Design and Construction
The Sharki's numbers tell the story of a purpose-built offshore cruiser rather than a coastal weekender. A displacement-to-length ratio of 294 places her firmly in the heavy-displacement category, while a ballast ratio of 33.2 gives her the kind of stiff, wind-standing posture that keeps a crew comfortable when the breeze builds good stability and can stand up well to strong winds. The capsize screening figure of 1.69 sits well below the 2.0 threshold, the conventional line marking a boat designed with bluewater passage-making in mind. Her comfort ratio of 36.6 describes a reasonably sedate motion, the sort of easy hull behaviour that makes extended living aboard tolerable across an ocean leg. The hull itself is solid fibreglass, and the centre-cockpit arrangement puts the helm amid-ships where it belongs on a passage boat meant to keep its watchkeeper dry.
Rig and Handling
As a ketch the Sharki splits her canvas across a 237 ft² mainsail, a 108 ft² mizzen, and a 474 ft² genoa for an upwind area of 818 ft² and a downwind envelope of 1,001 ft², flown from an I of 45'11", J of 15'1", P of 40'0", and E of 13'9". That division keeps individual sail weights manageable and lowers the centre of effort compared with a single large hoist. A sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 16.9 puts her in the band of reasonably good performance for a boat of this heft — not a racer, but capable of making her own way without relying on the engine. The fin keel and skeg-hung rudder combination is the classic directional-stability-with-protection layout for ocean work, shielding the steering from the worst of a grounding or a following-sea knock.
Accommodations
The centre-cockpit layout is the key to the Sharki's liveaboard character, separating the forward owner's space from the aft guest and systems zones in a way that suits a couple or a small family on a long cruise. Her comfort ratio of 36.6 is not an abstract statistic here; it is the measure of a hull that rolls and pitches within tolerable limits for people sleeping, cooking, and navigating aboard for weeks at a time. With 200 gallons of water and 90 gallons of diesel carried, the boat was conceived for exactly that self-sufficient rhythm rather than marina hopping.
The Verdict
The Amel Sharki 39 is a thoroughly considered heavy-displacement ketch from the Amel–Carteau partnership's late-1970s output, built in modest numbers and engineered around the centre-cockpit offshore brief. Her stability, capsize screening, and comfort figures all point the same direction: a boat meant to look after a crew on a long passage rather than win a start-line.
Pros
- Ballast ratio of 33.2 gives genuine wind-standing stability
- Capsize screening of 1.69 confirms bluewater-oriented design
- Comfort ratio of 36.6 supports sedate, liveaboard-friendly motion
- Ketch rig divides sail area for manageable shorthanded handling
Cons
- Heavy-displacement profile (D/L 294) limits light-air agility
- Modest production run of 195 means limited brokerage availability
