New Member from Orcas, Wa

[BonumMan]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you will welcome me into your group. I don't officially own an Albin, mine is a Bonum 25! The half sister of the Albin 25, pocket trawler. I love the boat although a sad engine has made cruising limited and she has become a "land shark" for some years now. Alas, finally I have scratched together the money to restore the most important part... a new engine. The old VP MD17D was no longer viable for propulsion and trowing more and more money at her wasn't going to do the trick. The new engine, yet to be installed is a Yanmar 3JH5E. I am working on the new shaft and driveline first to make sure that before the new engine beds are laid I will have proper alignment. I'm excited to be part of an owners group that has love for these great boats.

Thanks, Ben

[whwells]

Ben: We are excited and happy to welcome you into the AOG. It will be fun to take a look at your half sister 25'. Are you aware of the PNW AOG? Take a look under the Rendezvous section of AOG regarding up coming events. The PNW will be meeting this year at laconic in July. The date is being coordinated by
Mike of Anacortes this year.
We have in past meets had several Classic 25 and 27 at the Rendezvous. Yours sounds special and we look forward to your attendance. You will find there are lots of good information available on the national site for the Classic series. My boat is at Anacortes Marina. Hope the July dates will work for you. This is a family group and lots of fun.
Send me a private message if I can be of any help in you're getting started with the group.
whwells "Howard"

[Mark Deeser]

Welcome Ben, sounds like you have a real project going on. I,m about half way into my re-power, shaft to motor alinement has been my biggest issue to this point. Hope things go smoothly for you. Thanks, Mark.

[whwells]

Ben: There was a typo in my commets above. The 2016 PNW Rendevous will be at LaConnor, Wa. Hope to see you there.
Howard

[BonumMan]

Thanks for the invite Howard! I'm working hard and with some luck I will have the boat running and in the water by then.

[tego]

Ben, Welcome aboard! Sounds like you have the problem well in hand and you'll love that new engine. Good to have another Ben in the group. Ben

[whwells]

Ben: Wish you a prompt completion of the boat. We usually have a few members come up and stay at a near by motel when there is a boat issue at the time. It will be a nice break in your summer and new friends to meet. Please put the date in your calendar and keep LaConnor in mind.
Howard

[DesertAlbin736]

Ben,

This is Steve with "La Dolce Vita", the guy who posted pics of your boat in 2014. A thought just popped in about engine alignment. My boat was repowered with a 3GM30F in 1992, years before we acquired it, and those folks installed a Aqua Drive CV unit & thrust bearing. Might be worth a look for your situation. Big bucks probably, I know, but here's their web site

http://www.aquadrive.com/the-system.html

Also there's a guy way back East in CT that does repowers with Beta engines and has two A25's sitting in his boat yard. We stopped there last year on our way to Rhode Island but missed him. But he's got a good page on repowering A25s. His biz is called "Sound Marine Diesel".

http://www.soundmarinediesel.com/Albin25Repower.shtml

If the 3JH Yanmar is anything like mine and is fresh water cooled (I hope), you may find routing the raw water line a bit tricky. On the 3GM30F the pump inlet, which is to starboard, angles up, less than 2 inches from the engine bed rails. Which means the hose had to be routed from under the engine, up and over the bed rail and back down to the pump, creating a loop that is at or above the waterline. No room for an elbow to keep it down low. In our case if the boat is out of the water with the sea cock left open and the raw water line drained it's sometimes hard to get the pump to prime. But the 3JH5E raw water inlet is to port with the inlet pointing about 3:30 o'clock. Will there be room to get the hose between the engine and engine box cover?

I also found this sailor's blog that talks about doing exactly what you're planning, that is replacing a Volvo MD17C with Yanmar 3JH5E just like you're doing, only with a cruising sailboat. You do realized that Volvo engines turn the prop "left handed" and Yanmars, along with most other engines are "right handed", which means you may need to find a right handed prop if you don't already have one.

Follow this guy's blog entries from December, 2010 through February, 2011. I think you'll find it most informative.

http://www.voyagesoftheplayactor.blogsp ... chive.html

Keep us posted on your progess!

[BonumMan]

Thanks Steve.

I am re-shafting and re-propping for several reasons including engine rotation. The current shaft will be too short for the new engine and after pulling it I noticed pitting although not very bad. Even though I'm on a budget, (if that makes any sense when you own a boat) I want to do things right. My current hassle is the conversion from metric shaft to standard. Do you know anyone selling Cutlass housings that will thread onto my metric shaft log glassed into the boat and accept a 1 1/4" Cutlass bearing? One of the local prop shops "Tacoma Propeller" thinks they can turn down the OD of the cutlass bearing to fit into my existing housing. On a good note I got the housing off without a hitch last night and the set screws even came out clean.

I have thought about the Aquadrive but like you said, I think it is out of my budget. I should revisit the thought. I would have to glass in the support for the thrust bearing in their system.

Thanks again for the links. I'm looking forward to looking at the repower link when I have a bit more time.

