A virgin Albin owner, not anymore!

[jvh]

Hi all! My name is Jean and I am half the team that cruise aboard Old Maggie, a 1972 Albin25, hull 1101. We bought her about this time last year and had a great summer cruising the Richibucto River in New Brunswick, the Rideau Canal, and with our fellow Albin25 buddies aboard Iron Jack on the Saint John river. We learned a lot about the old girl, from how she does not like to steer while in reverse (and sometimes contrary enough going forward!) to being a real crowd pleaser at whatever dock we pulled into.

We bought her on the hard, having never heard her motor running, just because we loved her lines, she was in our price range, and she looked like the perfect boat for what we wanted to do on the water. We spent the past winter tinkering with her, painting her, putting new motor mounts on her Yanmar heart, and making her as comfortable as possible for living aboard.

On of the first things we did was take out the toilet (I know..it's called a head but is it a toilet or a head when it sitting on the shop floor beside the boat?) because it just seemed wrong to have raw sewerage stored onboard when I would rather have a case of wine stored in that spot. We researched a far amount on line and could not find what we wanted in a compost toilet. Way to expensive and way to big! After much engineering, trial and error, we now have a compact portable compost toilet at an affordable price that fits the Albin 25 to a tee. It was tested a lot by the crew and visitors on Old Maggie and it worked perfectly this past summer. We changed the peat moss only twice all season and so taking care of the nasty was not a issue. We are in the process of preparing the toilet for market so look for it on an upcoming episode on the Dragons Den!

This winter our main goal is to make some kind of slick pop top so we can get some shade over the whole cockpit. We want to feel the breeze of the sea but not the rays of the sun. Any suggestions?

PS. Thanks for this forum and all who contribute to it. We use it a lot! Every time we say "I wonder if...." Or "I wonder how..." Or "I wonder where..." etc . We usually find the answer here. This forum is wonderful !

Over,
Jean
Old Maggie

[kerrye]

Good news on the composting toilet. I'd like to learn more.

[jvh]

Hi Kerrye
We stuck to the basics in the design of the toilet. That is, separating the solids from the liquids. That is the key in keeping oders under control and non existent. The solids are mixed with the peat moss and the liquids are not. Instead the liquid is passed into a container that is dealt with every day or two depending on usage.

As soon as we get some decent pictures we will post them here.

[DesertAlbin736]

This winter our main goal is to make some kind of slick pop top so we can get some shade over the whole cockpit. We want to feel the breeze of the sea but not the rays of the sun. Any suggestions?

First off Jean, welcome to the Albin forum! Always good to hear from fellow Albin 25 owners, as you may notice we are somewhat of a minority among all the other types of Albins.

Speaking of hard tops, this is what I did with ours last year. It was a bear of a project and by no means cheap in materials costs and many, many hours of labor, but the end result was worth the effort.

Long story short, previous owners had made a pop top out of translucent white acrylic plexi which was hinged on the back edge and when open about 10 inches in front was held open with spring hatch props. Kinda nice, but 2 problems, a) had only latches in each forward corner and could never be made 100% watertight when closed, and b) unless you tied it down good with ropes across the hand rails it could and did pop open when trailering on the road at highway speeds. So one day it did that and broke into 3 pieces. I figured enough of this noise, so I designed and made a new hard top out of fiberglass, using isothalic polyester resin, chopped strand mate, and diviny cell core with 2 opening teak hatches.

If you look in the Board Index under "Everything Albin" and click on "Document Library", then click on "Project Pictures", then "Albin Fiberglass Hardtop Project" you'll see some pictures I posted. What I did was use a 1/2" styrofoam insulation panel to make a pattern and traced the shape and curves from which I built a mould from lumber and masonite. Using that and mold with release wax and PVA I laid up the gelcoat and fiberglass. The finished hard top is through bolted on 8" centers and sealed with 4200 removable caulk/sealant. Hatch covers are made of Iroko frames and marine grade Okeume teak veneer ply tops.

A little trick: if you click on this or any pictures in a post it'll open an larger hi res view of the picture. This one was taken this summer in lock #4 in the Cayuga-Seneca canal in the Finger Lakes of upstate NY.

[jvh]

Thanks for the welcome!

And nice looking job! That's the direction we are leaning towards. What are your thoughts on one bigger hatch instead of two separate ones?

[DesertAlbin736]

One larger hatch is certainly possible. You could also make a hard top out of marine grade or good exterior plywood and 'glass it over with fiberglasss cloth and resin instead of a pure f/g layup. I did two hatches for a several reasons. 1) I wanted to do traditional looking teak hatches & thought one large hatch would be too heavy, and 2) probably the main reason is that the pilothouse roof is curved and would difficult to make a curved hatch cover that big, and 3) I had the 20 watt Siemens solar panel inherited from the previous owner that I wanted to retain and the best place to install it seemed to be in the center of the roof between the hatches. Where we store the boat we don't have access to electricity to plug in an onboard charger to keep the batteries up, so a solar panel is essential to maintain a float charge. The final reason is to have the option of opening one hatch while leaving the other closed, and to be able to stand up at the helm and stick my head out when docking. In our experience the two 18X18 hatches give plenty of ventilation. Another option I've seen done on an Albin 25 is to use RV skylight vents for hatches.

