Any Beta 38’s in A25’s?

[11kolive]

Does anyone is happen to have a Beta 38 in their A25? Wondering about repowering an A25 and a Beta 38 is one of the candidates. Would love to hear from anyone that has done this.

[WillieC]

Not personally, still have the MD17C. I had an interesting chat with a BCAlbineer guy who was concerned that a number of folks are repowering with too small engines. Sure, the book says you can push these hulls with 20HP, but nobody loads their boat like that. Same with trailers. You need the full load weight in your calculations. And, it is nice to have that extra power when you (rarely) need it. Fuel consumption? Pfft.. One of the smaller considerations in these boats. Anchor out one night instead of tying up at a marina and you've offset the fuel difference for a whole boating season. Then again, you don't need a 75 HP turbo either. The same BC gentleman did that and cruised at 14 kts. Fuel tank size then became his issue. Balance, people, balance!

The boat Skol in Seattle has my attention, like I need another project. It has the Yanmar 3JH4E, 39HP, perfect. But not fully installed. If the boat is good, and you don't mind paying someone to finish it correctly, could be a screaming deal.

Bigger is better to a point. Beta 38 sounds good to me.

[dkirsop]

I think the first question should be whether your hull is the original displacement hull or the later deluxe version. The original displacement hull is going to be limited to 7knots max. The later deluxe version flattened the aft portion of the hull to generate lift and increase the speed at which you can comfortably cruise - somewhere in the range of 8 to 10 knots.

I have the original hull and AD21 motor which produces 21hp. I typically cruise at 1800 rpm at 6.0 - 6.5 knots and have not had any issues. In my case there would be zero advantage to a higher horsepower motor.

The other thing to be aware of is the duty rating of the motor. My motor is rated as a constant duty motor which means it can run continuously at full throttle without any harm except to my fuel consumption. A lot of newer motors are light to medium duty rated which means they are intended to mostly run and 1/2 to 3/4 throttle. You may find that a motor rated at 38 HP is only meant to be operated at 25 HP for most of its life cycle. Be sure you clarify this with the manufacturer.

Good hunting.

[Beta Don]

Any hull, displacement or not, can be pushed to most any speed, given enough horsepower . . . . and a fuel tank large enough to make it to the next fuel stop

The A25 has a 22' 2" waterline length which gives it a theoretical hull speed of 6.3 knots. You can do 7 or 8 or even 10 if you have 100 hp or so *and* a gear reduction and prop which can couple that much power to the water

You can compute the power needed to move your hull to it's hull speed by carefully monitoring it's fuel consumption over a couple hour period cruising at hull speed in flat water. I did this a couple times on a 34' sailboat I used to own and it would do hull speed (in calm water) with only 9 hp. Thank goodness it had 27 hp available because several times in poor conditions, I needed all of that . . . . and a little bit more would have been nice

In my unprofessional opinion, 35 to 40 hp in an A25 would be very nice to have from time to time. You can always use 1/3rd of that most of the time and enjoy great fuel savings, but when the need arises, you will never regret having that extra available *if* you get the boat correctly propped so you can actually make use of that extra. There are many boats with big engines which can only deliver a fraction of their power to the water and in that case, it's just a waste

Don

[DesertAlbin736]

Agree with Dave & Don. Previous to "going over to the Dark Side" with the purchase of our Albin I owned a wing keel Catalina 25 sailboat, of similar waterline length and actually a bit heavier displacement with its 1,750 lb keel than the A25. Our A25 plus trailer tipped the truck scale at 6,580 lbs. The Catalina on its trailer weighed 8,300 lbs. It had a long shaft 8 HP Tohatsu outboard with "power prop" that easily pushed it to 6+ knots in flat calm water. Our sailing friends that we often cruise with have an O'Day 25 sailboat of similar size & slightly less displacement & is powered by a 16 HP Yanmar 2GM10 with Saildrive prop (like an outdrive except fixed in place directly under the hull & not steerable or retractable) and they can hit hull speed under power. Of course if he feels a breath of wind on his neck that engine gets turned off.

If we lived closer to coastal waters & didn't need to do long distance trailering I'd probably still have that sailboat, or perhaps a bigger inboard diesel sailboat like a Catalina 30.

In any case a good source of info is Joe DeMers at Sound Marine Diesel in Connecticut. He's done repower jobs installing 25 HP Beta engines in Albin 25's. Note that Joe mentions repowering an early model A25, i.e. not the "Deluxe" version. Like ours & dkirsop's, those pre-1973 boats did not have the "semi-displacement" flared bottom near the stern and as such are full displacement. Later "Deluxe" versions could make some use of higher horsepower, as Albin themselves switched from 21HP AD21 engine to 36 HP MD3B & MD17C Volvos as OEM. Our 3GM30F is continuous rated at 24 HP.

http://soundmarinediesel.com/Albin25Repower.shtml

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[CharlesR]

I know this is an old thread, but yes I have an Albin 25 which was re-engined with a Beta 38 a few years ago. In my opinion it is a good combination especially for the strong tides in our area (west wales, UK).