New member from Canada

[DesertAlbin736]

Thanks DesertAlbin,
Our boats are close brothers! Ours is #748! I do not have the full history but I have the original owner manual with a stamp on it which shows the dealer location to be in Rosemère, Québec, near Montréal. The previous owner had it for less than 10 years based near Sorel on the Richelieu. My guess the owner before that used it on the St-Lawrence as it is full equipped for sea cruising (radar,etc). Nice touch, it also has a bow thruster.
First year will be to get accustomed to the boat close to home, i.e. Rideau Canal, Ottawa River, Thousand Islands. Plans for the future certainly include St-Lawrence, Lake Champlain, Hudson, Erie Canal, Lake OntarioTrent-Severn... After that we will see, might need a good trailer and new vehicle then!
I saw somewhere that the Nissan X-Terra V? with tow package could be a good choice to tow. Is your trailer a custom trailer?

Our boat was in Florida before the owners previous to the folks we bought it from had bought from the 3rd previous owner and took it Ontario circa 1992. I don't know about towing with an X-Terra. Maybe OK if you're strictly on flat terrain. But I weighed our boat and trailer on a truck scale and it was 6,850 lbs. That's 3,113 kg. Check your vehicle's rated towing capacity and see if it's within that number. We tow with a 3/4 ton Dodge Ram diesel 4x4, but we're in the West where steep 6% mountain grades are the norm. Remember, it ain't just about getting that trailer rolling. You also have to be able to stop it without the 'tail wagging the dog'.

Having a bow thruster is a nice touch, but I've learned a few tricks and can do pretty well with single screw and judicious use of spring lines. Read the chapter on single screw manuevering in Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship book. There's some good tips there.

I suppose you could call our trailer semi-custom. It was a stock boat trailer sized for our boat with bunks adjusted to fit the hull.

[Louma]

[/quote] We are sailors with a Hunter 36 on the Saint John river. Last winter we sailed to Florida and returned in June. While there we purchased an A-25 Lola Girl as our Florida boat. We were in Gagetown in late summer and saw the article in the local paper about 2 Albins. I presume one was you.
We will be returning to Florida in November to complete some boat projects and returning in December. Our Albin like yours has a porta potty. Our major project is to get rid of it. After much research we are now convinced the composting head is the way to go. Natures head seems to be the best. We would appreciate any further info on your friends installation and perhaps speak to him on his experience. We expect to order the head in the next week or so.
We are very familiar with the A-25 one of our best boating friends purchased one in 1971 from a dealer in Montreal and cruised the Saint John River for 27 years. I trailered the boat for him most years to and from his home and once to Halifax and back. The last 10 years he kept it in Gagetown.[/quote]

Salty Paws,
That's funny...our boat name is "Lady Lola" ! Maybe it is the same Lola as your Lola Girl!
Ours is also a 1971, I think originally also purchased in Montréal. Would be interesting to know your friend's boat hull number.
Louis

[Louma]

Desert Albin, forgot to ask, do you keep your Boatex 8 attached to the stern? if so, no issue with maneuvering ?
BTW, it seems Boatex is out of business, but Walker Bay makes a nice 8' dinghy too.

Yes, we mostly keep the Boatex attached to the swim platform via Weaver snap davits. All this came with the boat when we bought it. Except that when trailering long distances I take if off the davits and load it onto the back of my pickup truck (I devised a system of ramp boards and saw horses and can accomplish the transfer single handed). With the dinghy on the back of the boat it creates a tremendous amount of aerodynamic drag when towing down the roads at highway speeds and is rough on all the hardware. But it's great for getting on and off the dinghy on the water, as you just drop the dinghy into the water with the davits attached, and you can walk around in the dinghy without fear of capsizing while getting situated, then just release the catches and go. And you don't have to worry about the dinghy getting swamped under tow.

For the most part causes no issues with maneuvering, except you have to be careful near the dock as the ends stick out wider than the transom. That's more an issue where you have pilings it can catch on and less with floating docks.

If you didn't mind a slightly smaller dinghy and wanted to stay with a faux lapstrake hard shell, the Montgomery 6-8 pram would be a good choice . If mounted like our Boatex is it wouldn't stick out past the transom as far. But, they are pretty small and a bit tippy and not very suitable for using an outboard.

This boat is still in production out in California.

See that picture of a guy in a Montgomery 15 with tanbark sails on the Montgomery home page? That was me back in 2003 when I owned an M15.

http://www.montgomeryboats.com/

If all goes well we hope to be back up in BC next summer.

Thanks, I think that with all the locks around here I will need to stay with a small inflatable dinghy (ie 6'6'' to 7'). Anyway, no rush to decide, winter is coming...Montgomery looks nice though.
Louis

[Louma]

Thanks DesertAlbin,
Our boats are close brothers! Ours is #748! I do not have the full history but I have the original owner manual with a stamp on it which shows the dealer location to be in Rosemère, Québec, near Montréal. The previous owner had it for less than 10 years based near Sorel on the Richelieu. My guess the owner before that used it on the St-Lawrence as it is full equipped for sea cruising (radar,etc). Nice touch, it also has a bow thruster.
First year will be to get accustomed to the boat close to home, i.e. Rideau Canal, Ottawa River, Thousand Islands. Plans for the future certainly include St-Lawrence, Lake Champlain, Hudson, Erie Canal, Lake OntarioTrent-Severn... After that we will see, might need a good trailer and new vehicle then!
I saw somewhere that the Nissan X-Terra V? with tow package could be a good choice to tow. Is your trailer a custom trailer?

Our boat was in Florida before the owners previous to the folks we bought it from had bought from the 3rd previous owner and took it Ontario circa 1992. I don't know about towing with an X-Terra. Maybe OK if you're strictly on flat terrain. But I weighed our boat and trailer on a truck scale and it was 6,850 lbs. That's 3,113 kg. Check your vehicle's rated towing capacity and see if it's within that number. We tow with a 3/4 ton Dodge Ram diesel 4x4, but we're in the West where steep 6% mountain grades are the norm. Remember, it ain't just about getting that trailer rolling. You also have to be able to stop it without the 'tail wagging the dog'.

Having a bow thruster is a nice touch, but I've learned a few tricks and can do pretty well with single screw and judicious use of spring lines. Read the chapter on single screw manuevering in Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship book. There's some good tips there.

I suppose you could call our trailer semi-custom. It was a stock boat trailer sized for our boat with bunks adjusted to fit the hull.

6850 lbs...I did not think it would be that heavy. X-Terra would not work then, I think its max towing capacity is 6000 lbs. Thanks for the book reference, I will check that.
Louis