A new chapter is beginning!

[DougSea]

It's been an interesting few weeks...

One of these days I'll get around to posting the tale of my somewhat abbreviated introduction to the ICW as part of a plan to bring my good friend's new (to him) Albermarle 325 up to CT from Wanchese NC. This is the kind of trip EVERYBODY does in December, right? The boat is on the hard in Hampton VA, well short of home. We got about 20 miles into our leg up the Chesapeake before declaring surrender to the wind and waves,heading back to safe harbor and abandoning the remainder of the trip until the Spring. We saw on the news after we got back that a fishing boat sank the next day (Sunday) about 20 or 30 miles from where we turned around. We must be getting older and wiser!!

I came back from that little experience convinced that a bigger boat was the way I thought Kathy and I should go.

A few days later she forwards me a YW listing for a 35TE Convertible.

A few days later we go take a look. Kat LOVES the boat.

Signed the contract today!

I'm sure I'll have LOTS of stories and questions as this moves along...wish us luck!

[Chuck Waygood]

Welcome to the exclusive list of 35 TE convertibles. Did you buy Callisto or the one in Hampton Bays? Now you can enjoy the entire Intercoastal and come for an Albin rendezvous in Florida some year! Congratulations for a great buy, Doug!

[jcollins]

WOW! That's the way I like to shop. Find it, see it, buy it! A convertible? Post the listing. I want to see this boat. We have been testing the water for a 31 but when I saw a 35 I was really impressed. You've come a long way in 5 years. Here's a trip down memory lane. Your first post in 2006.

John (and other members), thought I'd send out a quick hello. I just found the forum a few days ago and joined today.

I'm not an Albin owner yet but I'm hoping to be soon. In fact my wife and I plan on heading down from Connecticut to Maryland this weekend to check out a 28 TE. With a bit of luck I'll soon be a proud owner. Assuming that all goes well I'll be looking forward to sharing what I learn about Albins / Inboards / Diesels (all new to me!) with the others on this forum.

It sure looks like you've got a good start to the owners group, keep it up!

Congratulations Doug!

By the way...the Chesapeake is not very forgiving this time of year. I'm interested in hearing about your trip.

[DougSea]

Welcome to the exclusive list of 35 TE convertibles. Did you buy Callisto or the one in Hampton Bays? Now you can enjoy the entire Intercoastal and come for an Albin rendezvous in Florida some year! Congratulations for a great buy, Doug!

We had talked to "Callisto", which looks like a pretty sweet deal, but went with "Rags" for a number of reasons, including the galley-up layout that Kat really liked. It also gives us the second cabin for our guests/family without always having to have someone sleeping in the salon.

I'll of course be scouring the forum for pictures and ideas.

I'm not going to go crazy with planning until we close but I'm confident everything will go well. Survey/seatrial in January may make my December journey look tame!

[DougSea]

WOW! That's the way I like to shop. Find it, see it, buy it! A convertible? Post the listing. I want to see this boat. We have been testing the water for a 31 but when I saw a 35 I was really impressed. You've come a long way in 5 years. Here's a trip down memory lane. Your first post in 2006.

John (and other members), thought I'd send out a quick hello. I just found the forum a few days ago and joined today.

I'm not an Albin owner yet but I'm hoping to be soon. In fact my wife and I plan on heading down from Connecticut to Maryland this weekend to check out a 28 TE. With a bit of luck I'll soon be a proud owner. Assuming that all goes well I'll be looking forward to sharing what I learn about Albins / Inboards / Diesels (all new to me!) with the others on this forum.

It sure looks like you've got a good start to the owners group, keep it up!

Congratulations Doug!

By the way...the Chesapeake is not very forgiving this time of year. I'm interested in hearing about your trip.

Thanks John!

Yeah, we don't mess around!

It's funny how a few years can change you! This boat never would have happened back then but the years on Sonny III showed us what bigger boat life was like, and we loved it! Kathy in particular, who was never all that happy on our center console or walkaround, really came to enjoy boating and to see it as a way that she and I could have a lot of fun together.

I also have to say that while we looked at Sabrelines and Eastbays, and a few others, one of the big things going for the TE was AOG! This is a great community and it has greatly enhanced my knowledge and enjoyment of our boat. So a big thank you to you John and all of the folks here at the best owners group around!!

I'll post more about my "southern venture" soon - and maybe finally finish part 2 of my Hudson trip. In the meantime here's one of the listings:

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2006/Al ... ted-States

And if YOU are still looking for a 35 with a single...

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2004/Al ... ted-States

[RicM]

Good for you Doug, I'm still dreaming of a 35 CB but the listings have dries up for the winter I guess. I'm thinking about stopping at at Standish and seeing if they'll take TaT in trade.....

[DougSea]

Good for you Doug, I'm still dreaming of a 35 CB but the listings have dries up for the winter I guess. I'm thinking about stopping at at Standish and seeing if they'll take TaT in trade.....

Thanks Ric, not done yet but moving well.

The trade is the thing...tough market, especially if you have a really nice, but not new, current boat.

[DougSea]

Got the thumbs up call from the finance guy as we left for Christmas...next step is the survey, probably the 2nd or 3rd week of January! Starting to get all psyched up!

[DougSea]

Headed down to NJ tomorrow morning at 0 dark 30 for part one of the survey. Sea trial is in two weeks when the seller's rep will come up, do the sea trial and check on my trades.

And speaking of trades. If you search for 28's on YachtWorld some of you may recognize a certain boat. They've already got my boat up and they've priced it very aggressively. It pains me to see what they're asking knowing what I paid and how many nice add ons I've done. But, I got a great deal on the new one so I'm not complaining. I'll post the link in the For Sale section tomorrow. If you know someone looking for a 28 you might want to point them to it. (BTW - I mention this just because I'd love to see her stay in the AOG "family"...my deal is done pending the survey.)

[jcollins]

Doug,
Best of luck with everything. I'm sure it will all be good. I must have been hibernating the last month or so. I was surprised when my search pulled up 85 listings. I'm assuming there are duplicates in there but that is still a lot of TE 28s.

[jleonard]

Best of luck...(and watch the weather).

[Chuck Waygood]

John, you haven't been sleeping. It's the economy, the price of fuel, and growing older! Hope it turns out well for you, Doug. Surveys are very frustrating 'cause you want the boat no matter what and that emotion can get you in real trouble if your not careful ( speaking from experience).

[DougSea]

Thanks very much guys!

Everything went well, as I expected it would. Of course my first job on getting to the boat was to shovel out the cockpit...that's a first! (And I hope - last!)

Very glad I brought extra power cords and heaters. Took the edge off of a very cold day and made it as plesent as it could be to crawl around a good sized boat.

This was the first half of the survey and was all done on the hard. I got there at 10 after a 3 hour drive, the surveyor was already at work. Don't think we wrapped up until 5:30. One very long day!

I hear what you're saying Chuck. Although I'm really trying to stay non-emotional about the whole thing. The boat really is in very nice shape and there were just a few minor issues that came up. The sea trial and running the engines will be the real test. That's scheduled for two weeks from now, so naturally we're about to get hit with another major snow storm! And that's a potential problem since travel-lifts are NOT all terrain vehicles! So I really need this supposed "Global Warming" thing to kick in for about a week...