Hello...

[motthediesel]

I'm not an Albin owner, but as someone looking for a trailer-able diesel motor cruiser, it seems all roads lead this way.

A few years ago, I was building a maxi-trailer cruiser, a 38'x8' seabright "cruising launch" when it was destroyed by a fire in my boatshop. I lost the boat and a lifetimes worth of tools and machinery, and it was quite a blow. I was building that boat because no one makes the boat I want. The Nimble Wanderer is pretty close I guess, but they are hard to find, and out of my price range anyway.

When I was designing my boat, the classic Albin 25 was a vessel that I looked at in some detail. I have always admired it's simple and sensible plan, and in fact I had stolen it's small aft cabin with quarter berths and incorporated them into my layout. Now, at my age, I feel that I'm running out of time to build another boat from scratch. So, my wife and I are looking to buy something that will fill the bill for our requirements, and, looking around, I still find myself coming back to the good ole Albin 25.

I see the A25 as a kind of VW Campmobile on the water, basic and economical, and I like that. My mate though thinks it's too small, so she may need some convincing I guess. She happily travels for weeks at a time in our old 27' Avion trailer though, so maybe I can bring her around? There are good buys to be had in larger single diesel boats like the Mainship 34, but I hate to give up on having a boat I can haul around myself.

Anyway, I'm planning on lurking around here and learning as much as I can, and I'll try not to make a nuisance of myself.

Tom

[WillieC]

Well, welcome aboard, Tom. We bought our A25 some six years ago, our first boat, mainly because it was advertised by the PO as a VW camper on the water!

We spent almost 5 weeks on the water this summer, in two sessions, and a full six weeks last summer in one jag on our trip to Desolation Sound. The first words out of the Starfleet Commander's mouth when reporting to friends and relatives regarding our trips are, "nobody died and we are still married."

Yes, it is tight, and you must think economically. We live in an amazing area, and spend too much time in marinas when we could as easily anchor out, but that is part of the fun for us. And it keeps the pressure off the holding tank, using onshore facilities as much as possible. Though I must say I am tired of having to learn a new way to dry my hands at each stop.

We looked long and hard and enviously at our more spacious marina neighbors and found plenty of boats to our liking in the 30 foot range. But it doesn't take much scrap paper and gray cells to do the math, especially considering the length of time we ACTUALLY spend on the water. And we have other interests on land that preclude our spending a whole lot more time. The Starfleet Commander occasionally makes rumblings about going full time, but I already work full time keeping this boat shipshape. Well it seems like it.

I am so sorry about the loss of your shop and projects. I would be devastated, insurance or no. I do all my work myself, which is one reason we actually have a boat, but writing checks is sounding better with each passing year. Good luck convincing your admiral on the benefits of a trailerable boat. We trailer ours about a hundred feet, twice a year, with some exceptions. It is very nice having it in the driveway all winter so I never lack for opportunity to stay busy. In retrospect, we should have bought a beefier one so we could actually move closer to where we are headed each trip. But there is a lot of pleasure in casting off from our mooring ball and realizing we could end up in the Broughtons if we plan for it. For us, our location adds a couple days on each end of our adventure where we have to endure this kind of scenery:

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As far as making a nuisance of yourself here at AOG, you'll have to get in line! With your experience, it sounds like you'd have a lot to share. Welcome.

[motthediesel]

Thanks Willie! You do live on beautiful cruising grounds, but we live in the Thousand Islands in NNY, so it aint too shabby here either

I guess we should find an A-25 that we can look at and see how we would fit in there. The older I get, the more the saying "less is more" rings true for me.

Tom

[obertra9]

Tom, the A27 (either with or without aft cabin) are what I term "barely trailerable". I have towed my A27 SC just short of 10,000 miles with a 3 axle trailer and a 2500 Chev with 6.0 liter engine. Worth considering if you are not using it as a weekend cruiser, but for week long or more cruising. At just over 9 foot wide, those of us who do pull her do not bother with wide loads or highway scales.Do you live near Cincinnati?

[motthediesel]

Rodger,

No, not near Cincinnati, we're in Northern NY on the St Lawrence River, 2hrs north of Syracuse.

I will also do some research on the 27, as I'm not as familiar with it. I already have a big aluminum 3 axle trailer that I had bought for the boat I was building, and a Dodge/Cummins 3500 dually, I guess we could handle the bigger boat as well.

So you don't bother with permits and "wide load" signs? You're a rebel -- I like that! Or, I guess you could just name the boat "WIDE LOAD" and have it on your transom all the time.

Tom

[Mark Deeser]

Welcome Tom, I was following the discussion on trailering our little Albins. We currently own the 27 FC, when I had it delivered to my marina it cost me one hundred seventy five dollars to have it lifted from the trailer and placed in the water.. I’m sure if you find the right ramp you could off load the 25 or even the 27, not sure how you get them back on the trailer unless you had the ideal ramp. I once considered the North Sea 27 sail boat, it was billed as not trailerable but it was movable, I think that describes the Albin 27. Others with personally experience hopefully will provide you with more first hand information.

[DesertAlbin736]

Belated welcome aboard wishes Tom!

I hadn't checked the newbie forum lately, just your comments over on the A25/A27 forum about the A25 with the crunched keel for sale on C-list. You are in a unique location & with the right boat & amount of free time could go by water almost anywhere in the East. Yes, the Albin 25 is one of the best options for trailerability and fuel economy at affordable prices. Such a shame there's so few of them around & no longer in production. Other possibilities in the 25 foot size range are the Nimble Nomad and C-Dory 25, both outboard powered, the former a displacement hull and the latter a faster planing hull design. As mentioned on the main A25/A27 forum, my wife and I are thinking of trailering our "La Dolce Vita" 2,400 miles out to Onieda Lake next year and looping around via Oswego Canal, Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River & optionally Rideau Canal to Ottowa, back down the Ottowa River to the St Lawrence, on "down east" passing Montreal to Sorel, down Richelieu River & canal to Lake Champlain, down the Champlain canal & Hudson River to Waterford, NY, west on Mohawk River & Erie Canal back to our launch point at the west end of Oneida Lake. Five years ago we trailered our boat east to the Finger Lakes, did a 5 day/110 mile round trip stint CS & Erie canals to Fairport & back, then trailered over to Rhode Island for some short day cruises from the Pawcatuck River over to the Thames and up to New London, then trailered down to Delaware & did 2 weeks on Chesapeake Bay. Last year we were up in the Pacific NW and cruised with WillieC up to Desolation Sound and this year went back again but stayed around the San Juans & Gulf Islands, the furthest north we went was Ladysmith on Vancouver Island & met up with the BC Albineer club rendezvous. Two years ago we did a cross country trip towing our 18 ft Fleetwood travel trailer with my 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel 4x4, and among many other stops we went to visit AOG member & A25 owner Stephen Duggan, aka "sunsetrider" who lives in Sharbot Lake, ON & docks his A25 at Gananoque during the summer. Haven't talked to him lately, but he was and maybe still is considering selling his A25 & upsizing to a trawler in the 30 to 36 foot size range now that he's retired. So you may want to shoot him a PM (personal message) if you're serious about looking for an Albin 25. He took us out for a ride around the Thousand Islands in his boat near Gananoque, & it's in pretty good shape, although he doesn't have a trailer for it. Since you have a one ton dually pickup and a triple axle trailer you may also want to expand your options to consider an Albin 27FC. The extra horsepower might be handy dealing with river currents, but the A27 is still a semi-displacement cruising around 7 or 8 knots. Not quite as fuel efficient at the 25, but still burns less than 1 GPH.