Which hull form to buy? I am irritated...

[kerrye]

My acquaintance Michael, who took his Albin 25 from Seattle to Alaska said that when they passed through the Johnstone Straight, they had 14' seas. I think that crossing is about 80 miles and I'm assuming giving the huge fetch to the west, that most of that crossing was in beam seas. (I've never been there so I'm making a guess) He said he never worried about the boat.

[notsowindyyet]

dont get me wrong.. the üeople i heard were not worried about the boat but said that they got very seasick...due to the specific roll behavior...
well.. i dont know if that is to believe... i only heard it.
i was woundering why the 25 motor sail version has 2 anti slinger (roll) keels and the others dont.

maybe because the motorsailer was thought to attract a more seagoing target group?

I know someone who bought a ms and removed the anti slinger. i will ask him why he did that!

[WillieC]

14' seas! As long as the period is ok. 5' standing waves just about did us in. Maybe two second cycle. Couldn't get out of those conditions fast enough. I watch wind and currents much more closely now. I, too, never worried about the boat. Except for the anchor that got knocked loose and was banging on the hull. Barely got a scratch.

[kerrye]

While I have seen a picture of an A25 with bilge keels all of the masted versions I have seen have the same keel as the non-masted ones. I assumed the bilge keeled versions were built for owners who lived in harbors which dried out with the tide.

[DesertAlbin736]

I have heard so much about that "roll problem" that I start to worry. we WANT to use the boat for long costal and across cruising - and not only with bft2.
It would be a "disaster" when after all it would only be the roll of this model that would "kill" us. is it really worse than boats of comparable size?

The "roll problem" is more about what you can handle in terms of being prone to sea sickness. The boat is not going to "roll over", that is capsize in anything short of a raging gale, in which case you shouldn't be out on the water in any boat anyway. WillieC and I have cruised together, crossing the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia, Canada in some fairly rough stuff, and I don't think the difference between the early and later hull designs is that much. They do fine heading into waves. It's just a beam sea with waves coming at you from the side 90 degrees to your heading where you get the rolling. In that case you may "rock and roll", rapidly heeling 30 degrees from one side to 30 degrees to the other. That can be mitigated somewhat by "quartering" the waves, zig zagging with upwind or downwind tacks. I think one thing to consider in those conditions is to not let your fuel tank go below half full so the fuel pump didn't suck air & stall your engine. That would not be fun trying to bleed the fuel system while you're adrift in rough conditons.

I'm with you on the trailering, as we've hauled ours 2,500 km each way from Phoenix, Arizona in the southwest to Seattle, Washington in the Pacific northwest three times already and plan on a fourth time this coming summer, plus one trip to the East coast that was a total round trip distance of 9,200 km. The East coast trip alone was roughly three times the one way distance between Paris, France & Moscow, Russia.

In any case I would guess you have a lot more choices over there than we do in the US and Canada, including some similar style Norwegian boats like the Saga and Nimbus, like this example of a Saga 27, and I'm pretty sure they made smaller boats.

Saga27b.jpg

[notsowindyyet]

believe me ... i am through all the boats...

- too expensive
- too heavy
- too wide
- no kids cabin
- bad behavoir in water
- or too ugly

the albin is the way to go for us... would not have believed this 6 month ago!

[DesertAlbin736]

the albin is the way to go for us... would not have believed this 6 month ago!

So true. Why they never caught on (speaking of the 25) in a big way on this side of the pond is beyond me. Although if they were still in production and available over here new ones would probably be priced in the $50,000 US range at least.

[Desertboater]

We own an early Albin 25 displacement hull with a new 25 horsepower Beta Marine engine. We don't feel "under-powered" and have operated it in the Columbia River at river current equivalent to or greater than that of the Rhine near Cologne.

Since most of the canals in the Netherlands such as the Turf route in Friesland have speed limits of 6 kilometers per hour (about 3.2 knots), you would not even need a 10 horsepower engine much less a 30 horsepower Sole. If you were to trailer east to the rivers and lakes of Mecklenburg, then the 30 horsepower would be more than sufficient.

If you intend to trailer the boat to the Baltic say near Lubec or Rugen Island, then the cruising would be similar to the Puget Sound area between Washington State and British Columbia. A number of early 22 horsepower Albins cruise that area. They pay attention to the weather and stay out of heavy wind - a smart thing regardless of the engine size.

