Introducing Sigrid

[johnvb1014]

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We own an A27 on Lake Ontario which we have enjoyed immensely, but inspired by those intrepid A25 travelers, in May 2015 we bought an A25. Rechristened Sigrid (See-grid) after her Swedish origin, she has gone through a top to bottom restoration and is now finished. My wife and I did all the work ourselves. We have enclosed one photo here, and have extensive photos and narrative a Facebook page we created,

http://www.facebook.com/25albin

Here is a partial list of what was done.

Bottom stripped, blister repair, barrrier paint and bottom paint
Hull and above deck repainted
Replaced rub rail
Replaced weather stripping in windows
All teak refinished
Inside repainted
New galley
Motor mount repair
New seats in wheel house
Cleat posts rechromed and new teak dowels

After New Year we are headed to Florida, starting at Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys. We are looking for suggestions for other good cruising destinations in Fla. Quiet places off the beaten track preferred.

Happy cruising in 2017

John VB

[WillieC]

Hi, John/Sigrid

Holy cow, I just spent over an hour last night going over your FB posts, since it randomly came across the Commander of the Pacific Fleet's fb page last night. And now here she is.

You have done some amazing things with Sigrid, though not necessarily on a shoestring budget. Would love to see more detail pics, though I understand who wants to stop in the middle of a project to take pictures. I am very good at not doing that. (What?)

Thanks for posting here. I know many will appreciate the work you have done. Very nicely done.

[Beta Don]

What a great project! One more worthy candidate saved from the boneyard. The hard work is all done now and it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor

If you're wintering in the Keys, by all means try to make it out to Ft Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. We spent last Easter Sunday there and all I can say is . . . . Holy Cow!

We were time constrained and only had a brief weather window - Almost didn't make it out there at all, but so glad we did. If you have time, pick two days where the weather looks okay and anchor for the night off the Marquesas Keys - Determine where the overnight winds are likely to come from and anchor in the lee of the islands and then on to Ft Jefferson the next day. Once you get there, be prepared to stay a week or two just in case it takes that long to have two days of good weather for the trip back and you'll be fine

Bring everything you need with you - They have nothing there, not even a source of water, though I'm pretty sure that if you ran completely out, the Rangers would make sure you didn't die of thirst. The water they have is made using watermakers powered by diesel generators. The fort is HUGE (16 million bricks) and you could easily spend several days exploring all the nooks and crannies. Reef snorkeling, other islands to explore, camping on the beach and the rangers are always available for an in depth history lesson. Not to be missed in my opinion, but probably 95% of the boaters who go to south Florida never get out there - It can be a fairly serious passage at times

Other Florida places we love - Appalachicola (plan to spend at least a week) Cedar Key is a great stop for a day, Crystal River to swim with the manatees. Great anchorage, plan to spend a few days. Tarpon Springs for at least 3 or 4 days - Great food and a wonderful town to explore. Ft Myers city marina is only a hundred yards or so from the historic downtown area. We spent 3 days there. Headed south, Everglades City where you tie to the wall at the famous Rod & Gun Club for a few days. Nice town and you can use the hotel pool and the restaurant is great. A couple of good museums to see too. Farther south, anchor at Little Shark River inlet and spend a couple days exploring the everglades in the dingy. South to Marathon and tie to a ball in the harbor. It's more like a big RV park than anything, but you can take the bus to Key West for a couple dollars and the cabs in Marathon are all $5 from anywhere on the island to anywhere else on the island - 'Bridge to bridge' they advertise, so it's an excellent place to reprovision because you have easy access to transportation.

