1975 Albin 7.9 flexing keel

[207simon]

My first season with this new boat to me and upon hauling in the travel lift I noticed an potential issue. While the boat was hanging in the straps you could easily wobble the keel side to side as can be seen in this link to a drop box video
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j62tr3sahx4y ... yy5pa?dl=0
It looks to me that the hull structure is just flexing as there is no internal floors in the keel sump area.
Has anyone seen this before on a 7.9?

[cdsailor]

Can't answer your question since I'm unfamiliar with the boat, but it wouldn't inspire much confidence. Check out these posts and see if you might be able to get in touch with another owner.
viewtopic.php?t=10694

Good luck.

[Ben423]

Flexing of the hull as indicated in the video is a serious problem. You should not sail that boat until you have it surveyed and effective repairs/reinforcements are made.

[DesertAlbin736]

Agree with Ben423. Seems very odd. Could it be loose/corroded/broken keel bolts? Can't imagine a keel attachment that flimsy unless something broke, perhaps keel bolts that were 'glassed over? Coming from 20 years of owning trailerable sailbots & membership in a sailing club I've never seen anything like that. Closest thing to that kind of flexing that I know of is spongey decks from core rot delamination & "oil canning" hulls in cheap-ass 1970s-80s boats.

DSCN3792.JPG

ps, I have a cousin who lives an hour up the road from you in Hampden, ME. We were up there visiting in 2017 during an RV road trip.

[DesertAlbin736]

You should not sail that boat until you have it surveyed and effective repairs/reinforcements are made.

Probably not a lot of sailing going on in Maine this time of year anyway!

[207simon]

Quick answer to some of the questions. Firstly I am a boatbuilder in a full service yard so I am well aware of the potential issues. The keel is internal ballast so no keel bolts. ie it’s filled within the fiberglass hull. The lead starts half way down the keel and the flexing is in the area where it joins the hull. The hull apears to be single skin as typical in that era. There is zero athwart ships structure in the keel sump area which in my mind would contribute to this movement. The Hull sounds ok when tapped ??. I certainly don’t like how it acts and will dig deeper. Thinking about it if it is cored and the balsa is rotten that would allow for the two skins to move independently. I will do a core sample to see.

[DesertAlbin736]

Thinking about it if it is cored and the balsa is rotten that would allow for the two skins to move independently.

I only know from first hand observation how the Albin 25 pocket trawler decks & cabin tops were cored, which was with foam, not balsa. Since the A25's were built at the company factory in Kristenham, Sweden my guess is that same or similar techniques were likely used on their line of sailboats as well. In which case the A25 hulls were not cored but were solid layup of roven woving (sp?). Our boat is 48 years old & still very solid with no flexing. What year is your boat?

[207simon]

Hello all,
The update on my flexing keel is that it’s fixed! In the boats past someone ran it aground. The aft end of the keel in the area of the stern tube and going aft to the strut suffered delamination. The hull is a single skin of heavy woven roving and CSM layup. To find the extent of the damage after cutting out the sole I took a number of core samples. Some stayed together and a lot came apart. I ground out the areas until the reaching the fracture. Using alternating lavers of DB 1208 cloth and 12oz uni cloth in epoxy i added about 5/16 to 3/8 in thickness the stern tube came out as the fracture went lower thank the tube. Lots of grinding and gallons of epoxy!

[Dguads]

Hey Swabby, looks great. General solicitation to you and the forum; I'm considering an Albin Accent 26, it's dismasted in a marina, the owner abandoned it there a few years ago, think they're just giving it away but I'm assessing the cost to repair before trying to salvage it. I was in the boat the other day and took some photo's of the interior including the drive shaft and keel. It's in the Potomac river well upstream of Chesapeake Bay so not salt, maybe some brackish but in water nonetheless. Removing the salon floor board reveals a lot of rust staining. The stern shaft tube boot end is gunked up with rust and what looks to be a bearing block is totally rusted away, i can manually descale solid rust so assume the zinc is totally gone. There is a steel plate with four bolts and nuts visible, the plate looks shiny and intact as do the protruding bolt/nuts but passing my hand beneath this plate reveled that there were no bolt shafts i.e. the protruding threads and nuts on the plate are decoupled from the rest of the bolt. I assume these bolt are supporting the iron plates in the keel. I found info online that says the Accent 26 has an iron plate fin keel, no bulb. I fear the keel is unsupported since I cannot find any other support structure nor information about the design online. I even reached out to the new owners of the Albin boat corp., in Slovenia and the had no other information. I may return this weekend and try and ID the serial numbers and some further investigating on the keel support. If anyone out there has an Albin Accent 26 I'd appreciate any confirmation on whether these bolts are supporting the keel and other information of the keel support structure. I saw this boat without knowing what it was and loved the look of it. After discovering the story behind this company, the designer 'N' on the bow and the invigorating challenge of a COVID rework hobby (working form home is pretty static) and a potentially great boat at the end, it seemed really intriguing, a real diamond in the rough. But between the mast, rigging, probable fouled fuel and possible diesel (Yanmar 8hp) rework, the prospects of a decoupled keel are making this a bridge too far for my likes/money. Anyway, just looking to confirm the worst and/or any advice/recommendations; walk or work?