New Member in Southern Delaware

[DelawareJim]

New member, soon to be in southern Delaware, at least when our builder finally finishes building our retirement home! We plan to wet slip a boat either in Blades, DE (Nanticoke River) or Rehoboth Bay. Would like to trailer store the boat at the house during the Winter.

I’m getting ready to retire and am interested in getting a 27 SC or 27 FC, and will start seriously looking for a boat this Summer/Fall. In the meantime, I’m trying to learn all I can about these boats!

Jim

[WillieC]

Welcome, Jim.

Congrats on the retirement home, and good luck on your search.

There is plenty of info here at AOG. Take your time reading as much as you can and following the rabbit trails. You will learn a lot about the A27 and building a trailer.

[DesertAlbin736]

Welcome aboard! Small world! My late parents, mom & stepdad, moved down to Laurel, DE from upstate NY when they retired in 1983 and lived at 28418 Seaford Rd (old Rt 13) between Laurel & Seaford across the road from the skating rink. I flew out from AZ &:visited them several times in the 1980s & '90s. My mom passed away in 2003 & my stepdad survived for almost 9 more years until he passed in 2011. Those last years he joined the Nanticoke River Yacht Club & served for a while as Vice Commodore & shortly before he died at age 90 he was made honorary Commodore.His name was Lee Simonds & his framed picture is on the clubhouse wall right there at the Blades marina to this day. I got to know some of the members. In 2015 my wife and I trailered our Albin 25 to Blades, launched there at the marina & ran downriver to Vienna & Bivalve & across the Bay to Solomons & spent 2 weeks cruising the Bay with stops in St Leonards Creek, Cambridge, Oxford, & St. Michaels
Check out the NRYC, they're good bunch. If you say you heard about Lee Simonds from his son the folks atcthe club will welcome you.

I'm anchored out overnight with our A25 on Lake Pleasant now, posting this from my phone. When I get home & back to my PC I'll post some DE pix.

[DelawareJim]

Thank you for the welcomes.

Seems that I have spent the last couple of days watching every available youtube video on the A25 and A27, even all the ones in Swedish!

The A25 is also on my list, as I could trailer this boat anywhere with a moment's notice.

DesertAlbin736, how did your A25 do cruising the Bay with stops in St Leonard's Creek, Cambridge, Oxford, & St. Michaels? I would really to cruise in this area and am wondering if the A25 is a big enough boat to comfortably do so?

Jim

[WillieC]

"wondering if the A25 is a big enough boat to comfortably do so?"

All depends.

The Starfleet Commander and I spent six glorious weeks exploring the San Juans, Gulf Islands, and Desolation Sound. Every night on the boat and mostly in the vee-berth together. There was that one night when one of us forgot to use the reverse gear while docking at LaConner...

Her analysis: Nobody died and we are still married. (I add: to each other.)

(This is our first and likely only boat and we spend too many winter hours drooling over larger boats on the interwebs. Then we come back to earth and realize we haven't begun to scratch the surface of what we can do in our A25. Currently thinking about a trip to AK in '23. Hopefully a round trip.)

[DesertAlbin736]

Jim,
A couple of points: You mentioned in your initial post about either docking in Rehoboth Bay or in Blades on the Nanticoke. A lot depends on your plans on where you want to cruise. If out on the Atlantic & Delaware Bay is your preference then Rehoboth or perhaps Lewes would be the choice. If more interested in Chesapeake Bay then Blades or even perhaps Cambridge would be the logical choice, since for access to Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic side of DE you have to either go all the way up Delaware Bay to the C&D canal or south to the tip of Delamarva peninsula & round Cape Charles. There is no navigable passage all the way across Delaware from the Atlantic to Chesapeake Bay other than the C&D.

