describing the boat. It is SO COOL! When you wait two years for something to be built and delivered you have a lot of time to think about the decision and to second guess it. We arrived in La Rochelle, France July 27th, the day before we were to take official delivery of Lone Star. La Rochelle is a beautiful, historic Atlantic port located on the Bay of Biscay, below Brittany and above the Bordeaux regions of France. The entrance to the old port is guarded by two towers built in the 15th century. 
Over 300 restaurants, most sidewalk cafes, line the winding cobble stone streets and port quays and the city is home to numerous museums; everything from a national aquarium to a maritime museum and a museum honoring the perfume flask. 
We checked into our hotel in the late afternoon and since it didn’t’ get dark until after 10PM, we were off for a sneak peak of Lone Star. After two years of waiting we weren’t able to wait until the next day for our “official” introduction so off we went on foot to Port Minimes Marina for a look at the boat. Port Minimes is a mega marina with 3,000 slips so finding her wouldn’t be easy. However, we spotted Amel flags flying from many masts so we headed in their direction and success – there she was! We were totally overwhelmed with how beautiful Lone Star was and couldn’t believe she was ours. Any second guessing was gone forever.
On Monday (July 28th) we were picked up by Olivier BEAUTE, the Amel After Sales Manager at 9:30 and taken to the boat for introduction and training. We were welcomed on board with Champagne and, as you can see by our first photo together on the boat; the Amel crew even had Old Glory flying for us.
Another part of the training was boat handling. Jan was backing into the slip and crabbing away from the fuel dock like an expert while Craig was having a bit of trouble.
Craig thinks it was because Olivier was giving her more pointers, but it may have been because Jan was a better listener. In any event we both learned a lot about handling this large vessel in close quarters. 
We can’t say enough nice things about the Amel Crew. The boat was in the best ready condition of any boat we have ever purchased. We had to work to create a punch list and managed to come up with 4 things. Olivier spotted a couple of other items that needed tweaking that we didn’t even see and before we could even blink all the items were taken care of by Christian and Nicholas, the two Amel employees who work at the marina servicing the yachts. You can tell the employees really take pride in their work and the company, as do the Amel owners we have met. Amel has two dedicated pontoons at the marina with over 50 slips filled with new yachts waiting for their owners, yachts coming in and out for servicing and a number of yachts whose home port is La Rochelle. It’s a regular United Nations of owners. We have met, of course, many from France, and also Australia, Canada and Great Britain. Some have owned two, three and even four Amels and all consider themselves part of a family. We actually think it’s more like a cult.
Sailing in La Rochelle is delightful. You have to be very aware of the tides, but once that is accounted for the water is deep and the ocean swell is minimal. On one of our sails we went by historic Fort Boyard, located in the middle of the bay and built to protect La Rochelle and the mouth of the Charente River.
Boyard was built because the mainland cannons’ range could not reach the ships at sea. However by the time the fort was completed technology had improved and the mainland fire power could easily hit attacking ships. It was only used as a prison and now is the site of a French TV game show. Boyard is not as impressive as the fort at the Dry Tortugas, but that may have been because of the guests we had on board Seabbatical at the time.
After our week of training and with the umbilical cord cut, on our first sail without Olivier we took along another Amel owner, Dennis Woods.
Originally from England and currently living in Ireland, Dennis is the owner Il Flauto Magico, a Super Maramu which was in for some routine maintenance. Trust us Dennis is the one to invite to your parties to keep the guests entertained. He is absolutely delightful and entertained us several evenings at sundowner time with tales of his sailing adventures. Having owned three Amels, Dennis shared numerous sail trimming tips and was a wealth of knowledge on great ports to visit.
Our plans for the next two weeks are to continue doing day sails and some overnights before setting off on longer distances. And oh yes – unpacking. Our 25 boxes finally showed up!
Fair Winds,
Craig and Jan
We checked into our hotel in the late afternoon and since it didn’t’ get dark until after 10PM, we were off for a sneak peak of Lone Star. After two years of waiting we weren’t able to wait until the next day for our “official” introduction so off we went on foot to Port Minimes Marina for a look at the boat. Port Minimes is a mega marina with 3,000 slips so finding her wouldn’t be easy. However, we spotted Amel flags flying from many masts so we headed in their direction and success – there she was! We were totally overwhelmed with how beautiful Lone Star was and couldn’t believe she was ours. Any second guessing was gone forever.On Monday (July 28th) we were picked up by Olivier BEAUTE, the Amel After Sales Manager at 9:30 and taken to the boat for introduction and training. We were welcomed on board with Champagne and, as you can see by our first photo together on the boat; the Amel crew even had Old Glory flying for us.