A day trip out to the historic reef lighthouses is fun. We got up close and personal with three of them, but there are 4 or 5 more to see if you're a lighthouse buff

You could trailer all over south Florida . . . . or you could park your truck and trailer in Crystal River or even Tarpon Springs and just motor south and come back north 2 or 3 months later when you're done boating. I would recommend leaving your vehicle in Appalach . . . . but the overnight trip across to the peninsula can be a bit . . . . daunting if your first mate is at all squeamish about open ocean crossings, especially in the dark - That can be a bumpy ride even with the best of weather. Try to go with a full moon if you have that option

In my opinion, the west coast of Florida is where it's at - We boated up the east coast too, but other than the JFK Space Center and a few other places, there's not so much to see or do as there is on the other side

Don

[DesertAlbin736]

Hats off to you John & welcome aboard! Ha, ha, that WilliecC (aka Rick) knows me too well! Wow, your Sigrid makes my early model A25 La Dolce Vita look like the Wreck Of The Hesperus! You've done a great job! Obviously you've seen the light on the Goldilocks aspects of the A25, sea worthy & big enough for a couple to cruise long term (we've spent over 100 days aboard our boat over the last three seasons, the longest consecutive cruise was 45 days this past summer), yet small enough to trailer anywhere in the country & even Canada, along with unbeatable fuel economy on the water.

Coincidentally on May 30th, 2015 having trailered all the way from Phoenix, AZ we launched our Albin 25 on Seneca Lake at the state park ramp & proceeded on the CS canal through the town of Seneca Falls to the CS-Erie Canal junction & headed westbound on the main canal through Lyons, Newark, Palmyra, and on to Fairport where we turned around to go back & haul out. Would have done more on the canal but we were on a schedule & due to arrive in Westerly, Rhode Island by June 4th to spend a week with friends at a rental beach house in Weekapaug, so we only did 5 days on the canal. That was only the beginning of our cruising that summer. After a couple of day trips on Block Island Sound we trailered down to Delaware & launched on the Nanticoke River for a 2 week cruise on Chesapeake Bay.

My lovely "Admiral" at the helm on Erie Canal

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My wife is the one who does Facebook, mostly for family stuff & she doesn't post many of our boating pictures there. But I did put together YouTube slide shows with stills & videos for our 2015 cruise. The previous owners of our boat had already done much of the restoration work that you've done on Sigrid, for which we paid a premium price. It was worth it, but we still need to repaint the topsides. The hull gelcoat is original & still takes a wax shine without aggressive compounding. I repainted the bottom last April before this year's cruise back to the Pacific NW (where we did a meet & greet with Rick/WillieC in Bellingham, WA).

Here are our YouTube videos from 2015. Haven't put anything together for this year's cruise up in the San Juans in Washington & Gulf Islands & Sunshine Coast in British Columbia.

East Coast/Erie Canal 2015 Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lVa-nfq4bI

East Coast Rhode Island/Chesapeake Parts 2 & 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67QqvVgwgz8

Anyway, while on the Erie Canal we happened to meet the owner of Albin 25 "Flika" at the Midlakes Macedon Landing marina. Maybe you'll meet up with him on the canal someday? I'm sure you guys would have a lot to talk about. Unfortunately I neglected to get his contact info.

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Here's where we went this past summer from mid-June through the end of July, 573 NM in all. BTW, a little trick on this forum is that you can zoom in to full screen on pictures by clicking on them.

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Chatterbox Falls was so awesome I can't even begin to describe. Puts anything on the East Coast to shame.

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Our cruise mate skipper is a talented photographer who snapped this b&w photo of us on the way up Jervis Inlet in British Columbia. It appears you have no problem with long distance trailering. If so, you need to add this to your summer cruising bucket list.

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La Dolce Vita in Port of Sidney marina, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada

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Oh, as Beta Don says, there's a lot to do & see in the Keys. If you're able to snorkel, don't miss the submerged "Christ Of The Abyss" Jesus statue off Key Largo in the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.

http://www.divespots.com/scuba-diving-s ... -the-abyss

[DesertAlbin736]

Oh, and speaking of exotic cruises, you can't trailer an Albin 25 "across the pond" to Europe (well I guess you could if you wanted to have it shipped by freighter), but their is a place in Sweden where you can bareboat charter an Albin 25 on the Gota Canal. I would love to do this someday....

http://www.gotakanalcharter.se/boka-albin25/

At the very least, I want to make some cockpit seat cushions & back rests like this. I have a heavy duty walking foot sewing machine & can refer to Sailrite how-to videos on how to do it. Just need to find that ever elusive "round tuit".