Is the A25 big enough? Well, that's a matter of individual taste. Besides our 2015 Chesapeake cruise we've done a lot up in the San Juans & Gulf Islands. In fact we buddy boated with WillieC to Desolation Sound in 2018 that he talked about in his last post. Our record for consecutive days afloat is 46 and we find it quite comfortable, only lacking on board showers which neither the A25 or A27 have. Albin 27's are larger & A27 owners can fill you in on their pros & cons. You can post questions on the A25/A27 -True Classics page. A27s are a bit faster than the 25 with larger engines. Still fuel efficient but not as much as the 25. Also a wider beam in which case you'd need wide load permits if you plan to do more than local trailering. They are also more likely to be found on the East coast than the A25. One word of warning, if you're prone to sea sickness the 25 does not like beam seas and will snap heel 20 deg to 20 deg side to side in rough chop. That's because it's a round hull displacement boat without the advantages of a weighted fin or shoal keel and mast/sail like a sailboat. Does fine going head on into typical Bay chop, but otherwise the best strategy crossing beam seas is to quarter the waves in zig zag tacks like a sailboat. Another word of warning, unless fitted with an air conditioning unit & docked with access to shore power the 25 & like any other boat is not comfortable in the hot & humid mid summer weather on the Bay. That's why we only did 2 weeks on the Bay & also why we cut last year's run on the Erie Canal short. The original plan in 2015 was to run up the Potomac to DC in time for July 4th.

The 2nd half of this YouTube starting at the 12:23 mark is about our 2015 Chesapeake Bay portion of our East Coast cruise that year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67QqvVgwgz8

La Dolce Vita docked at Vienna, MD. This is the closest stop downriver from Blades.

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This was my stepdad with me standing behind him being awarded honorary commodore of Nanticoke River Yacht Club a month to the day before he passed away from cancer in 2011. At right is then-commodore Alan Johnson.

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This was my dad with "his girls". The gals loved him because he would dance with them when husbands wouldn't at functions when they had music & dancing.

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And with the guys.

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That was 10 years ago in October, 2011, so it's likely a lot has changed with the club since then and I suspect some of those members then in their 60s and 70s aren't around anymore. I know for a fact several of those older guys and a couple of the gals in the photos have since passed away. I know our Lake Pleasant Sailing Club out here has changed a lot since 2011.

NYRC is primarily a motor yacht club. This website may not be quite up to date & probably has more up to date info on Facebook.

https://nanticokeriveryc.wordpress.com/

So where is this new home of yours located? The wife of the couple at the end of my 2015 YouTube has since passed away & we're still in touch with her husband. Also my wife's ex-sister in law who was married to the late brother of my wife's previous husband who lost his battle with Leukemia in 2005 before we met now lives in a neighborhood outside Lewes.

[DelawareJim]

WillieC, sounds like the A25 is a great boat for the Puget Sound area! If y’all do AK next year would you cruise or trailer there?

DesertAlbin736, wow y’all do a lot of trailering. I enjoyed your video, thanks for the link. When you were at Solomons, you were about 15 miles from St. Mary’s City, the first settlement of the Colony of Maryland (1634) and the U.S. birthplace for religious freedom for both Catholics and Protestants. Most Marylanders have little knowledge about St. Mary’s, but my daughter (and my money ) went there when she attended St. Mary's College.

We are building our new home in Millsboro, DE, so we are about 25 minutes from the Blades Marina, or 15 minutes from a very nice public boat ramp on the northwest corner of the Indian River Bay. If we did get an A25, I’m not sure if we would slip or trailer the boat. If we did slip the boat if would probably be at Blades. Blades Marina has some of the most affordable slips I have seen in this part of the country - $860 for an annual 30’ slip!

Cambridge is a great little town, but it is about an hour away and I would have to register the boat in Maryland. A nice thing about Delaware is that there is no sales or personal property tax on a boat, and registration is $60 a year. Pay 4.25% document tax (sales tax) on the trailer and $40 a year registration. I could take the savings and put it towards AC in the forward cabin.

I have read the A25 are a little rolly. The Deluxe has a slight modification to the stern, does this help any?

Can you sleep in the forward v-berth without the insert? While I love my wife, she likes a little distance due to my CPAP.

Jim

[WillieC]

Alaska by water. We live on Hood Canal. Time is no matter. Cutting the grass while we are gone is.

