Albin 25 Elansa in the Salish Sea

[DesertAlbin736]

Ran across this bit posted by the owner of an Albin 25 named Elansa under the handle "Dawn Chorus". Doesn't give a real clue to who the owner is or exactly what islands he or she is cruising around, but probably somewhere in BC waters. Elansa was not among any of the BC boats we've met up there. If anyone knows this boat & owner would like to hear.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1 ... Salish-Sea

A google search found this boat was in the Albineers of BC club site at least as far back as 2008 & 2009, at right in the 3rd row on this page.

http://www.albinbc.com/pictures/2008/-a ... lay-photos

It appears the owner from those days was one James Howard Kilborne Elliot, an interesting fellow from Chemainus, BC but who it appears sadly passed away on January 1, 2018.
https://www.chemainusvalleycourier.ca/o ... e-elliott/

[dkirsop]

I haven't come across Elansa but one of the pictures clearly shows Mt. Baker in the background. The only gulf island marina that I know of which has a travelift is Silva Bay Marina on Gabriola island which would correlate well with the swift currents referred to in the article. So my guess is that home port is somewhere between Gabriola and Thetis islands. Thanks for posting the article, I'll keep an eye out when next passing through the area.

[LopezMike]

From the pictures, the marina and bay in question are on Lopez Island in the San Juans.. Fish Bay. The channel and currents mentioned are really not that much of a problem. Home waters for me.

[DesertAlbin736]

From the "Dawn Chorus" post:

We keep our boat on a buoy down at one end of the island and every autumn drive it the eight miles around the island to the one place it can be pulled out of the water for its regular maintenance. Dawn Chorus/Alansa

From the pictures, the marina and bay in question are on Lopez Island in the San Juans.. Fish Bay. The channel and currents mentioned are really not that much of a problem. Home waters for me. Lopez Mike

We spent last 4th of July holiday anchored in Fisherman Bay on Lopez before heading over to Sidney & Gulf Islands. We had spent some time in Roche Harbor & Garrison Bay on SJ Island & decided to go over to Lopez by running down Haro Strait & up Cattle Pass on the off chance of spotting some Orcas. No luck on the Orca sightings, but we ended up at Cattle Pass at the wrong time & was a washing machine of tidal currents with 3 ft waves coming from every direction. Albin 25's can handle rough water but this was ridiculous. So we ran across the channel, rounded Johns Point at the south end of Lopez into Mackaye Harbor & into sheltered Barlow Bay, dropped the hook to wait for the next slack when things calmed down. While there we saw another Albin 25 hanging on a mooring (no one aboard) & don't recall seeing a name on it. Was that Alansa? Don't know. Neglected to take a picture of it. There is an Albin 25 regularly docked in Friday Harbor, but that boat is named "Gladness" with the transom painted green.

Once in Fishermans Bay we did a 3 boat raft up with our Arizona sailboater friends in their O'Day 25 and the Admiral's sister & husband from Oregon in their Bayliner 25 sedan cruiser. Went ashore during the day, to watch the parade from in front of the Islands Marine Center store & shop building, then the fireworks later that night. It's THE place to be on July 4th. Lopez Mike, were you there then? If so, sorry we missed you.

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[LopezMike]

We tend to watch the fireworks and parade from a safe distance. I don't mean physical safety. I mean from the point of avoiding crowds. Lots of drunks from Seattle. Both of us loath cigarette smoke.

Fun little parade though and a fireworks display far out of proportion to the population.

[DesertAlbin736]

If I were fortunate enough to afford a summer home in the San Juans, Lopez village would be at or near the top of my list. That or near Deer Harbor or East Sound on Orcas. Maybe need to find a house share, San Juans in summer, Phoenix in winter

[Elansa]

Greetings from Barlow Bay! I just stumbled across this post and thought I’d confirm your ID of our Albin 25 in the bay. At the time you were taking refuge in Barlow Bay, we were tied up at our buoy there but a couple years ago we sold the buoy and bought a share at R dock in BB since climbing out of a kayak onto the swimstep was getting too much for us at our age. Having a year-round slip in this very protected bay, a quarter mile from our house in the nearby woods, makes it easy to go out at any time.

