PugetAlbin

[PugetAlbin]

Hi -
My boat partner and I bought Mana Kai, a 1972ish Albin 25, and brought it down from Victoria to Seattle last year, where we are moored in Portage Bay by the University of Washington. This is our third boat over the last dozen years or so and the first foray out of sailing. We finally gave in to a few realities, like Puget Sound currents and prevailing winds make it difficult to really sail much when most of our time is quick weekend cruises.

Mana Kai had a talented previous owner and features a great T-style aluminum hardtop, a really beautifully renovated electrical system, LED light upgrades, hydraulic steering, a propane cabin heater, and a well cared for AD-21 that keeps chugging along... so far, at least.

We sacrificed the last 6 months of actually using the boat much, and have ambled along with redoing the forward and aft cabin windows, upgraded the VHF to an VHF+AIS/GPS receiver integrated with Coastal Explorer nav software on old Surface Pro tablet, replaced the failed ancient original auxiliary eberspracher diesel heater with a new airtronic, painted the bottom, replaced the original thruhull valves, and did a prophylactic cutlass bearing replacement. A new airhead toilet is going in now, and then maybe a sitex autopilot, and at that perhaps we'll call it quits with the major upgrades for a while and spend more time underway.

While it seems like every boat project is some kind of buddhist lesson (usually like "Expectations are the Source of All Sorrow") I continue to dream of a project someday where a more enlightenment, mechanistic philosophy prevails, like "Good reconnaissance is never wasted," or "Fortune aids the Prepared." I look forward to hints from you all to sustain that dream. And, happy to share the meagre knowledge we've gained so far.

Cheers - Nate

[WillieC]

Welcome aboard. So good to hear of a good home for a fine boat. We are out on Hood Canal with our two hour engine to be upgraded this winter. But we still get out. Can't start the project with this weather!
Cheers!

[DesertAlbin736]

Welcome aboard! Yes, I've seen pictures of that boat on the Albineers of BC site in their "Albins at Rest and Play" pages.

I'm jealous oaf all those goodies! I need to replace my ancient VHF that doesn't even get weather channels, let alone DSC or anything else. Will have to check into that AIS/GPS receiver option. Right now I have the free AIS app on my smart phone, and a Garmin gpsMap 76CX that can link to a VHF with DSC/Rescue 21 capability, but not all that built into a VHF unit.

Well, if winter comes along and you get a itch for boating in warm weather, there's always Lake Pleasant down here near Phoenix. Just an easy 1,500 mile trailer sailor road trip away. The weather you have in June, July, and August we have from November on, minus most of the rain.

[Treeman]

Welcome! I love my AD21. I just reinstalled it after a rebuild and it is smooth as a baby's bottom. At this point it will probably outlast me.

[whwells]

Nate: Welcome to the AOG. Sounds like you and your partner found one of the special boats from BC. We do have an active Pac. NW Albin Group. Hoping you will want to become involved.
whwells "Howard"
36 Express Trawler 2005

[WillieC]

Nate,

If it is not too impertinent, how bad was the import/duty/customs rigmarole? The Previous previous owner also brought our boat down from God's Country and US Customs was trying to nail him for importation from Sweden!

Just revisited the Mana Kai info on BC Albineers....WOW! Now I remember why that name caught my eye. I gotta see that aluminium (BC spelling) top! Now how can I modify my fibreglas top?

[PugetAlbin]

We did the import at Anacortes. In the end it wasn't too terrible, but certainly took many, many hours webbing around to nail down the exact applicable laws and the most reasonable strategy, for both buyer and seller, which ultimately imposed many constraints on how we actually transferred the boat. I have mostly exiled it all from my memory, but i believe the key technical points were like: The age of the original engine made it exempt from engine environmental standards, and a.we did the transaction in canada, but b.took delivery outside Canadian waters, and c. had to arrive into US customs for the first time with both new and previous owner on board. Under those conditions (if i recall them correctly - don't use this as advice!) the import fees i think were very little, i think it was under $500. The myriad clarifying questions they asked suggested that maybe the laws are so complicated that different agents on different days could understandably arrive at different fees. And, it definitely took took a few hours. So... definitely a whole lot more rigamarole than buying in the US, but not impossible.

[WillieC]

Yeah,

" that different agents on different days could understandably arrive at different fees. "

I get that. Back in the day, I went to college in the Lower Mainland, regularly traveling back and forth across the border. It was easy back then. My roommate and I hatched a scheme to buy cases of soda in Bellingham and then sell them in our dorm back in Canada for a tidy profit. All went well until one time the border agent asked some impertinent questions about the load in the back of my VW bug under the blankets. Doing our best Alfred E. Newman impressions proved fruitless. The customs agent couldn't figure out exactly which tariff to impose so he treated the whole load as though it were alcohol. And then they discovered that the VIN didn't match my registration on the VW. Ah, the education one receives in college. Priceless.