You could probably use the vee berth without the insert. We store items below the insert and leave the bed set up, unlike DA. Most of our cooking is done in the pilot house on our portable two burner Origo.

We use the aft cabin for storage. Costco port, West Maroon starboard. I have built shelves in there and have a rod for hanging lines to dry in the center section. Everything goes back there, fuel jugs, spare prop, anchor, heat exchanger.(Ridiculous I know. Back in the day, a friend who learned from me, carried a 1500CC VW short block under the back seat of his micro. He actually needed it once.) The Previous Owner used the aft cabin as the main sleeping quarters. Forward cabin for cooking and dining. I like cooking in the pilot house while the Starfleet Commander drives. Too much to see on the water and I don't get surprised by wakes from all the A27s (and up).

I have been playing with alternate/additional sleeping berths. A simple extension lets one stretch out on the main bench seat. I would really like to come up with a clever way to use the side bench seats with a center infill (in the pilot cabin) to make a real pleasure palace out of the boat. Trouble is that pretty much gums up the whole boat with panels, cushions, pillows that all have to be stowed while underway. We are on our third table arrangement for that area that attaches either to the seat frame or the aft cabin door frame. We also have a Pelican cooler eating up floor space there. Daily engine checks require that we keep it simple. Too many steps and our increasingly feeble minds lose track.

The nice thing about the A25 is that they are all old enough that nobody has any pretensions about keeping them "original". Every one of them is unique, which is why we love joining our friends in Ladysmith, BC, or at any of their monthly summer get-togethers. DA will concur, we've seen at least 11 of them tied up dockside, a real feast for the imagination! (Picture Steve?)

As to them being rolly. HA! Just keep the water below gunwales and pour the coal to it. We'll always have time to straighten the cabin later!

[DesertAlbin736]

World is getting even smaller!! My late parents' cremated remains are interred in the niche wall at the Delaware Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in Millsboro since my stepdad was a WW2 Navy veteran. Low taxes and cost of living were the reasons they relocated to Delaware in the first place after my stepdad lost is last job in Saratoga County , NY at age 62. They purchased their 1.8 acre property with small home at 28418 Seaford Road in Laurel for $39K in 1983. Their property tax if they'd had to pay it, which they didn't because they qualified as low income seniors, would have been about $400 per year. That plus all the things low income seniors could get from the DuPont Foundation. The last time we visited the area was in 2017 on an extended RV road trip with the travel trailer we had before we sold it last March. At this time we don't have any plans to return to the east coast in the foreseeable future.

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At least my dad knew where he would end up. This was in 2010 when he was 89, the year before is health took a final turn for the worse in 2011.

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Yes you can sleep separately on the forward cabin settees without the center fill in cushion, preferably using sleeping bags. Personally I like the A25 forward cabin layout better than the A27. You can also use the aft cabin quarter berths for sleeping apart but they're very claustrophobic and coffin like, each one extending under the cockpit bench seats. That's what the previous owners of our boat used to do, sleep in the aft cabin. We use it for storing luggage, PFDs, & miscellaneous gear.

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[DesertAlbin736]

"The nice thing about the A25 is that they are all old enough that nobody has any pretensions about keeping them "original". Every one of them is unique, which is why we love joining our friends in Ladysmith, BC, or at any of their monthly summer get-togethers. DA will concur, we've seen at least 11 of them tied up dockside, a real feast for the imagination! "(Picture Steve?)

Here's the link to the photo page from the 2019 Albineers of BC rendezvous at Ladysmith Maritime Society marina on Vancouver Island. This gallery shows most of the 25's that were there, including Sea Quill and our La Dolce Vita with an inflatable kayak slung over foredeck. In the last photo at the bottom of the left column showing folks sitting at a picnic table I'm the guy at lower right in the white hat & long sleeve T with my wife next to me, and Dave, aka dkirsop, at left in black shirt & shades and his wife to his left.


https://www.albinbc.com/pictures/2019/l ... h-maritime

[DelawareJim]

WillieC,

If we got an A25, I think we would just use the aft cabin for storage. This would go a long way in keeping the rest of the boat from getting too cluttered. I like the idea of I like the idea of additional sleeping space between the two bench seats as this would be a great place to sleep in the warmer weather.

