Looking for an Albin 25 or 25MS with trailer and swim platfo

[Foreverunstopable]

Unfortunately we just missed a 1970 25 ms on a trailer just up the road from us in Florida. Anyone know of other 25s in the south east? Preferably on a trailer which can be launched from standard boat ramps?

Thanks!

[DesertAlbin736]

Only two others on Boat Trader, a 1975 in Rockport, TX, the other a 1973 in Rolling Meadows, IL. Actually, the one in Illinois was just marked 'Sold', so the leaves only the one in TX. We had to drive 850 miles from Phoenix to Pocatello, ID to get this one

[Foreverunstopable]

Nice Albin. Does your 25 launch and retrieve easily with the trailer?

Most of our ramps around here have 10degree slope.

[DesertAlbin736]

>>Does your 25 launch and retrieve easily with the trailer?

So far yes. We've only had it in the water in two places to date, that is once in Lake Powell in Page, AZ and twice more at our home lake, Lake Pleasant, Peoria, AZ. Lake Pleasant has excellent ramps with good angle. Can't say for sure what % slope they are, but the boat will float off the trailer with the truck backed into the water to about 5 or 6 ft in from the edge and the rear wheels submerged less than hub deep. The trickiest part is keeping the stern centered on the trailer when hauling out. Here's pics of the boat on the trailer. I've since shortened the bowsprit & removed the yellow fuel cans hanging over the bow. First photo was taken in American Falls, ID, the one the PO used to advertise on Craigslist, the 2nd one was taken somewhere in Utah en route home from purchasing the boat. As you can see, the trailer tongue extends quite far from the bow of the boat. I tow with a '06 Dodge Ram 2500 4X4 diesel. I stopped at a truck stop in Flagstaff, AZ and had the boat & trailer weighed on a truck scale. Actual total weight was 6,580 lbs with the trailer disconnected from the truck. That's with 1/2 tank of fuel in the boat and the dinghy hanging off the stern. The trailer is aluminum, and the original invoice for it says it weighs 1,450 lbs.

[Grahamrfd]

Hi

Interesting photos of your trailer. Im based in the UK and am looking for a trailer for my albin. My van has a gross train weight of 5700kg so I need to convert pounds to kilos now and see how much weight I have spare. Im hoping to visit the scottish lochs next year which is about 400 miles from my home.
Regards

Graham

[Sunsetrider]

Desert Albin ---> I am planning on hooking my dinghy on the platform as you have done. Does it catch the wind on the water or do you normally tow? And if you tow, how does that go?

[DesertAlbin736]

Sunsetrider: Here are closeups of the dinghy stowed with Weaver snap davits & standoff braces. First photo is before I installed the standoff braces. PO used to just tie off the dinghy up against the stern rail. Have not tried towing the dink in the water behind the boat. These snap davits are great. You just lower the dink in the water and it's secured to the platform while you climb in then unclip and away you go. On this boat the platform is about the same level above the water as the the dinghy gunn'ls. So when returning it's easy to re-attach the davits and climb back onto the platform, then just use a line to pull the dinghy back up to vertical and attach the braces. This dinghy is a Canadian built Boatex 8. The downside is that it blocks the stern light for night running, and the stock flag pole is not high enough the clear the top of the dinghy. Hence the rail socket for the flag pole.

Still trying to decide how best to stow my Tohatsu 2.5 HP outboard somewhere on the rail or down on the platform. Trying to keep as much weight to port as possible to help correct a persistent 1 or 2 degree starboard list. I have a neat book by Bruce Bingham titled "The Sailor's Sketchbook". He suggests that when towing a hard shell dinghy it's a good idea to lash 3 fenders 'midships to the center thwart. That way if the dinghy gets swamped and capsized the fenders help raise the center of bouyancy so the dinghy will right itself and can be bailed out. He also suggests when towing downwind in a swell to add a warp or drogue to the dinghy to help prevent it from surfing down the face of the wave and crashing into the yacht while the yacht is stalled in the trough, and also suggests adjusting the length of the towing painter to match the wavelength of the swell.

