New Albin 27 owner

[moses2015]

Had a 36ft fish boat with a 120 hp 6cyl ford lehman,but sure would like any information about the albin and the 4D61!

Thxs!

[sail149]

What do you want to know?
there are lots of thread here with similar titles and there is a file in the data base about the 27
the short answer is many boats look ok on surface but can have many issues as you get into it.
The best advise is look for one that is in really good condition or has had a major refit and pay top dollar if it really is good. .
Later boats '88-93 seem to be the better but they have bigger engines too.
The 4D61 is a Peugeot/indesor based engine not a Ford (its a lehmanpower not ford lehman).
The base engine was used by Volvo, Perkin, ventus and others and in the 504 and 505 and other Peugeot road cars that in everywhere but the USA were the most reliable diesels in the world in their time and the car you wanted to be in when driving across Africa or to use as a taxi in Paris. Parts are still available but the maranization parts are not so much, but the cost to re-engine is $10-20000.00 . An older boat 83-87 with a newer Yanmar (or other) re-engine job is worth its weight in gold as it solves many problems and probably the rest of the boat should be good too or completely redone! if I had known what I know now I would have bought a different Albin27ac. A rough Powerboat is a lot rougher than a rough sailboat I think.

[Beta Don]

The best advise is look for one that is in really good condition or has had a major refit and pay top dollar if it really is good.

Agree 100% - Just as is the case with 'restoring' any old vehicle (cars, trucks, airplanes or boats) the better one you start with, the less your project is going to cost in the long run . . . . and the best advice of all is to buy one someone else did a quality restoration on - You'll probably get it for less money than he has 'invested' in it and all his hours of work will be free . . . . plus you won't have to make all the mistakes he made along the way

if I had known what I know now I would have bought a different Albin27ac.

+1000!! If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have bought the one I did FOR SURE! I'd have skipped over the first generation (with the Lehman Peugeot engines) and the second generation (with the LD28 Nissan/Maxima engines) and bought a 3rd or later generation boat. Most of the design errors found in the early boats had been corrected by then and those later boats came with MUCH better engines . . . . engines you can still find parts for

Don

[rnummi]

That being said... The price of a third generation A27FC is much higher. The 84 FC with the Lehman 4D61 is priced to reflect the engine. For us skinflints, the opportunity to own a pocket trawler for nearly next to nothing relatively speaking was too much to resist. Much like Marine Corps Boot Camp, I wouldn't do it again, but I'm still sure glad I did. The point being .... Wow I sure learned a heck of a lot about boat building, fiberglass, epoxy, diesel engines, etc.

All the folks you talk to will say, don't do it. I say, it's a trawler education waiting for you to learn. When you graduate, two things will have happened: 1. There will be another Albin 27 restored and 2. You will really be ready to find/assess/fix your next trawler (which will cost you 3 times what you paid for your Albin).

Just my opinion and I may be wrong.

[tego]

Well said Rick, I agree completely. That being said, I'm really glad I got the boat I did. I almost got an '84 that had been completely gone through, including a complete new deck, but he wouldn't come down another $1k. He was asking top dollar and I was ignorant enough to not appreciate it. When I saw mine later, after seeing a lot of what was out there, I didn't even debate the price, just shook his hand and said "deal". My '87 has the Nissan and I don't think there's a better engine out there for this boat,even if the parts are a little hard to find. Mine runs like a swiss watch and at 6-6.5 knots gets about 3 Qts per hour fuel consumption. I love this boat! Ben

[JT48348]

I don't know that you can assign "generations" to a production run of just 500-600 boats. It could be less. One that spans an approximate 7-9 year production period from 1983-1992 or less.

First, the differences between the generations does not necessarily coincide to the engine type on the boat.

Second, there has not been enough objective analysis of the different build variations by year. Lots of subjective info but sometimes not specifics. And often not differentiated from prior refits or upgrades. Because we don't have a good idea of what came out of the factory at what time, where, and for how long, we're guessing trying to look back in time.

Third, I think there's some confusion about expectations with regard to the Albin 27, it construction, quality, performance characteristics, etc that has lent itself to a lot of misinformation or interpretation.

My Albin 27 research project is about answering these very questions --from the horses mouth. The people who designed and built the A27 know definitively what was done when and for what reason. It's at its very infancy, but what the project will show is that there's a whole lot of bad info floating around--and we should be cautious about drawing conclusions without further research.

[smacksman]

To be fair to early Albins - they were built down to a price. They were VERY reasonable at the time and equate to a 'Ford' rather than a 'Rolls Royce'.
The effort and attention to detail by the restorers in this group would put restored boats into the 'Volvo' class or better.

[joebuz]

Here's some more thoughts. I'm relatively new to the 27FC and the 4D61, so I'm still on a steep learning curve. As Don and others have suggested as good advice, I paid top dollar for a well restored and maintained boat (1984---#168). Wanted to go cheap and restore, but at may age decided to enjoy cruising the boat (after 60 years of sailing---racing and cruising) instead.

I believe that this boat needs to fit your expectations. We wanted to cruise the ICW... slowly. Don't want to sail outside again. I've done enough of that. My wife and I just returned from 16 days of this type cruising. On the hook and in marinas. Typical travel day was only 30 miles. Lots of no travel days. Had a great time. Met my expectations.

She's a little rough on larger bays in the wrong wind. And I seek more protection when at anchor to limit the rolling. The old 4D61 (1500 hours) seems keep on chugging along. Cruising at 2400 rpm in slack water making 7 mph, using 3/4 gallon fuel. So far... have been able to find the few parts that I have needed for the 4D61.

