Blast From Sunsetrider's Past

[DesertAlbin736]

Google "Albin 25" and you'll see a link to Sunsetrider's thread on Trawlerforum.com from 2013 entitled "Advice on 76 Albin 25" that is enshrined for posterity. His and all the other posts and replies on that thread says much about what we all know are among the many reasons why the Albin 25 is such a great boat.

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s21/ ... 10695.html

I would add that we recently met Chris & Debbie Verra, Canadian sailors from Sunsetrider's neck of the woods in Eastern Ontario. They came down to Arizona recently to rent a sailboat and hang out with our sailing club overnight at a winter "raft up" on Lake Pleasant. He's a freelance writer who has published several articles in "Good Old Boat" magazine, a periodical dedicated mostly to older sailboats. But he was also very familiar with the Albin 25 and we gave him a tour of our boat. So watch for upcoming editions of that magazine for articles on desert boating in winter.

Chris & Debbie Verra, freelance writers from Ontario, Canada.

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Six boat raft up on Lake Pleasant. Our boat is 2nd from right. The other power boat to the left of ours is a C-Dory 25. Yours truly in the dinghy helping kedge out anchors. A squall with thunder & lightning blew through as I was dropping anchors in the water, which was a little scary. But it passed quickly without incident. Lucky for us that while it rained off and on, there wasn't much wind and for the most part was a calm night.

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[WillieC]

Desert Albin. Thank you so much for these links! Just about the time I think I have read everything A25, something like this pops up. Never STFU again! I am going to have to look up Keith, I think he's over on Vashon these days, or maybe splitting time with Central WA. Great links!

[Sunsetrider]

Hah! Just saw this thread and reviewed the old one. Update on the MD17C: after replacing fuel pumps and struggling over the course of a summer with too many stalls out on the water, we pulled the fuel tank and had it flushed. The bottom was a lot of brown sludge. But we still had stalling problems, so pulled the tank again, suspecting a loose baffle. Turns out the sludge had been holding the baffle in place - so with the baffle welded back on and the tank re-installed, no more engine problems (knock on wood). Also - replace the awful yellow canopy thanks to a trade-for-service deal with a client. She looks much faster now!

Other improvements include all new wiring, charger, and breaker panel.

[WillieC]

Great to hear you got your fuel tank fixed. I have a detached baffle as well. Tank is out, I just need to find a good welder. Did you just hand over the tank to a shop or did you open it up yourself? Did you have it all sealed up or did you incorporate an inspection/access hole?
Thanks.

[Sunsetrider]

My "supervising mechanic" carried it off to a welder who opened up an inspection/access hole and re-welded the hole before returning it. What was happening was the baffle would float over to the outtake and cut the fuel flow at inopportune moments, requiring me to manually pump the pump to restart. Always with guests aboard. So now I have a leery family-and-guest target market for daytrips. Let alone for the Great Adventure. It feels good to know that the fuel tank is squeaky clean, and with newly rationalized positioning of fuel hoses and fresh filters, I have fresh confidence when striking out into the waves.

[DesertAlbin736]

Good to hear from you!

I like your canvas set up. Good visibility all around & access to climb in from the sides & not be limited to climbing down from the aft cabin top. Can those sides be covered over? Are there screens for side ventilation, or are they just vinyl windows. We incorporated flaps on ours that can close off the back and sides to keep the sun from wrecking the vinyl windows. Our side and back panels can be rolled up but not removed. And of course we have the stock single bow frame.

As for our fuel tank, I'm keeping fingers crossed that ours is still in good shape. I don't know that anything has ever been done to it at least since the boat was repowered with the Yanmar in 1992, but it's never given us any problems so far. We try to keep fresh fuel in it and try to get out to run the engine a few hours at least once a month year round. We've put over 350 hours on the engine in the last 3 years since we bought the boat, besides being mostly in a dry desert climate & never let the tank go down by more than 9 gallons from full. We've been out in some rough stuff too, rocking and rolling enough to ring our ship's bell, so if there was significant gunk in the tank it would have been stirred up. I do keep up on changing fuel filters regularly.

Take heart, spring is just around the corner!

[Sunsetrider]

DA - the side windows are just clear vinyl that are easily removable. We decided to save a few bucks and not do screens. The rear window is vinyl that unzips (you can see the zipper if you click to enlarge) and rolls up at the bottom to reveal a screen, which can also be removed to allow freedom of movement. On a summer's day we normally run with the cabin top removed (hat on) and only the canvas over the cockpit (lounge?) up, to provide some shade. All sides and rear removed and stowed. I think it gives max flexibility.