[Sunsetrider]

Thanks Desert - your pics and comments are quite relevant and useful to me. Based on that I think my plan will work. I am rowing for now so I don't have to face the motor question yet - wish list. With the first day of warm weather today I have been busy finishing up a complete re-do of my electrics. Tomorrow I start in on the hull . . . so fun!

[glk34]

Hi all, we also sometimes carry our tender on our swim platform. It is an 8' inflatable. The only issues I have with it is that the diesel smell, exhaust fumes tend to rise up the transom and sometimes are backdrafted into the boat. The other issue is that the tender gets a bit sooty from the diesel exhaust. There doesn't seem to be any issue with it catching the wind or causing any adverse handling of the boat. At our speeds this is not an issue. My preferred tender position is to tow the tender about 2' behind the swim platform with a line to each side of the tender. This keeps it moving straight through the water. When on the trailer, I deflate.

Chris
"Iron Jack"
A25

[Sunsetrider]

Thanks Jack. Could you expand a bit on the rope attachment to the tender?

[DesertAlbin736]

>>> I'm based in the UK and am looking for a trailer for my albin. My van has a gross train weight of 5700kg so I need to convert pounds to kilos now and see how much weight I have spare.

Converting pounds to kilos: 1 kilo = 2.2 pounds. 1 pound = 0.454 kilos. Not sure exactly what "gross train weight" means in the UK. 5,700 kilos is 12,566 lbs. So I suspect that "gross train weight" might be what we call GCWR, or "gross combined weight rating", which is the total weight of the towing vehicle with cargo plus the maximum trailer towing weight.

My tow vehicle is a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 (aka 3/4 ton) 4 wheel drive crew cab pickup truck powered by 5.9 Litre Cummins diesel.

Weight specs are:

Gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) 9,000 lbs (4080 kg)
Payload capacity: 2,096 lbs (950 kg)
Curb weight: 6,904 lbs (2,764 kg)
Towing limit: 12,950 lbs (5,874 kg)
Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR): 20,000 lbs (9,071 kg)

So I am pulling 52% of my total towing capacity with the Albin. Yes this is an absolute monster of a truck. But I'm in the Western United States where towing from Arizona to anywhere on the West Coast involves distances of between 400 miles to 1,600 miles as we will be soon on our planned trip to Bellingham, WA and the San Juan Islands, and climbing 6% grades to has high as 7,500 ft (2,300 M) elevation and back down, and crossing deserts with summer temperatures as high as 115 degrees F (46 deg C). So I tend to take vehicle and trailer condition and towing capacities seriously, especially tire condition and inflation pressures.

Pictured below is my truck hitched to the boat I owned previous to the Albin, a 1989 Catalina 25 wing keel sailboat. It tipped the truck scales at 8,300 lbs (3,765 kg) due to its 1750 lb lead keel.

We took this sailboat from Phoenix to San Diego twice. The route across Southern California on Interstate 8 from Yuma to San Diego involves going from 400 ft above sea level at Yuma, dropping to below sea level at El Centro, then over the remaining distance of 113 miles from El Centro climbing a series of summits topping out at 4500 feet and back down to sea level through mountain passes where high winds are the norm. Tends to concentrate the mind on driving.

[Sunsetrider]

Or . . . you could move to a coast!

[DesertAlbin736]

>>>Or . . . you could move to a coast!

Except:

a) We like it here in AZ. My wife is 4th generation native and I've been here since '77.

b) We live 15 minutes from a boating lake where the best season is October to May, and 2 hours from high country summer RV camping in Pondersa pine forests

c) Live 6 hours from San Diego

b)Cost of living too high in CA, OR, WA

c)Lots of family here, 2 step children, 8 step grand children, and 2 step great grandchildren.

But if money were no object would have a summer home on one of the islands in the San Juans

Our "other boat":

[Sunsetrider]

Lots of good reasons there! We've been through AZ on motorcycles - loved it! Deserts, mountains, forests, dial in what you want.

[Foreverunstopable]

Lol great info above. We looked at an A 27 FC with the ld28. Not quite what were looking for, the 25 is still on the top of the list.

If anyone does come across a nice A 25 Motor sailer on a trailer, the closer to FL the better, please drop me a note.