[smacksman]

Joe - I agree. 'Free State' fitted my expectations perfectly even though I started off with her at the 'needing some work' stage. But then the price I paid for her reflected that. I made her seaworthy but still 'needing some work' when I sold her 1800 miles later. At the risk of sending you to sleep, the ten parts of my adventure start here - https://youtu.be/GthaDtl7eMc

I think the Albin 27FC is an excellent compromise - a practical ICW cruiser packed into 27 feet.

Fair winds, Roger

[joebuz]

Thanks Roger. I have watched several of youtube adventures. I love them. And have learned a lot from watching them and reading your posts here. I highly recommend that others follow the link above... and learn.

[rnummi]

Roger is the Richard Attenborough of Albin 27 FC's. We are taking up a collection to buy him a HD camera. His videos are a must see for anyone with our boat. Now if we could just get JT to do a video of his fixes we would really be in business. It starts out with "So I bought this boat....."

[sail149]

Joe
You are a great encouragement , you are doing what I want to from a similiar previous experience.
I don't mind having the 4d61, and yes I should have bought a boat in better condition but could not make the plunge at the higher cost. So I do have a Albin with many of the things I want, full fiberglass top, bow thruster , usual extras &loads of spares and well matained but P-PO , it just sat too long before I got to it otherwise I would be using it and fixing as I go.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Hope to see you out there sometime

[moses2015]

Thanks Guys The 4D61 in my boat Starts great! no smoke ,smooth ,1720 hrs,great lakes boat,only 3 months on west coast(Vancouver island),only boat that I have owned that as more dust in engine room than OIL!!lol,just need to figure out wiring and ac and heating system!! tho AC is not needed here in central BC!
Wiring is in need of updating,IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A WIRING DIAGRAM FOR THE ORGINIAL??

THXS AGAIN! gotta like this site!!!

[DesertAlbin736]

Just a few comments from the peanut gallery after reading this thread. Very interesting fellas! I'm an A25 guy, mostly because my main priority is long distance trailering. Interesting though that the A27 FC gets 0.75 GPH fuel economy at 6 to 6.5 knots with a 100 HP engine while we do 0.4 to 0.5 GPH at the same speed with a 24 HP engine in the A25. Not a significant difference in fuel burn rate considering the difference in size and displacement!

Moses2015 you're a ways inland in BC. We're heading for Desolation Sound via Bellingham, the San Juans, and Gulf Islands in just a few weeks.

JT, I was tempted to send a PM after looking at your Motorcity Boat Werks site. I liked your treatise on how you chose the A27 over other boats. We know some folks who had a C-Dory 22 before they sold it and and upsized to a C-Dory 25, which is a really nice boat, but expensive.

Before the C-Dorys they had one of the most pristine & Bristol maintained Montgomery 23 sailboats you'd ever want to see. Only recently did they sell it & now only have the C-Dory 25.

This was it. If you don't quite recognize the location, it's Two Harbors on Catalina Island.

b23joke5.jpg

I keep saying A25's and A27's are the "poor man's trawlers". My only critique of your comparison between boats is the picture you chose to illustrate the Albin 25. That boat is not very representative of the type with that extended stern & portholes in the hull. Looks like someone's custom job.

Here's one you might like. I saw it on the hard in Nanticoke Marina in Blades, DE last year when we were back East. Not sure the make, maybe a one-off, but it's a steel hull that looks a lot like the Willard with the shape of the pilothouse. Belonged to a guy in the Nanticoke River Yacht Club where my late stepdad belonged until he passed away in 2011. We launched our Albin 25 "La Dolce Vita" from there & ran 35 NM down the Nanticoke River to Chesapeake Bay & spent two weeks cruising the middle Bay. This picture is a screen grab off Google Maps street view.

Irony.jpg

Lot to be said for Warren's point about finding a boat in good condition or recent refit & be willing to pay the price is true. My story is similar to Tego's. We had a chance to buy a 1977 Albin 25 deluxe with a newer 40 HP Volvo and decent, but not galvanized, steel trailer for $17K. Remember, except for the occasional Bonum 25 built with Albin 25 hull molds, A25's ended production around 1980. We balked at some nickel dime issues that would have added about $3K more to correct, perhaps as much as $5K. The most serious of which was mis-alignment of the recently installed engine such that it could not be run above idle without serious vibration. He wouldn't drop his price by more than $1,000 either. At the time we didn't know much about these boats & didn't appreciate what we were looking at, so we walked. We ended up with a much older boat with a smaller engine, which we are happy with and which the previous owner(s) had done fairly extensive interior cosmetic restoration and had been re-powered with a 1986 Yanmar 3GM30F with Aqua Drive CV joint installed around 1990. We thought then, and to some extent still do, that we overpaid by quite a bit considering the money & hours I've put into it since we bought the boat in 2014.

But check out these slide show videos of our cruises since then, and we've got more adventures planned for this year.

Part 1 (the 2014 San Juans) cruise here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj_0B6VhDLI

Part 2, Gulf Islands is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIgR0l_F9vU

[DesertAlbin736]

And here's our other slide shows from last year. The board doesn't allow more than 3 URL's in a post, so here's last year's East Coast cruise on Erie Canal in NY, Block Island Sound in RI, and Chesapeake Bay.

2015 East Coast Part 1 (Erie Canal) is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lVa-nfq4bI

East Coast cruise Part 2 & Part Part 3 (Rhode Island & Chesapeake Bay):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67QqvVgwgz8