Front Cabin floorboards

[mitec]

Hello everyone!
Our A25 1969 #46 are missing everything on the floor in the front cabin. I will make new floorpanels and step. It would be very helpful with some photos of the boards with reinforcenent and framing as well as mounting details of them to the rest of the interior. Could anyone lift the boards and take some photos for me?
Best regards,
Mikael

[DesertAlbin736]

Sure, I can do that unless Rick, aka WillieC, beats me to it since since his boat is parked in his yard & mine is a parked a couple miles away. 1969 hull #69? I think that must be the oldest A25 on AOG? Post pics please!

[WillieC]

Welcome, mitec! Mine is the newer super duper fragilistic deluxe model with all the floor structure in the forward cabin molded fiberglass. It's part of the boat. You Ancient Albin Owners, take that however you like, need to help out here. If mine had been an oldie, I prolly would have found the rusted, somewhat usable, can of tuna that rolled under the head sole much sooner.

You've come to the right place, mitec. If you can stand us!

With a blank slate you can make it as you wish. Personally, I do not like the sloped floor/hull right in front of the galley sink. It wouldn't take much to flatten that out if the overhead will allow it. Not that I have anything more pressing to do right now. Mitec, since the floor is missing, do you have the walls that form the hanging closet and also enclose the head? Think about the toilet you will be installing to help determine the sole height there.

[mitec]

Hello and thank You for the comments.

We have had this for about 3 years now. We have only done one real trip in it and it was when we sailed it home. Around 60 Nm and one overnight. After that there was a few small trips and then it was fall.

The boat have been on trailer since the first summer, but now we have decided to get dirty and get the lady wet.

Someone have sometime put in a quite amount of work to this, but everything seems to have stalled right before the goal, so it is absolutely a project. It is equipped with freshwatercooling, but the guy we bought it from had disconnected the heatexchanger due to bad cooling. I changed the impeller an then it was fine... That was the level of that owner...

I will put in some work to get it in better shape that it is now, there are lot of varnishing and patching in the interior to be done. It have been flooded and a lot of wood have been soaked with oil and water. maybe this is why the floorboards are missing.

It will be a gentle renovation to get it in the same shape it was when it left Kristinehamn back in -69 (apart from the colour of the curtains and other fabrics) that is I like it to be as original as possible. Of course I will change parts that are bad, but it will be the same size and shape.

As You can see in the pics, it is the AD 21 motor, I can't say if it is the origin motor, the typeplate is gone... I hope the freshwater system is from the factory, meaning the motor have many years left.

All input about this old wreck are welcome:)

/Mikael

[WillieC]

FWC AD21 from the factory! Yes that should have plenty of life left in it.

The only real difference on my newer model is that they raised the section under the table and installed a removable wood panel for access to "the ditch". Farther aft of that table line, the floor was leveled with another access wood panel right in front of the head door. Thus the ditch ended up below the fiberglass sole. That's it.

Seems like you could use a rot resistant wood to build a simple floating framework that tapers out to the hull line you choose. Glue and screw a plywood sole to that then several coats of spar varnish or epoxy over all that and drop it in. Maybe rubber stick-on bumpers on the bottom of the framework where it contacts the hull to reduce any rattling, not that you'd hear it over the AD21. HA! Cover with whatever floor covering you like, just leave access panels as described above. I use the one near the head to rod out the tube that goes under the engine bed. The forward access panel is where I have a drain valve for the water tank. Apparently the original did not have one.

I'll be on das Boot today, see if I can move enough detritus around to get a decent pic for you.

Cheers!

[DesertAlbin736]

Here is one that that's not my boat but shows the front cabin floor board setup. At the intersection between the front end of the galley cabinets and the back end of the settees the floor steps up about 5 cm & the back edge of the front floor board section rests on a transverse board.

A25 Cricket Main Cabin.JPG

This one shows cockpit floorboard layout on our boat.