We are sorry to hear about Jim Elliot's passing. It was evident he was in ill health when we bought Elansa from him and Pamela in Fall 2014 up in Maple Bay (we'd recently sold our sailboat since we were getting too old to manage rigging). They were extremely gracious and clearly loved Elansa, which we could tell by their stories of excursions and also their scrupulous maintenance records.

We cruised back to US waters from Maple Bay (on Vancouver Island) and have been daysailing ever since out of Barlow Bay, summer and winter. We like to putter around the local rocks and islands looking at marine birds and mammals, and just enjoying time on the water. Tidal currents can be extreme but only once have we been thwarted from rounding Whale Rocks at the mouth of Cattle Pass during a flood tide's 7 knot current. Elansa was repowered in 2005 with a brand new 3 cyl VP and she handles most conditions well, although we prefer not to go out in confused seas over 4 feet. But the Salish Sea's inland waters are a delight to cruise most of the time, and with the Albin 25 being so comfortable and solidly built, winter cruises are as pleasant as summer. We've had wonderful times in Elansa over the past eight years, and plan to keep cruising as long as we are able.

Elansa
Albin 25
Built 1973, Hull #1254

[WillieC]

Nice to hear this even this late! We just got back from Chatterbox Falls, one of our two main destinations for this summer’s adventure north. There are a number of A25s out there we have never seen or heard about and we are getting very good at picking them out in a crowded marina or from a distance. And we keep meeting new owners which continues to be a real treat for us.

Hope to meet Elansa one day. We’ll be heading to the South Sound sometime come September. Always a great trip. Which pretty much describes every time we get aboard.

[DesertAlbin736]

We cruised back to US waters from Maple Bay (on Vancouver Island) and have been daysailing ever since out of Barlow Bay, summer and winter.

Perhaps two mysteries solved, the moored boat in Barlow Bay referenced above, and this boat seen in Maple Bay in July, 2014, the year we first took ownership of our boat & our first foray into the Gulf Islands.

We've always wondered about this boat. Could it have been Elansa? Click on photo to zoom in & you can read the BC registration number. Then again comparing photos perhaps not. The one in Maple Bay had bow & stern rails & yours does not. Also looked no "BC hardtop".

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[Elansa]

Interesting there’d be two A25s in Maple Bay right then, or I should say 3, at least! I doubt the one you pictured is Elansa, both for the reasons you mention and because it’s tied up at an outside dock. The former owners of Elansa kept her moored in a covered dock slip. Those are favored sites that have long waiting lists and I can’t imagine someone not using it if they had one. That’s where we examined the boat that day, and she was in excellent condition. She had no pulpit, nor holes for one - Elansa is a standard version not the deluxe. However there was an A25 deluxe in the slip right next to Elansa. Also in very good condition. Albins are clearly very popular up there in BC.

After we completed the purchase, we motored over to transient moorage to spend the night (in the boat) and then cruised back to Lopez the next day. It’s so beautiful up there in the Gulf islands, we’ve been tempted to return for a few days. I remember a truly gigantic flock of Bonaparte’s gulls we passed along the way. We really like the hardtop - protection from sun and wind, and a solid anchor for the canvas, important in keeping out the river otters haha.

[DesertAlbin736]

It’s so beautiful up there in the Gulf islands, we’ve been tempted to return for a few days.

You ain't seen the half of it. A few days? You need a few weeks!

[DesertAlbin736]

Friends of ours from Flagstaff, AZ are on their boat up in the San Juans all this month. As of yesterday they were anchored in Wescott Bay on San Juan. They're on a double ended Southern Cross 31 cutter named "Sea Dragon". If you see or hear them on the VHF say hi.

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