Albin 28 TE

[Wink]

I am in the process of down sizing and I am interested in a Albin 28 TE. I would like to know the running angle at cruising speed. My friend has a 32' Nordic Tug and at cruising speed I have to stand up to see because of the running angle. Can you see while sitting in the TW at cruising speed? Is there room enough to add a gen set or inverter/battery bank? I understand that the TE cruises around 17-20 kts at 5 gal per hr. Since the motors are turbo charged can you run at 10-15 knots and save fuel? I have seen these boats on trailers. Can a regular truck pull it out of a launch ramp. How about towing it to another cruising ground? Any information will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[RicM]

With a little use of the trim tabs I find that I can see well over the bow at speed while sitting (I am about 5'11"). Several owners have managed a gen set, so I will let them answer that one. We are on a dock with shore power, so the gen is not a requirement for us. 5 gal/hr at 20 kts is a bit optimistic. There have been RPM/Speed/Galperhour charts posted in this forum elsewhere. Do a search and you will see that indeed, the slower you are willing to go the better mileage you will get.
Trailering has also been discussed at length, and the first impediment is that the 28 (and most other 28' boats) have a 10 ft beam, meaning you need a wide load permit to tow over the road in most states. 8'6" is the legal width limit in most areas of the country.

[Pitou]

At 5'9" hear and a small adjustment with the tabs, which is necessary anyway, no problem seeing over the helm while seated comfortably.

As stated prior ... 5gph at 20 knots is overly optimistic and unrealistic. At 8 gph I push about 18 +/- knots and at 10 gph I push anywhere from 20+ to 22 knots depending upon the seas.

Plenty of room for the other goodies! Beneath the hatch in between the helm and companion seat sits my 4kw Entec 30 amp generator which burns .3 gph under full load. Some 28's were fitted with a 60 gallon auxillary fuel tank in this location and some have an empty bilge. The genset is a nice feature for running the AC to cool the cabin before hitting the berth for the night or a summers dinner below as well as keeping things warm for those early or late season trips. The heat is kind of nice on a fall morning to warm things up if you're cruising and require a shower or to charge those bats if you are staying on the hook/mooring when on the cruise.

Battery banks & inverter ..... I run a pair of 4D's that are more than adequate for this size boats requirements. They are wired to be isolated as House & Start or in parallel. I added an 1800 watt inverter for those times when a quick burst of AC current is desired. You can pack an awful lot of gear and fun in what I call the largest 28 footer on the water.

[mhanna]

I agree with Pintou for fuel usage. I say 8-10G/hour @ ~20Kts seems right. As far as running angle goes it is a little bow up, I find that with just a little tabs it comes down nicely. More important to me is the visibility in between the windows. The stanchions are wide and if you are anywhere that has boat traffic you need to bob your head side to side to look for others.
If I am running any distance I run the radar and keep it close in as it has already put blips on the screen that I did not see first.

Matt

[RicM]

Best accessory ever added to my 28TE was the autopilot. I steer almost 100% by wire. This leaves me free to sit, stand, and move about for the best visibility at all speeds and attitudes.

[mhanna]

And I also agree with Ric about Auto Pilot. You run around by pushing buttons '+- 10 degrees, +- 1 degree' ect... and YES it does give you more freedom to look around, ect..

Its like power windows, you can never go back

Matt

[RicM]

Wink:

What are you running now? Fish or cruise?

[Wink]

Ric, I have a contract on a Gulfstar 44 MC which burns about 4.5 gal/per hr at 8 Knot cruise. I moved on the water about 1 1/2 years ago and docked the boat behind the house. Consequently I do not use it as much. This boat is not a fishing boat. It was used for cruising. I have recently started fishing though and also have a 23.8 Carolina Skiff. I was considering the 28TE to take shorter trips, fish offshoure, downsize and save fuel. A few boats I saw for sale claimed that the boat burned about 5 gal/per hr at 18 knots. This translated to about 4 mpg. From what I read here about 2.5 seems to be more realistic. Seems stange to drop down from 44 ft. to 28 ft. and not see much difference in fuel usage, just more speed.

Wink

[RicM]

I think you may be comparing apples to oranges, that's why I ask. If you are running your 44 at hull speed (about 8.9 kt according to http://www.sailingusa.info/cal__hull_speed.htm) and burning 4.5 gal/hour you need to compare it to the 28TE at hull speed (aka displacement speed) of about 7kts. I have searched for the fuel use curves for the Yanmar 315 that I know are on the forum somewhere. Memory says at hull speed the 28 TE burns about 1.5 G/hour.

[mhanna]

searched for the fuel use curves for the Yanmar 315

http://albinowners.net/aog/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

Towards the bottom.


Matt

[Merry Kate]

Wink -

You will not see 4 nm/gal at this speed with a 28 TE. 17 kts costs close to 10 gal/hr for this hull under real-world conditions (and not averaging in any lower speed running). Still, you'd be hard-pressed to find a boat of this size & weight cruising as solidly at this nice speed for just below 2 nm/gal.

This year I've been slowing down to "trawler mode" a lot, hitting the autopilot & laying back to relax. Have'nt measured fuel burn this way, but bet it's more than 4 nm/gal!

[RicM]

I looked up the Gulfstar 44 MC (I was not familiar) and see that they are trawlers, carrying total HP of around 260. There is a huge difference between a displacement hull and a planing hull in terms of the fuel/speed ratio. Although I could not find any displacement figures, it looks like about twice the boat, and uses about twice the fuel at hull speed. About what I would expect. Try planing a Hydrosport 28 with twin 225 outboards. It'll do 30 kts but cost you 50-60 gal and hour! It's all relative.

[jcollins]

Ric, I have a contract on a Gulfstar 44 MC which burns about 4.5 gal/per hr at 8 Knot cruise. I moved on the water about 1 1/2 years ago and docked the boat behind the house. Consequently I do not use it as much. This boat is not a fishing boat. It was used for cruising. I have recently started fishing though and also have a 23.8 Carolina Skiff. I was considering the 28TE to take shorter trips, fish offshoure, downsize and save fuel. A few boats I saw for sale claimed that the boat burned about 5 gal/per hr at 18 knots. This translated to about 4 mpg. From what I read here about 2.5 seems to be more realistic. Seems stange to drop down from 44 ft. to 28 ft. and not see much difference in fuel usage, just more speed.

Wink

I'm guessing those claims are based on season averages. Look around here for a post called "end of season totals"

Welcome to the group

[stardust-v42]

Ric and Matt

What type of autopilot do you gents have installed. I have an A27 and plan to get something in the spring. Any info you can provide on autopilots would be appreciated

[Wink]

Thanks to everyone for the information. It helps to hear from someone thats not trying to sell a boat. I have not had a boat under 40' for 30 years (except the skiff I just bought) and neither have my friends so it was hard to get accurate information. I know I was sort or comparing apples to oranges. It does however look like the 28 gets about 2mpg at ??18-21 mph where my 44 gets 2mpg at 9.2 mph. Seems I would not save much on fuel, I would just get to my destination faster. However, upkeep would be greatly reduced and insurance should be cut about 50%.