Another project I'm getting ready to start work on soon is to relocate the battery bank from where it is just outboard of the engine box and move it to the lazarette storage compartment under the starboard bench seat to make room for a larger marine head holding tank. If I can free up that space I can increase my holding tank capacity from 9 gallons to 20.

My battery bank consists of three Group 27 wet cell batteries, that is one start battery and two house batteries linked in parallel. The house batteries are 7 years old and due for replacement anyway. But since they will be moved to the more confined space of the lazarette I'm upgrading all three to sealed dual purpose AGM batteries. The dual purpose wet cell start battery I bought new shortly after we first got the boat in 2014 and is less than two years old, so I'll keep that one to use in our RV travel trailer. Cabellas had about the best deal on AGM batteries that I could find, on sale for $153 each. West Marine sells that size AGM for $280 each. Other outlets have similar prices.

Charging voltages for AGMs are slightly different than wet cell, so I need to add a different charge controller for the solar panel, as well as upgrading my onboard charger to a more modern AGM compatible 4 stage unit for shore power. I've already converted most of my cabin lights to LED's. And finally, I'm going to replace the old 1-2-Both master battery switch with Blue Sea System's "Add A Battery" dual circuit plus switch with 'start isolation/automatic charging relay'. This setup is really slick. In a nutshell it's a 4 terminal switch instead of 3 terminals. One terminal comes from the start battery and links to the terminal for the start cable going to the starter solenoid. The terminal for the house bank cable links to the terminal for house loads. So what you have is a simple on-off switch that connects the start battery to the engine and the house battery to the house loads and keeps them separate so you don't have to remember to switch back from "Both" to "House" when anchored. In order to charge the house battery off the alternator when the engine is running (since the house bank is isloated), the SI/ACR relay senses charging voltage when the engine is running and closes to combine the banks so that the alternator charges both banks. When the engine is shut down and voltage drops off as you're using house loads, the relay opens and isolates the start battery from the house bank. That way you never have to worry about running down all the batteries because you left the switch on "Both" since the start battery is always automatically isolated from the house bank. There is a manual override in case you did need to combine both batteries with the engine off.

[jvh]

Thanks so much for your thoughts on the hatch. We definitely like the idea of getting our heads outside and yes it is very handy to be able to see when docking or passing a line. I think that is why we were leaning to one bigger hatch but you may be right on the construction side of things. More thinking to be done on my part...

Interesting battery switch you are going to install. i think its a great idea. It would solve the problem we often run into on our boat. That is, you get into bed for the night and then you think " did I turn the battery switch from "both" to just "house"? Then need to get up to check! I am going to check the cost of that switch.

And I have wondered about a solar panel and you maybe can explain it to me since you have experience with one on board. I can totally understand how it produces a trickle charge and it's a brilliant way to keep batteries in good shape. It is the day to day use in the summer that has me wondering. On your normal day of motoring and the batteries are being charged by the running of the motor, the solar power is of no use at the end of the day (unless there is an extra battery dedicated only to the solar system),right?


Jean
Old Maggie

[DesertAlbin736]

And I have wondered about a solar panel and you maybe can explain it to me since you have experience with one on board. I can totally understand how it produces a trickle charge and it's a brilliant way to keep batteries in good shape. It is the day to day use in the summer that has me wondering. On your normal day of motoring and the batteries are being charged by the running of the motor, the solar power is of no use at the end of the day (unless there is an extra battery dedicated only to the solar system),right?

You're right, if you're motoring all day the solar panel won't do much good. I switch mine off while motoring, although some say that's not necessary. Keeping a trickle charge up while the boat is being stored for extended periods away from AC power or on a mooring is the main purpose of having solar. If you're out on the hook for days at a time it can help extend the time between needing to run the engine to recharge the house bank. A 20 watt panel is not big enough to supply all house loads. Nominal capacity of 20 watts @ 12V = 1.66 amps X average 5 hours per day of peak solar panel output = 8.3 amp-hours per day. On the other hand the engine alternator can crank out up to 50 amps. Conserving power use is another way to help, which is why I installed LED bulbs on most of my cabin lights. You can get those at RV supply stores & they come in sizes to fit automotive type sockets. The best deal I was able to find for the Blue Sea switch kit was $110 on Amazon.

[jvh]

Thanks!

I see from another post of yours that you trailer your boat all around the country. We trailered ours about 3000 km last summer and had no problems. The only thing that was tricky was finding gas stations big enough to get the truck and trailer in and out of. Some of the stations are starting to make lanes for people hauling campers so those ones were a real treat. Do you sleep in your boat at night when trailering it between bodies of water? we use ours like a camper while on the road. Works for us, how about you?