We won’t bore you with all of the details, but it would be safe to say that every system on the boat was covered in detail during the week of training. We spent the first half day in the engine room and discovered a number of classic Amel features. For example Olivier was explaining the circuit that takes raw sea water and circulates it through the heat exchanges for the refrigerators and freezers and Craig noticed an identical pump mounted right next to the one he was describing. When asked about it he said “But of course we put a spare ready to hook up because you would lose your perishable food if another cooling pump was not available to hook up immediately.” You need to supply your own French accent to that quote, but the words are exactly what he said.
(note the picture of Craig in his favorite location and Jan on one of her favorite boat features)
We spent two days going over the various systems before we took our first sail. Towards the end of the first day we were glad to see Olivier depart, not because we didn’t like him, but because our brains were on information overload and we were anxious to start moving in. We had air shipped three boxes of linen that Jan selected and had altered to fit the various bunks and making the beds was the first step to moving aboard.
(note the picture of Craig in his favorite location and Jan on one of her favorite boat features)
We spent two days going over the various systems before we took our first sail. Towards the end of the first day we were glad to see Olivier depart, not because we didn’t like him, but because our brains were on information overload and we were anxious to start moving in. We had air shipped three boxes of linen that Jan selected and had altered to fit the various bunks and making the beds was the first step to moving aboard.
The other 25 boxes we had shipped by sea eleven weeks earlier had yet to arrive (Jan got the “I told you so” award on that issue) so with the beds made and nothing else to do we went to the Carrefour Marché (the Super Wal-Mart of France) and started what turned out to be a daily ritual of provisioning. This time it was for pillows and some basic food items. After that we went to the hotel for what would be our last night on dry land.
Days 2 through 5 went by very quickly. Training usually lasted from 9 to 5 with of course the 2 hour French lunch break – a lot to be said for that custom. We sailed three times with Olivier and learned how to set all of the sails. Amel has a unique downwind sailing system
that has two headsails and two whisker poles on opposite sides of the boat. It is 
very well regarded because you can furl both sails simultaneously from the cockpit if the wind comes up so it is very safe on passages.
Days 2 through 5 went by very quickly. Training usually lasted from 9 to 5 with of course the 2 hour French lunch break – a lot to be said for that custom. We sailed three times with Olivier and learned how to set all of the sails. Amel has a unique downwind sailing system
that has two headsails and two whisker poles on opposite sides of the boat. It is 
very well regarded because you can furl both sails simultaneously from the cockpit if the wind comes up so it is very safe on passages. Another part of the training was boat handling. Jan was backing into the slip and crabbing away from the fuel dock like an expert while Craig was having a bit of trouble.
Craig thinks it was because Olivier was giving her more pointers, but it may have been because Jan was a better listener. In any event we both learned a lot about handling this large vessel in close quarters. 
We can’t say enough nice things about the Amel Crew. The boat was in the best ready condition of any boat we have ever purchased. We had to work to create a punch list and managed to come up with 4 things. Olivier spotted a couple of other items that needed tweaking that we didn’t even see and before we could even blink all the items were taken care of by Christian and Nicholas, the two Amel employees who work at the marina servicing the yachts. You can tell the employees really take pride in their work and the company, as do the Amel owners we have met. Amel has two dedicated pontoons at the marina with over 50 slips filled with new yachts waiting for their owners, yachts coming in and out for servicing and a number of yachts whose home port is La Rochelle. It’s a regular United Nations of owners. We have met, of course, many from France, and also Australia, Canada and Great Britain. Some have owned two, three and even four Amels and all consider themselves part of a family. We actually think it’s more like a cult.
Sailing in La Rochelle is delightful. You have to be very aware of the tides, but once that is accounted for the water is deep and the ocean swell is minimal. On one of our sails we went by historic Fort Boyard, located in the middle of the bay and built to protect La Rochelle and the mouth of the Charente River.
Boyard was built because the mainland cannons’ range could not reach the ships at sea. However by the time the fort was completed technology had improved and the mainland fire power could easily hit attacking ships. It was only used as a prison and now is the site of a French TV game show. Boyard is not as impressive as the fort at the Dry Tortugas, but that may have been because of the guests we had on board Seabbatical at the time.After our week of training and with the umbilical cord cut, on our first sail without Olivier we took along another Amel owner, Dennis Woods.
Originally from England and currently living in Ireland, Dennis is the owner Il Flauto Magico, a Super Maramu which was in for some routine maintenance. Trust us Dennis is the one to invite to your parties to keep the guests entertained. He is absolutely delightful and entertained us several evenings at sundowner time with tales of his sailing adventures. Having owned three Amels, Dennis shared numerous sail trimming tips and was a wealth of knowledge on great ports to visit.Our plans for the next two weeks are to continue doing day sails and some overnights before setting off on longer distances. And oh yes – unpacking. Our 25 boxes finally showed up!
Fair Winds,
Craig and Jan