Regards, Ben

[DesertAlbin736]

Ben,

You're way ahead of me on those prop shaft and cutlass bearing issues. To be honest I have no idea what was done with the prop shaft on our boat, whether it's metric or standard. All that was taken care of long before we took ownership.

As for Aqua Drive, here's what the setup looks like on our boat. The thrust bearing is mounted on a piece of heavy angle iron bridging between the two engine mount rails.

I think on the later model A25's and Bonum 25's the exhaust outlet is on starboard side. Early model A25's like mine had the exhaust outlet on port side, which is why the exhaust hose has to cross over like this.

If your boat will still be at West Sound Marina I do hope we get a chance to stop by this coming summer and see how your project is coming along. In 2014 we spent 4th of July in Fisherman's Bay on Lopez. Wow, what a great fireworks show! Would love to make it back there for the 4th this year.

[BonumMan]

Steve,

The boat is already out of West Sound Marina. They wanted more than 20k to install the motor + extras? That brought me to the realization that I'd be doing it myself. I'm a decent woodworker and I'm learning quick about fiberglass and figured I'll know my install and engine in a really advantageous way into the future. I am learning so many things and although frustrating in many ways I'm sure I'll be proud in the end. It was a bit unnerving to cut out the old engine beds. I'm now in the process of getting the shaft business worked out so that I have a point/flange to align the engine jig to so I can calculate and construct the stringers. The new engine also will need some creative exhaust work because it is 3". In order to accommodate the backwash loop I need to have the exhaust flange altered to 90 degrees despite having a flapper. That is my thinking at least. I'll talk to some of the pros around here first, maybe the wet exhaust will do the trick alone.

One of the interesting changes that was made in the Bonum 25 is that it has a semi-planing hull which is why it had a 36 hp motor instead of the 27 or 30 hp. like the A-25s. You can see the "chines" in this photo

IMG_2006.jpg

The original brochure that came with the boat claims that it will do 11-12 kts. We will see if that is true? The new engine is 39 hp. I'm sure that it will be digging a hole in the water at 11 kts. and wasting fuel but it might be nice here where the current through some passes can run at up to 9 kts. for short distances. I will be happy if I can cruise at 7 kts.

When I took possession of the boat there were a whole handful of brochures in the cabinets because it was the demo model for the importer in California. It is interesting to see. I'll be sure to dig them out if I make it to one of the Rendezvous!

If you do end up in the San Juans you should visit me where I work and live. I work for Canoe Island French Camp, a nonprofit residential kids camp. It is a small 47 acre island between Shaw and Lopez Islands. It is just around the corner from West Sound Marina. We have a beautiful semi protected anchorage just across from us called Indian Cove, beside Shaw County Park. I would be happy to give you a tour of our island.

Cheers!

[DesertAlbin736]

Ben,

Yes I remember Indian Cove, we went right by there. On our last cruise up there, out of 40 days on the water 26 days were in the San Juans and 14 days in the Gulf Islands. We also anchored by Spencer Spit on Lopez towards the end of the trip. As far as the semi-planing hull, all the later model Albin 25's, from about 1975 to the end of the production run were made like that and called the "DeLuxe" model. Ours is the earlier full displacement version. So yes, the later models were supposed to be capable of 10+ knots with a 36 HP engine.

Here's the first A25 we looked at, a 1977 model, but passed up on buying it because there were issues with the engine alignment which scared us off. But you can see clearly it's the same hull design as yours, so "Bonum" must have taken over those molds from Albin. I wondered about the exhaust pipe exiting so low & just about below the water line. I'm still kicking myself for not getting this boat because we ended up spending far more on the one we have now that's 6 years older and it's a 6 kt boat.

Albin.jpg

We'll have to touch base when we get up there. Since our goal this time is to push all the way up to Desolation Sound, we may end up either launching from Blaine or further up the coast in BC. Or we might put boat, truck, & trailer on the ferry over to Vancouver Island and drive up to Comox & launch from there. That's TBD.

We were out on our local lake this past weekend in 80+ degree weather.

600_446868291.jpeg

We rafted with our sailboater friends overnight and enjoyed this flaming red desert sunset straight out of the pages of "Arizona Highways". Scenes like this is why we named our boat "La Dolce Vita", Italian for "The Sweet Life".

DSCN3477.JPG

Steve

[BonumMan]

Hi Steve,

Looks like you know how to live the good life! You shouldn't kick yourself for being cautious, it seems that you are enjoying what you ended up with. Who knows what you would have been in for with the other boat and you are most likely saving fuel.

The trip up to Desolation is one that I look forward to someday. I have heard some really good stories. I hear it can be tricky with some really big currents in some of the narrow passes. Definitely look us up when you are here.

On a good note. I got the cutlass bearing out today! I rigged up threaded rod and some nuts to drive with and split a washer so I could get past the step inside the housing. Saved me $100 bucks.

Ben

[WillieC]

Welcome aboard, Ben

Let me know what you have and what you come up with a shaft for your new engine. On the Albin 25, the limitation seems to me to be the stern tube, approx 40 mm ID, which makes cutlass bearing choices challenging. Hopefully the Bonum is more universal.

Regards, Rick (WillieC)