[DesertAlbin736]

Do you sleep in your boat at night when trailering it between bodies of water? we use ours like a camper while on the road. Works for us, how about you?

Yes we camp in the boat when possible, weather permitting. Meaning if it's not too hot. We've camped in RV parks, state park campgrounds, Walmart parking lots, and even a casino parking lot in Albuquerque once. Preferably a place that has restrooms, since don't want to have to use our marine head if we can help it, but could if we had no other choice. If the weather is too hot like when crossing deserts in the summer, or when we feel like we just have to take a shower or want to treat ourselves to a hotel room, then we get a room.

[jvh]

Cool! Same story. Our favorite place to spend the night when we are trailering is to find a towns public boat launch area. It's free, it's waterfront property with a great view, quiet at night, and usually equipped with garbage cans and sometimes toilets. We have a great compost toilet on our boat so a campsite without facilities is fine but I do miss a shower!
You mentioned how hot your enviorment is and the location of your home port makes me think you have lots of experience with heat. We hit a heat wave last summer while boating and it only happened once but the new iPad we use for navigation overheated. We had paper charts and a Standard Horizon chart plotter for backup but prefer the Navonics on the iPad for navigation. We took the iPad below, it cooled off, and then we rigged a fan on the "dash" to keep it cool after that. However the sun is a killer through the windshield and trying to make shade to sheild the iPad proved to be a challenge. By any chance you have an idea on how to fashion a sun shade for an iPad?


Jean
Old Maggie

[DesertAlbin736]

By any chance you have an idea on how to fashion a sun shade for an iPad?

I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to iPads & Apple products & don't own one. We do have a Samsung Android tablet, but don't put it in the sun. We don't have smart phones either, and the tablet only connects to the internet via WiFi. We do have a prepaid JetPack "MyFi", but it's expensive to use, so we only use it sparingly to check email, etc when traveling.

For navigating my main tool is a Garmin GPSmap76Cx loaded with BlueChart software which covers all the US & Canada coastal waters including the Erie Canal system. I mount mine on the dashboard using a Ram mount & power cable to run off the boat's 12V system. Have not had any problems with it. And of course we also use paper charts and cruising guide books.

Maybe one of these days I'll splurge on a larger chart plotter.

Our boat did come with snap on Sunbrella window covers for the pilothouse, which help a lot when docked or anchored.

The hottest temperatures I've ever experienced in Phoenix was back on 1990 when we hit an all time high of 121*. Now that's hot!

[jvh]

Hot! That's boiling! how do you deal with that crazy heat on the boat?

We really like our iPad and the Navonics app as our chart plotter. One feature that has nothing to do with navigating is that if you are cruising along and you see something interesting ( house, bridge, etc) you pick up the iPad, take a picture, and it saves it on your chart at that exact location using GPS. So then the chart has a small camera icon in the water on the chart where you took the photo and if later you click on the icon it shows the photo you took at that exact place. It's a neat way to keep track of where exactly you saw things of interest along the way.
The iPad Air also has the option of buying data, not just using wifi. It costs of course (similar to a cell phone plan but without texting and talk minutes) but we like it for weather forecasts, espically NOAA radar. It makes it easy as we don't need any other gadget, just need to turn on the data, check email and weather forecast, and then shut the data off. Ok enough of that..

I noticed one of your photos is of your batteries. Here is a photo of what we did with the space above our batteries. Every boat needs a junk drawer (spares of this and that)and this is where we have ours. It's a plywood box that is under the helm seat that can be lifted out to see the batteries. We rarely look at the batteries and when we do its just a matter of lifting the floor (it is hinged with a hook and eye to hold it open)and then lifting out the drawer. We have another one that holds only tools.

[DesertAlbin736]

Hot! That's boiling! how do you deal with that crazy heat on the boat?

Come summer we deal with the heat by getting the heck out of Dodge and heading for the San Juans. Cinco De Mayo is the traditional end of fall-winter-spring boating season for us on our local Lake Pleasant. But here we are in the 1st week of December and it's all sunshine and mid 70s, with overnight lows in the 40s. In degrees C that's 21 to 23 highs and 4.4 to 7.2 for lows.

I am going to devote that entire space where you have that 'junk drawer' and where the batteries are now to a much larger 20 gallon holding tank.

[jvh]

We had enough snow in the last day that we had to fire up the snow blower! I would love some of that heat!

Do you think you will need something to offset the weight of your new holding tank (when full)? We find that Old Maggie likes her cargo distributed very evenly around the boat. Example: with the captain at the wheel and someone in the head the boat is tilted pretty good. We actually altered the helm bench seat to a one person seat because we found the balance of the boat uncomfortable with two people sitting on it causing the boat to lean to starboard to much. I am likely just to fussy because we moved the spare anchor and rode around until we found a spot that leveled out the boat so that the waterline was parallel with the water.