I've never attempted to use it, since as a former sailboater the idea was to get away from the hassles of mast raising. The immediate prior owners had never used it either, just passed all the gear along that they in turn had inherited from other previous owners.
But now, contemplating this big Desolation Sound cruise this summer, and having read this account of one owner's experience I'm thinking maybe it might be worth the effort to bring it along.
Of course I'm under no illusion of making the A25 into a real sailboat with windward performance anything like our old Catalina 25 had. I'd only install the conventional forestay, not the roller furler (too much hassle to set up), and only bring the main & one working jib. This is more about roll dampening, occasional boost from the sails if the wind conditions are right, that is beam or broad reach in 7 or 8 knot winds. But there are another couple of positives to consider. One, with a VHF antenna mounted atop the mast a good 28 feet above the water that improves our transmitting & receiving range, including the AIS receiver function & distress calling range Two, an anchor light atop the mast instead of the one that's only as high as the wheel house, and three, it has a small deck light mounted on the upper shroud spreader which can light up the whole foredeck, and finally as a last ditch if slow means of propulsion in case of engine failure."... I spent 12 hours over the weekend cruising/motoring/sailing in a rigged A 25. After plenty of "testing" in various winds and speeds and waves, I have come to the following conclusions:
• If you want a sailboat get a sailboat. This is a motorsailer combining the words motor and sails not really a cruiser and not really a sailboat.
• The mast and sails make a significant difference in the ride compared to a stripped cruiser. With even just the mast up (not sail) the amount of roll is significantly decreased. Taking a wake wave broadside results in a considerable decrease in how much and how dramatically the boat rolls. She seems to take the first lean and then just nicely return to vertical without a lot of that back and forth rolling that I experience in my non-mast boat. With the main up, that roll is slower and even more gentle.
• With the main sail and the motor on about 1100 rpm in a mild breeze we cruise along at about 6 mph using almost zero fuel. If and when we needed to come about or otherwise maneuver the boat, the prop pushing on the rudder moved the boat to exactly where we wanted to be. We found that we could overpower the wind and basically invalidate any wind assist by jacking the speed but if we kept the RPM'S down and not try to push the speed up, wind assist was definitely a factor. By adding the Jib we got just a tad more speed and we could again drop the rpm a bit and still maintain our approximate 6 mph. By controlling the jib and main we found that we could usually get some wind assist regardless of wind direction and maintain the heading that we wanted to be on.
• Conclusion: The added mast and sails provide two things to the boat: a)wind assist when you are not in any big hurry (keep the motor on low RPM to help with steering; b) stabilization - without main sail you get some just from the mast but with the main sail even just hanging you get added stability on rolls. (There is a whole section on the technical aspects of this also in the Owner's Manual that is in the files); c) the Albin 25 is what it is = motor sailor . Now there appears to be a new category: you can go sailing or you can go cruising or you can go motorsailing..... each one is different with different applications."
The trick will be getting it set up. The mast is 22 feet long, weight between 30 to 40 lbs, and will stow on the trailer's frame rail when transporting the boat over the road. The hardest part will be hoisting it up from ground level to deck level & getting the base of the mast attached to the step. Most sailboats I'm used to raise the mast from stern to bow. Because of the wheel house this one has to go up bow to stern. In a way that's good, because I can use the sail boom as a lever arm. Usually one could use the mainsheet tackle as a hoist mechanism, but I have a small 12V electric offroad ATC winch that I can attach to the mainsheet tang & have the Admiral power it up while I steady it and make sure shrouds don't snag on the way up. Then there's the issue of keeping the mast from tipping side to side as it goes up. I'm working on that aspect, and leaning toward the idea of rigging poles made of galvanized electrical conduit pipe, either 3/4" or 1/2". Or maybe a 1/2 inch inside a 3/4 for adjustable length, and attach the bottoms to blocks up against the handrails. Or maybe 2x2 wood? That, and make a support crutch to go over the bow rails and a plywood shield to protect the windshield glass in case the mast slips. If I can do that, other than lifting it up to deck level and pinning the base, the actual raising won't involve much muscle effort. Previous owners included a stout topping lift (former sailors will know what those are) and a three part line to hold to boom at 90 degrees.
Here's the basic mast raising idea. The line from the top of the mast to the outer end of the boom is the "topping lift".