Taking Albin 36 ET to Bahamas

[902dlw]

If anyone has taken their Albin 36 ET to the Bahamas, I would like to know about the experience. How did it handle in the Gulf Stream and any other blue water conditions associated with crossing over from Florida. I want to know the good and bad. We have only gone in a sailboat and am interested in the difference.

Vicki
"Balboita"

[AK_Albin36]

While not in the warm, steep waters of the Gulf Stream, I've had my 36 ET in blue waters of the West Coast and Alaska, and have some thoughts for you to consider. Balboita is a single 450 like mine, so the handling should be about the same.

I've had EvenTide in 12-15 footers a few times, and am impressed with how the boat performs down-swell. She tracks amazingly-well, clearly due to the deep skeg and large rudder. While I normally cruise at 1400 rpm and 7.5 knots, in these conditions I feel best at 1750, which varies from 6 to 16 knots between surfing surges. The higher rpms tend to improve tracking and reduce rolling in the trough. She will roll hard as each wave picks up the stern, but the autopilot will keep you on track, and once surfing, she will stand up quickly on the rails and flatten out. Hang on. This is what the centerline grab rail is there for in the main cabin, which is the only safe place to stand watch in these conditions. Pushing your rpms higher than 1900 may cause you to surf into the next wave, which is normally a bad thing. Make sure everything on deck is secured really well. While I've never taken green water over the rail, the snappy rolling can launch anything not bolted or strapped down hard.

On the wind with a steep chop, you'll want to drop the speed down and tack like a sailboat to reduce the pounding. I've found that a 45 degree angle to the chop is about right, which will drop your speed to about 5 knots.

On the beam, higher rpms will again be your friend. 1600 rpm seems to push enough water past the keel to reduce rolling, without the instability of a half-planing condition, which will round you up uncomfortably. If that happens, back off the speed, alter course, or both.

Hope that helps. Would love to hear about your trip.

[902dlw]

Thanks for the reply. Like to talk to you. If ok, can you send your number to vlathom@verizon.net. Vicki

[Mariner]

I'd also like to know more about your experience bringing the boat up to Alaska. My concern has been that I've always felt like the boat was a 36' boat stacked on top of a 33' hull...with the beam at the gunnel being similarly mis-matched to the beam at the water line, resulting in abnormally severe rolling and for a boat this size. Am I wrong? The worst I've ever been in was about 6-8' chop, mostly on the beam. I'm reluctant to take it out in more severe weather because of the rolling I've experienced in moderate weather. What happens when it rolls over farther? Does the increasing beam cause it to stabilize? What kind of roll are we talking about here (in degrees)?

[AK_Albin36]

Good questions, for sure. Been out on the boat 9 of the last 10 weekends, so sorry for the delayed response to 902dlw. Been a great boating season here since early April, which is not normal.

Mariner - 6-8 foot chop is about as bad as it gets, I think. Less than that and she pushes right through it. Larger and a more mature waves aren't as steep as a new 6 foot chop. Full fuel and water tanks help.

On the hull form topic, I should start with little bit of a disclaimer... I was a naval architect by education and early career, so if the theory or detail is too much for other readers, just know that the boat is stout and can handle way more than the crew.

For those with an appetite for technical lingo.... the hull shape above the waterline has quite a bit of flare (beam at deck edge > beam at water line), especially up forward. This tends to give the boat less "initial" stability than other's with nearly 13 feet overall beam. The advantages of flare are numerous, including less wetted surface area, lower weight, and good flow of water and spray when plowing into it. The disadvantages include a tendency to roll through the first 10-15 degrees quite easily, due to a smaller righting moment (shorter righting arm), until the flared section makes contact with the water. At that point, the righting moment increases dramatically, and she snaps right back. Those of us with the 5 foot skeg singles get the benefit of its drag and a slightly slower roll period, but its still quite snappy compared to a sailboat with a heavy keel. That snappiness will keep her on her feet "red side down", but will drive the crew to the rail. There is good news.... the snappy roll means the center of gravity is probably several feet lower than the metacentric height, or the centerpoint around which the boat rolls. Getting to your question.... that means the boat is probably not going to ever get to a 90 degree roll, which it would still probably recover from, at least once.

To summarize - the narrow hull at the waterline means the boat rolls more slowly than if there were no flare, lowering the metacentric height, making the vertical distance between the center of Gravity and Metacentric height smaller (a distance knows as GM), resulting in a softer and more comfortable motion through "normal" roll angles.

At our worst moment, I'd estimate we had her over about 30 degrees (which probably means more like 20). Humans tend to be horrible judges of heeling angles since we spend most of our lives at a 0 degree reference point. I never felt like I was risking taking green water over the rail, so felt relatively safe. Power boats tend to get into trouble in big seas if they "spin out" on a quartering wave and take the next one on the beam, dipping the rail. Or they surf so hard they plow straight into the next one, taking green water over the bow. I had neither of these issues on our trip up the West Coast or the crossing of the Gulf of Alaska. The 36 ET's hull shape, deep skeg, and big rudder all help to make it a very seaworthy boat for its size. All you have to do is hang on for the ride

[Mariner]

That is all very good to hear. I grew up sailing, so I know exactly what 10, 20, 30, and even 40 degrees of heel feels like. Ten degrees means you need to hold your drink, 15 degrees is fun, at 20 degrees everyone notices that things are getting "nautical", and at 30 degrees, everyone but the captain is crapping their pants (and he's only hiding his fear to prevent total chaos amongst the crew). But it's interesting to me how much more I notice heel on a powerboat. Perhaps it's because I KNOW the sailboat will right itself, while I'm not so sure about most powerboats, especially ones with lots of superstructure. We have an inclinometer on Nordvika, but I believe it only goes to 15 degrees. It's been a few years, but I don't believe it ever went past about 10 degrees in that big chop we encountered in the Straights of Juan de Fuca. I remember because my wife, who had never experienced anything like that in her life, was very scared, but I just kept pointing to the inclinometer and informing her that it was nothing more than a spirited tack upwind on a nice day. I think I was saying it as much for my own benefit as hers. I do recall that the table fell over...something that shocked me more because I realized it had never happened before, which was amazing considering that it is not particularly stable.