1984 27' Aft Cabin maintenance

[Dave G.]

I have a 27' Albin aft cabin cruiser with the 61hp (?) Lehman. I left with the military and for over a year and I put the boat in storage. Well I'm back and before I put her back in the water, I want to take care of some maintenance issues. I am looking for input so anything you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

The engine has 2800 hrs on it and still runs great but I only do 6-7knots At 2100rpm. If I was looking to increase my speed a little, what are my options. Also does anyone know the hull speed of my model?

My rub rail leaks and I am about ready to pull it off and seal the leaks. Any suggestions or recommendations.

My teak is not that bad but since it is out of the water, I would like to take the time and recondition it. This will be my first time working with teak, any suggestions?

At one point I was thinking of selling and getting a larger Albin but I think I will hold on to mine a little longer. It has always been good to me over the past 5 years, so I am going to give it the once over before putting her back in.

Dave

[AKDW]

I would guess that with that horsepower you won't do much more that 7. My 84 has a 100 hp Westerbeke and will do 8+ at 2500. There is talk of these boats doing 12 kts, but I would get this would use a lot fuel to do. If you don't know the finish on the teak, you may have to sand down to bare wood and start anew. We just did our bright work with CETOL and followed their prep and application instructions. It looks good but will be sometime before we know how it wears.

[DougSea]

Your hull speed can be calculated by multiplying the square root of your waterline length in feet by 1.34

If I assume a 27 has a LWL of 25 feet that would make your hull speed 5 * 1.34 = 6.7 knots

Anything beyond that takes significant additions of power!

Good luck with your maintenance. Post some pictures!

[Dave G.]

Thanks for the input on bright work, HP and hull speed calculations. I will start this weekend with removing all the life vests and lose equipment. I will take pics then. Don't get me wrong, the boat is in working order. It's just time for a good cleaning and detailing. I have been putting it off for over 2 years. I am very fortunate, my 27' has a diesel generator and marine A/C. Both with very little use so far. It was included (along with flat screen TV / DD player) when I bought the boat.

As for the repower, with those calculations I may just leave it alone, sit back and bring plenty of ice for the drinks.

[kjg1951]

Thank you for your service !!!!!!

[johnvb1014]

Hi Dave

I replaced the rub rail on our 27 aft cabin cruiser (Isabel) a year ago. When I pulled my off the rub rail, various pieces of the plastic insert came with it. You'll have to drill out the rivets that hold the insert on, and when everything is removed you'll have an edge that is full of holes and old caulk. On mine, the rub rail had been replaced already so the whole edge was full of holes. After cleaning off the old caulk, I put painters tape on the underside of the holes and filled with liquid epoxy. For some holes I may have added to little (or it leaked under the tape), for others too much. After a few iterations I had a solid edge that I then ground down where needed to uniform thickness. The corners at the stern were really bad from, I assume, hitting docks and such. For those I made some crude molds from something bendable that I clamped on and filled with epoxy. I wrapped the mold strips with plastic food wrap so I could remove them easily.

I ordered insert and rub rail from Hamilton Marine. Installing the insert was a job, particularly around tight corners and getting the right amount of caulk in it. I was worried about too little and leaks, but with too much its really hard to get the insert snug on the edge. For the insert, I had cut some small Vs in the sides of the insert to make it bend around corners. This seemed to work well but I had read you can also heat it. To install the insert you'll have to drill holes through the insert and edge and pop rivet it into place. For the rub rail itself, I warmed it as recommended, and then attached the two ends to a come-along and stretched it, also as recommended, and worked my way around the boat tapping it on the insert with a rubber mallet. Secured the ends with screws.

We also redid all the teak on our boat but I'll leave that adventure for another post.

One more thing. On our boat we had found the port windows had leaked which was a real tough repair job. I see on photos of these boats for sale the tell-tale sign of headliner pealing away from the lower edge in the cabins. This happens when water leaks and reaches the staples holding the headliner and corrodes them so it hangs down. When we pulled the ports out I could see the caulk job was poorly done. Check carefully for leaks because it they occur the wooden core rots which occurred on Isabel. This was a difficult repair with lots of penetrating epoxy sealer, but again, info for another post if you are interested.

Hope this helps.

John VB

[Dave G.]

John

Very helpful and my headliner in both galley and aft cabin are coming down. It seems the strip of wood that the headliner was stapled to is also rotting. I thought it was from the rub rail but now I will take a closer look at the port windows. I decided to start pulling off the teak around the main windows today. I found a starboard fabricator in Marathon, Fl that will cut strips the width of the window trim and other pieces that I want to swap out. I am going to set aside the teak for now and refit the boat with as much starboard as possible. The sun in Florida really does a job on the teak and starboard is pretty much maintenance free (and it comes in 5 colors). I saw another 84 Albin on the east coat of FL that painted all his teak white. It made the boat look 10 years newer but I'm sure he will have to deal with the same maintenance issues as the teak conditioning. I really appreciate the information and I will start pulling off the rub rail this weekend. I will know more then, keep you posted, Dave