New member from Canada

[Louma]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I just bought a 1971 Albin 25. The boat is presently in storage at a marina on the Richelieu River, so our first trip will be up the St-Lawrence through Montréal then the Ottawa River to Ottawa.

We plan to explore the Ottawa River, the Rideau Canal system and Thousand Islands next year, before venturing further in the world!!

Boat is in great shape, quite new (375 hrs) Yanmar diesel engine, fully equipped with radar, electronic maps, sounder, etc.

Just missing a swim platform and dinghy... Now trying to figure out what is the best combination swim platform/dinghy for this boat, suggestions welcomed!

Albin's are rarity around here, so when you find a good one you grab it!!

[jcollins]

Welcome to AOG!

[glk34]

Hi, guys. Always good to hear from another A25 owner. There are a couple of A25 here in NB and we have done a bit of cruising. Our friends just did a few weeks on the Rideau Canal and we hope to do more with them next season. Do you have a trailer for your A25? Our boats are 1970, 1973, one has a 29hp Perkins and the other a 30hp Yanmar. We trailer the boats all over as they are easy to tow and launch.

Chris
"Iron Jack"

[Mark Deeser]

Hi Louma, really sounds like a nice boat. We have a 27 FC and are hanging 9' 4" plastic Water Tender dinghy on swim platform using Weaver Snap davits. I believe they make them 8' also, Walker Bay makes a great little dinghy, you can fit them out to sail. They have a floatation collar you can get with them, ( a little pricey ). Enjoy, enjoy. Thanks. Mark.

[Louma]

Thanks everyone!
glk34, we might see each other on the Canal next year! We have a trailer but the brakes are non-functional on it, so it is only good for haul-in haul-out. Also, we would need to upgrade car to tow the boat, the Honda Accord will not pull the Albin! Maybe in a couple years we will upgrade both!!
The engine is a Yanmar 30HP too, how is yours doing? any problem with it?

Mark, I looked at the Wever Davits and they would certainly work very well with a swim platform. But you would be horrified to see how much these end up costing in Canada after you factor in exchange rates, taxes, delivery...So I am looking at other options. One possibility is installing a new foldable stern mounted ladder with two small swim platforms, one on each side of the ladder. I could get all these at a reasonable price here (around $550CDN). Then get a small/lightweight(6'-7") inflatable that I would just lift by hand and attach to the swim platforms and top rails. I checked dimensions and everything would fit pretty well. Does it makes sense? Bear in mind that cost is an important consideration, so working with "standard" components available here is a plus.

By the way, the little Walkers are very nice too but I am afraid they might be a bit too long for the Albin 25 when attached to the stern and would interfere with maneuvering.
Thanks!
Louis

[Mark Deeser]

Try looking at sling davits from harbormenmarine.

[Louma]

Thanks Mark, that is exactly what I need!

[Louma]

By the way, here is a picture of the boat.

IMG_3433-2.jpg

[DesertAlbin736]

Welcome Aboard! Very nice boat Louma,

We're also Albin 25 owners, and our 1971 Hull #736 was once based in Ontario, Canada before the folks we bought it from got it from an estate sale in 2001 and took it to their home in Idaho and used it for 13 years before we bought it in 2014 and brought it home to Arizona. Since then we've trailered it to Washington State last year and cruised up into the Gulf Islands of BC, then this summer went back East to cruise the Erie Canal, Long Island Sound, and Chesapeake Bay. Many adventures lay in store for you! BTW, our boat on an aluminum trailer, with gear and a 100 lb fiberglass dinghy (Canadian made Boatex 8 ) weighed 6,850 lbs (3,113 kg) on a truck scale. A 1/2 ton pickup or SUV with tow package & 8,000 lb towing capacity would be minumum for towing over the road, and 3/4 ton preferable for hilly terrain. We tow with a 3/4 ton Dodge diesel 4X4.

[Louma]

Thanks DesertAlbin,
Our boats are close brothers! Ours is #748! I do not have the full history but I have the original owner manual with a stamp on it which shows the dealer location to be in Rosemère, Québec, near Montréal. The previous owner had it for less than 10 years based near Sorel on the Richelieu. My guess the owner before that used it on the St-Lawrence as it is full equipped for sea cruising (radar,etc). Nice touch, it also has a bow thruster.
First year will be to get accustomed to the boat close to home, i.e. Rideau Canal, Ottawa River, Thousand Islands. Plans for the future certainly include St-Lawrence, Lake Champlain, Hudson, Erie Canal, Lake OntarioTrent-Severn... After that we will see, might need a good trailer and new vehicle then!
I saw somewhere that the Nissan X-Terra V? with tow package could be a good choice to tow. Is your trailer a custom trailer?