20181129_160531_resized.jpg

Our boat was repowered with a Japanese Yanmar 3GM30F around 1990. So our engine setup looks like this. To starboard you can see a bit of our 76 Liter sewage waste holding tank which takes up the space where the batteries usually go. I moved our battery bank to the storage locker under the starboard bench seat.

20210811_115247.jpg

Our brass name plate.

DSCN3677.JPG

I have lots of photos of our boat and others, but none that focus directly on that front floor board section. Will try to get over to our boat later on today. & shoot some more detailed photos & get some measurements. Here in Arizona USA we're on UTC -7 hours time zone & Sweden is UTC +2, so as I write this it's 10 AM our time, which is 7 PM Swedish daylight time.

[mitec]

Thank You for your input.
I have no problem to fix something to walk on, the thing is that i want to do it the way the big master constructed it. I have scanned the whole internet for some pics with no result. That is very strange, it must be the most interesting thing ever? I mean backside of old floorboards and the bilge in an old boat. Well att least it is to me right now

[dkirsop]

I have an A25 similar to yours with a fresh water cooled AD21. Yours is not equipped with the original fresh water cooling system but your boat looks mostly complete. I am sure it will all come out looking good as your work progresses. I would start with the wiring first while you have access to most areas. If the wiring has been submerged you can be sure that most of it will be corroded.

Here is a web site where you can find most of the original construction drawings.

https://digitaltmuseum.se/search/?q=Alb ... tdesign%22

I have spent a few hours searching out details and can usually find what I am looking for. Fortunately for you it is in Sweden! Be aware that some dimensions were changed during assembly of the boat so always check your boat to be sure you have the correct ones!

I'll post some pictures in a couple of days that should help you.

[DesertAlbin736]

Actual photos of La Dolce Vita front cabin floorboards marked up with dimensions:

Hope this helps.

DSCN5143markup.jpg

DSCN5144.JPG

DSCN5148markup.jpg

DSCN5149 markup.jpg

DSCN5150.JPG

DSCN5146.JPG

Galley floorboard.

DSCN5151 markup.jpg

[DesertAlbin736]

Be aware that some dimensions were changed during assembly of the boat so always check your boat to be sure you have the correct ones!

That's pretty much true of most boats over the life of a model's production run. We saw that with our 1989 Catalina 25 sailboat, many minor improvements/changes along the way over the life of the production run between 1976 and 1990. Ours had about the latest iteration of design improvements made before they switched to the Catalina 250 which was a radically different "chlorox bottle" design. Interesting that those museum Albin rittnings (drawings) it showed the motor centerline placed slightly offset from the vessel centerline. I wonder what was the deal with that?

[dkirsop]

Desert Albin gave a very good detailed description of the floor board system so I am just going to include some photos of my layout which is the same.

Forepeak Floor.jpeg

Forepeak Bilge.jpeg

Forepeak Bilge Detail.jpeg

Forepeak Aft Bilge.jpeg

Here are a couple of photos showing the original AD21 engine installation with the factory closed cooling system. The heat exchanger is integral with the expansion tank.

Front View.jpeg

Top View.jpeg

Hope these help.

[mitec]

Thank You so much for Your input. This is real gold to me.
So far I've made and fitted the forepeak aft floorboard. This is made from 12mm forming plywood, wich later will be epoxied (maybe a little glas as well) in the corners and edges. They will also be painted as they are not very nice now. I suppose the aft board need some support in the aft, so I've made a model from cardboard so far. I think I will use some 1"x2" pine to make this "stringer" and glue this to the board. I am now in the progress of fitting the step between the boards to the hull. I didn't have a massive mahogny, so I glued some 4mm mahogny plywood on a 15 mm construction plywood, so it been around 23 mm in total, that will be ok. I also glued a piece of hardwood from an old doorstep I had on the top, and I think the colours will be nice when it is varnished. Pictures when it's all done...