Your decision should be made based on where you will spend most of your time - if it is in the Netherlands or places like Mecklenburg the "old boat" would do well for you.

If I were to cross the Baltic to Sweden or Norway, I would trailer the boat across Denmark's bridges rather than go by water with either the "old" or "new" boat. Even with the tolls, it would probably be cheaper than the cost of diesel.

[Dieselram94]

the albin is the way to go for us... would not have believed this 6 month ago!

So true. Why they never caught on (speaking of the 25) in a big way on this side of the pond is beyond me. Although if they were still in production and available over here new ones would probably be priced in the $50,000 US range at least.

I’m guessing they would be well above $50,000. A bass boat is often above that number. I don’t understand why they didn’t catch on more either, they check all the boxes for many people.

[WillieC]

I like DAs $50,000 guestimate, but have to agree with Dieselram. This is 'Murica! Remember when the Mustang was advertised as an economy car? Honda cars had motorcycle engines? Ford sold Econoline vans (ours got 8 mpg regardless of load)? We want what we want when we want it and it better have heated seats. Even though we love our spartan A25 and like to think we would fork over $XXXX for a brand new one, if it were equipped as ours originally was...hmmm. We are told that sheer volume drives pricing, thus when everybody has A25s, they will be cheap as dirt. Like iPhones? Thus we continue to hunt these old boats down and fool ourselves into thinking well, heck it won't cost THAT much to get running, refurbish, update...restore, Make Better Than New! And think how much we'll save by doing it ourselves! Admit it. We are hooked and not on phonics. Hopefully, most of us really are having fun spending our kids' inheritances. What's the line about messing around in boats?

Now if only my parts would get here. Spring is coming.

[DCatSea]

I'm all for the heated seats - our new Subaru is the first car we've had with such luxury, and 4 well-placed cup holders to boot. If only our venerable 27 FC had such wonderful things, and stabilizers. We've been gently rocking and rolling around for a while now, and the combination is often interesting - perhaps more rocking than rolling, but heck, at least we get plenty of lat and ab exercise, and build upper arm strength by holding on to the handrails.
Seriously though, I agree with DesertAlbin and WillieC - semi-displacement hulls, no matter what their vintage, aren't designed to sprint from Havre D'Grace to Norfolk in a day, they are, however, able to take it on the chin if the need arises (i.e. if the weather guys screw up). Let the go-fasts smash into logs and piers at high speed; we trawlermen will always have the last laugh, and much lower fuel bills.

Advice to "notsowindy" is go with your instincts and keep looking for that Albin that we all know is out there waiting for you, and keep on posting to AOG. Send us some pix of your new-ish boat, when you get her.

[LopezMike]

I am a little puzzled by all of this speed stuff. When I want to go fast I do it with my boat on the trailer. Then I launch it and slow down. Going fast is a way to get something over with. I like my time on the water. I find that flowing along quietly at 5 knots gets me everywhere I want to go. If the tide is against me I stop and wait.

The previous owner of Caprice cruised from Skagway Alaska to Southern British Columbia and back at five knots and burned 1.09 liters per hour. That sort of thing is why I bought the boat! If you really want to go fast then you will not own the boat very long. You will need something bigger and certainly lighter.

Slow down. Don't wish your life away. Be here now.

It's your choice. Enjoy

[NickScheuer]

"Tens of knots"? I suspect there is more than a little misunderstanding here. I'd strongly recommend that you have a trial run in any Albin-25 you are considering. That way you will experience that boat's performance exactly.

[tego]

I suspect he was meaning "tenths" of knots. That's about what I expect to gain per 100 RPM increase in my 27. These boats are not for millennials, but that's the way I like it! Ben '87 27FC

[DesertAlbin736]

I am a little puzzled by all of this speed stuff. When I want to go fast I do it with my boat on the trailer. Then I launch it and slow down. Going fast is a way to get something over with. I like my time on the water. I find that flowing along quietly at 5 knots gets me everywhere I want to go. If the tide is against me I stop Slow down. Don't wish your life away. Be here now.

It's your choice. Enjoy

Hear hear!

Can I get an amen!?!

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