[Louma]

Desert Albin, forgot to ask, do you keep your Boatex 8 attached to the stern? if so, no issue with maneuvering ?
BTW, it seems Boatex is out of business, but Walker Bay makes a nice 8' dinghy too.

[glk34]

Bow thruster!!! Now you have my attention. Must make parking nice. The A25 is light and I find that lots of times I am lined up for my slip and the wind pushes my bow off. The thruster would straighten things out again. I always expected the price would be more than I would want to spend.
We are toying with the idea of a composting toilet. It would extend our cruising, we use a porty potty with about 5 gals storage-carrying the "suitcase" to dump every 2 days sucks. Our friends have a composting head in their A25 and go many weeks living aboard without emptying.
BTW They tow with a V6 Toyota Tacoma. No problems.
Your boat looks great, hope to meet up next summer.

Chris

[Louma]

Chris,
Yes, bow thrusters are nice. I have not tried it on the Albin yet but we rented a canal boat in France last year that had one. VERY useful to have with these flat bottomed boats that have a tendency to go where they want! My guess the Albin is much more maneuverable but still nice to have one when docking and making the locks.
We have a Jabsco head with waste water tank. Hopefully it will do the job. If not I will certainly have a look at the composting head, I suspect it might take less space than a Jabsco with waste tank?
Tacoma is very nice but my guess my wife will never want a pickup truck! So only option for the future would be a SUV (maybe...).
Louis

[saltypaws]

Bow thruster!!! Now you have my attention. Must make parking nice. The A25 is light and I find that lots of times I am lined up for my slip and the wind pushes my bow off. The thruster would straighten things out again. I always expected the price would be more than I would want to spend.
We are toying with the idea of a composting toilet. It would extend our cruising, we use a porty potty with about 5 gals storage-carrying the "suitcase" to dump every 2 days sucks. Our friends have a composting head in their A25 and go many weeks living aboard without emptying.
BTW They tow with a V6 Toyota Tacoma. No problems.
Your boat looks great, hope to meet up next summer.

Chris

We are sailors with a Hunter 36 on the Saint John river. Last winter we sailed to Florida and returned in June. While there we purchased an A-25 Lola Girl as our Florida boat. We were in Gagetown in late summer and saw the article in the local paper about 2 Albins. I presume one was you.
We will be returning to Florida in November to complete some boat projects and returning in December. Our Albin like yours has a porta potty. Our major project is to get rid of it. After much research we are now convinced the composting head is the way to go. Natures head seems to be the best. We would appreciate any further info on your friends installation and perhaps speak to him on his experience. We expect to order the head in the next week or so.
We are very familiar with the A-25 one of our best boating friends purchased one in 1971 from a dealer in Montreal and cruised the Saint John River for 27 years. I trailered the boat for him most years to and from his home and once to Halifax and back. The last 10 years he kept it in Gagetown.

[DesertAlbin736]

Desert Albin, forgot to ask, do you keep your Boatex 8 attached to the stern? if so, no issue with maneuvering ?
BTW, it seems Boatex is out of business, but Walker Bay makes a nice 8' dinghy too.

Yes, we mostly keep the Boatex attached to the swim platform via Weaver snap davits. All this came with the boat when we bought it. Except that when trailering long distances I take if off the davits and load it onto the back of my pickup truck (I devised a system of ramp boards and saw horses and can accomplish the transfer single handed). With the dinghy on the back of the boat it creates a tremendous amount of aerodynamic drag when towing down the roads at highway speeds and is rough on all the hardware. But it's great for getting on and off the dinghy on the water, as you just drop the dinghy into the water with the davits attached, and you can walk around in the dinghy without fear of capsizing while getting situated, then just release the catches and go. And you don't have to worry about the dinghy getting swamped under tow.

For the most part causes no issues with maneuvering, except you have to be careful near the dock as the ends stick out wider than the transom. That's more an issue where you have pilings it can catch on and less with floating docks.

If you didn't mind a slightly smaller dinghy and wanted to stay with a faux lapstrake hard shell, the Montgomery 6-8 pram would be a good choice . If mounted like our Boatex is it wouldn't stick out past the transom as far. But, they are pretty small and a bit tippy and not very suitable for using an outboard.

This boat is still in production out in California.

See that picture of a guy in a Montgomery 15 with tanbark sails on the Montgomery home page? That was me back in 2003 when I owned an M15.

http://www.montgomeryboats.com/

If all goes well we hope to be back up in BC next summer.