Its really interesting to see how folks have customized their boats!

Jim

[DesertAlbin736]

Jim,
You have lots of time, but it will take a diligent search with patience & a willingness to cover a wide area well beyond Delaware to find either an Albin 25 or Albin 27FC. Currently there doesn't seem to be any listed for sale on either Yachtworld, Boattrader, or Craiglist anywhere near Delaware nor indeed the whole east coast from Maine to Florida. The only one I could find was this one on Yachtworkd located in Manistee, MI which is 2/3rds of the way up the east shore of Lake Michigan & doesn't appear to include a trailer. The Yanmar engine in the boat is 21 HP, which is less powerful than the stock Volvo 36HP that came with this 1976 DeLuxe version but should be adequate to push the boat along at about 6 knots.

https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/1976-a ... e-7808924/

[DelawareJim]

DA,

I enjoyed looking at the photos linked in your previous post.

Maybe, I'm following in your footsteps? My previous truck was a red RAM that I used to tow my West Wight Potter 15 sailboat (Not quite as nice as a Monty) but it brought me a lot of pleasure.

Our new home is suppose to be done at the end of February (has been under contract since last March) and I may retire this Summer. We will probably begin searching in earnest in June. With pending retirement and a pretty new truck, I am willing and able to travel to bring home a boat. I'm hoping to find a boat with a repower and a larger engine.

Jim

[DesertAlbin736]

Jim,

Well, if you were a Potter 15 sailor perhaps you're familiar with Small Craft Advisor Magazine? And if so & go as far back as 20 years you may be familiar with stories they did on the Cruiser Challenge races between Potters & Montgomery boats out in Monterey, CA. From 2001 thru 2005 I owned Montgomery 15 #102 (second M15 ever built, hull numbers started at 101). In 2002 I trailered my boat "Scamp" out to east Laurel, DE when my parents were both still living & cruised Chesapeake Bay with a group of Monty owners. Then later that summer came back to Phoenix & drove on out to Monterey, CA where I raced in SCA Magazine sponsored Cruise Challenge IV fun race, sponsored by the Potter Yachters of Northern California & Small Craft Advisor magazine. I took 3rd place overall in the small 16 feet & under fleet. In the race results they only list my last name Eshleman. I returned to Monterey again a year later in 2003 and took 3rd place once more in Cruiser Challenge V. In 2005 I sold that boat and upsized to a 2nd gen Catalina 22 wing keel. It seems ex-trailer sailors are drawn to Albin 25s when they want "go over to the Dark Side" with a bigger boat without the hassles of mast raising.

http://blumhorst.com/cruiserchallenge20 ... esults.htm

Jump off from Tyler's Cove waterman's marina on Honga River, Chesapeake Bay, June 2002. Wow, is that coming up on 20 years ago already?

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This was a raftup we did with the Monty group in a cove at Broome's Island up the Patuxent River from Solomons. We had four M15's and three M17's plus a Nimble Nomad "mother ship". This is a photo of a framed photo so there's some reflection from the glass & not very clear. My boat is 2nd from right.

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This was the 2003 Cruise Challenge V race awards ceremony, yours truly standing 2nd from right.

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Here's the race results from 2003. They slightly misspelled my last name adding a "c" and switching the "le" to "el", but that's me nontheless.
http://www.blumhorst.com/cruiserchallen ... esults.htm

In the medium size fleet that year winner Monty 17 owner John Edwards was part of the Monty Owner Group Chesapeake Rendezous the year before & trailered his boat "Miss T" on a marathon cross country adventure. He published a series of stories about that trip in Small Craft Advisor. Also in 2003 that same M17 owner John Edwards & I sailed 30 NM out to Catalina Island from Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles with the Phoenix based Lake Pleasant Sailing Club group, a club which I'm still a member of.