[DesertAlbin736]

You'll note in some of the above post's photos there's a dinghy on the back of the boat & in others not. That's because it got torn off by a big wave in Georgia Strait, wrecked & lost in a failed attempt to get to Desolation Sound on a rougher than expected day. Word of caution about mounting a dinghy down low on snap davits like this. The A25 transom is narrow, 6 ft wide at deck level, & even narrower at the waterline. Any sort of dinghy over 7 ft is going to have overhang that could catch rogue waves in rough seas.

This is how our old Boatex f/g dinghy which is no more, was carried. As seen docked at Olga on Orcas Island, WA. In many cases having a dinghy is indispensable for gunk hole cruising for anchoring and mooring.

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I replaced it with a Nisqually 8 dinghy from Gig Harbor Boat Works in Washington & installed lifting davits to carry it on. This is how it looks now, with fenders added as MacGyvered RID flotation collar solution for stability. You'll note our A25 is one of the few that has full lifelines running bow to stern.

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By the way, that old Boatex dinghy was Canadian built, since the owner previous to the guy we bought from was from Ontario, Canada and there may be a few Boatex dinks like it around out your way. I still have the mast, boom, like new sail, daggerboard & rudder for that dinghy if you happen to hear of anyone looking for that type of sailing kit.

[WillieC]

I edited my first post but I can see that I need to put the line back in.

"DesertAlbin736 will bury you, in a good way"

Johnvb, I see you've been active on the AOG for a good while now. So nice to see a restored 25. Inspiring for us new(ish)bies.

[DCatSea]

Sigrid looks gorgeous; kudos on a great job. I'm sure she will give you years of pleasure and many happy times.

[JT48348]

I edited my first post but I can see that I need to put the line back in.

"DesertAlbin736 will bury you, in a good way".

Lol! I never get enough of repeat "Dinghy-Lost-At-Sea" stories and photos of "Our-Trip-to-the-Pacific-Northwest". Even if we are discussing Sigrid, engine rebuilds, or classic boat restoration. If anyone needs it, I have a post office flier under the the Official Hijacking Thread

[Jay Knoll]

JohnVB Nice job! As one of the few inhabitants of the universe who isn't on FB I wish you'd post more pics here.

JT wasn't their a 70's tune called "Scroll On By"? I love my wheeled mouse

Happy New Year everyone

Jay

[WillieC]

I agree with Jay. Not all of us use the Face book.

[JT48348]

JT wasn't their a 70's tune called "Scroll On By"? I love my wheeled mouse
Jay

Jay: you're not required to peruse the post office Most Wanted Files, nor are you required to report bank robbers or hijackers. But it's good citizenship!

Happy New Year

[stxray]

OMG!
I am blown away. I too am in the process of restoring an A25 so I know how much work (& money) it takes. However, after looking at your FB page, I'm feeling like a bit of a hack. You have done a fantastic job. Please upload more pictures and details as to what you used and where you got it.

I too am aiming to winter in the Keys. Hope our paths cross.

All the best!

[Beta Don]

I edited my first post but I can see that I need to put the line back in.

"DesertAlbin736 will bury you, in a good way".

Lol! I never get enough of repeat "Dinghy-Lost-At-Sea" stories and photos of "Our-Trip-to-the-Pacific-Northwest"

I agree with you! (I know you're shocked!) I never get enough of whatever our members have to say, wherever they choose to post it

"Hijack??" - Doesn't that mean somebody stole something from somebody else? Nothing 'missing' here that I can see

Don

[JT48348]

Don: You just like to argue.

"illegally seize (an aircraft, ship, or vehicle) in transit and force it to go to a different destination or use it for one's own purposes."