It's official... I'm an Albin owner

[Scudrunner]

So after many years lurking here and drooling over other member's boats, I now have my own A-25. I bought Riverjohn's Miss Bettencourt #1117. Other than needing some paint she's in good shape. John has taken good care of her.

My plans are to spruce her up. Put her on Lake McConaughy this summer; to get use to her handling and next year to Bimini with my oldest son. I'll be retiring the following year and will be doing the ICW from Maine to Florida.

[WillieC]

I have read a bunch of John's blogs. So good to hear Miss Bettencourt has a new, engaged owner. Good times ahead. Congrats!

[efishnsea]

Welcome to the group. Keep us informed with your adventures!

[Nancy]

Congratulations, Scud! Sounds like some great adventrues ahead!

[DesertAlbin736]

Congrats! We've exchanged emails before about your connections to Kearny, AZ in which my step-grandson in law is related to the owners of La Cantina bar in Kearny. Sounds like your future "DA'ing", new AOG slang for long distance trailering & cruising, will likely exceed ours. Years ago one of the previous owners of our boat had made the run out to Grand Bahama from Palm Beach, which is an equally good destination as Bimini, not that we'll ever do that. ICW from Maine to Florida is another great adventure. We are hoping to make the run from Tonawanda, NY to Chesapeake Bay via Erie Canal, Hudson River, New Jersey coast ICW, and C&D Canal later this year. That would be a much shorter road trip from Nebraska than to Maine and an interesting cruise through the Erie Canal & down the Hudson River. Luckily Albin 25's are shallow draft, because the section of ICW down the NJ coast (which is where I grew up) can have notorious shifting sand bars and wind driven extra low tides when the controlling dredged channel depth is at best only 6 feet.

This site gives some insight for that stretch of the ICW

https://www.offshoreblue.com/cruise/nji ... ware%20Bay.

Also look up the multi episode LadyK Sailing video blog on YouTube.

Again, welcome to the world of Albin 25 boating!

[Scudrunner]

Yup, it's a small world. I've been a fan of your posts and your boat. Thanks for the details on your hatches. We grew up in the same stomping grounds... I hated Barneget Inlet for the uncharted sandbars. I loved sailing the Chesapeake.

[DesertAlbin736]

I hated Barnegat Inlet for the uncharted sandbars. I loved sailing the Chesapeake.

From 2001 to 2005 I owned a Montgomery 15 pocket cruiser sailboat. Back in 2002 I trailered it east to Delaware where my late parents had moved to after their retirement in the 1980s. I had hooked up with folks from the Montgomery Sailboat Owner Group for a week long rendezvous, put in at a small ramp on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake opposite Solomons & sailed 10 miles across the middle section of Chesapeake Bay to meet up with them. The group consisted of four M15s including me and three M17s. Had a great time & afterwards I hauled out and drove up to Barnegat where my late birth father was still living in the same house where I grew up. An old school chum & I sailed across Barnegat Bay from the Barnegat town dock & motored out through the inlet with the 3.5 HP outboard that boat had against an on the nose sea breeze and incoming flood tide current. We went just beyond the outer breakwater rock jetty & turned around and went back. Later that same summer I trailered out to Monterey, CA and did a fun race with a group of Potter Yachters in an event sponsored by Small Craft Advisor magazine, thereby having sailed in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the same boat in the same year.

Speaking of hatches, while in Delaware I ordered a 4X8 sheet of marine grade teak veneer Okeume plywood from Harbor Sales in Sudlersville, MD a few miles west of Dover, DE to replace the worn companionway hatch boards on my then 22 year old boat. I had the plywood shipped to my home in AZ, cut into two 4x4 pieces & still have a few small pieces left. I used some of that leftover wood to make the roof hatches on La Dolce Vita. Even 20 years ago that sheet of wood cost $200.

Although I had put a fair amount of money into that M15, inclulding new sails, upgraded halyards led to the cockpit with associated sheaves and cleats, new hatch boards, and a new motor, I sold it for $1,100 more than I had paid for it. It was hull #102, the 2nd M15 ever built. The previous owner lived in Tucson & had sailed it on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico but by the time he put it up for sale he was in his early 80s and was having problems with balance.

2002 Monty cruise.jpg

This is how big that boat was.

IMG_0142.JPG

IMG_0141.JPG

This shot was taken while running Barnegat Inlet. Some might say I'm nuts.

Barnegat Inlet.jpg

Barnegat dock2.jpg

[Scudrunner]

You know we probably crossed paths many times. I sold my Potter P-19 to buy my A-25... made about the same profit as you. Puerto Pensaco was a lot of fun. I never got either of my sailboats there though. Were you a member of trailer sailors? Seems I remember the Montgomery too.