Albin Vega 27 - Possible Renovation - Delamination Concern...

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by thomm225

It never stops does it?

Folks commenting on what they have no knowledge of.

My experience with boats goes back over 50 years or so and 20 years before I bought my first beach cats for racing.

I bought my first boat at age 16 (early 70's) in Wachapregue, VA.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wa...bDdk?entry=ttu

I bought this boat on seaside, the ocean side. I'm from a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. (Eastern Shore of Virginia)

Towing this boat the 8-10 miles to the Bay side to launch, one of the rims on the trailer disintegrated. So we had to go "borrow" a rim.

After launching, the engine overheated out in the bay and seized up.

So to get back, we'd let it cool then start and run it until it seized again. We repeated this to get back to the ramp. We replaced the impeller later.

On this day my training on boats, motors, and trailers had started.

I paid $300 for this 16' Chincoteague Scow, 40 HP Johnson Outboard, and rusty trailer.

5 or so other old power boats followed. All 14'-17'

The sailing started in the early 1980's, and I'm still sailing today.

I know quite a bit about boats which is probably why my $2,000 Bristol 27 was a good investment.

It had good bones, was well built, and came with tons of equipment. Two sets of anchors, rode and chain, depth finder, GPS (2), dodger, autopilot, newish jib, compass, VHF Radio, usable running rigging, mast rigging adequate, etc, etc.

When buying an old boat, there is no substitute for experience.

I stand corrected:

On the other hand, if you want an expert in buying and sailing 5-meter Hobie/Nacra beach cats boats, Thomm225 is your guy.

Apologies.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I stand corrected:

On the other hand, if you want an expert in buying and sailing 5-meter Hobie/Nacra beach cats boats, Thomm225 is your guy.

Apologies.

Not an expert, but a guy with quite of bit of experience that can give some advice on the problems and costs involved when trying to resurrect an old boat.

As we see on here most every day, there are very few experts.

There are many with lots of experience though but in different aspects of boating/sailing/cruising.

I'm an electronics/computer tech by trade and know enough about engines to be dangerous. This experience also comes in handy with boats.

When I bought that first boat at age 16, I was already on my third car. Old cars are similar in some ways to old boats except if your car/vehicle breaks down, you can get out and walk home.

[thomm225]

As far as the OP's $500 boat, I see no instruments as in radio, depth, GPS.

No complete cushions for the settee and probably V Berth as well.

Anchors? Rode? Chain? Sails? Engine? Rigging Condition? Running Rigging? Lights?

I did see rusty battery cable terminals which isn't the best sign of other stuff.

It is important to get some idea as to what it will cost to get an old boat going again besides just the fiberglass repairs.

I have yet to do any structural repairs on my Good Old Boat but will soon have to deal with a small soft spot in the cockpit.

Costs can be endless once you start resurrecting an old boat though, as compared to a ready-to-go 27' Sailboat for $4,000 - $5,000.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by thomm225

As far as the OP's $500 boat, I see no instruments as in radio, depth, GPS.

No complete cushions for the settee and probably V Berth as well.

Anchors? Rode? Chain? Sails? Engine? Rigging Condition? Running Rigging? Lights?

I did see rusty battery cable terminals which isn't the best sign of other stuff.

It is important to get some idea as to what it will cost to get an old boat going again besides just the fiberglass repairs.

I have yet to do any structural repairs on my Good Old Boat but will soon have to deal with a small soft spot in the cockpit.

Costs can be endless once you start resurrecting an old boat though, as compared to a ready-to-go 27' Sailboat for $4,000 - $5,000.

Read the OP. First, he already owns the boat. Your advice is geared towards someone who is considering the boat.

Second, not only didn't the OP ask for general advice, but asked very specific guidance on fiberglass repair in a keep area.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Read the OP. First, he already owns the boat. Your advice is geared towards someone who is considering the boat.

What?

Are you awake yet?

Here is the start of the OP.

_________________________________________

Hello,

My name is Joe and I am considering buying a nearly free ($500) Albin Vega 27 (#838, actually) as essentially a full restoration project

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by thomm225

What?

Are you awake yet?

Here is the start of the OP.

_________________________________________

Hello,

My name is Joe and I am considering buying a nearly free ($500) Albin Vega 27 (#838, actually) as essentially a full restoration project

Yep. You're correct total brain fart on my part.

I stand by the rest of my post. You're the right guy for beach cars.

[thomm225]

To the OP, when I bought my boat (1974 Bristol 27) in 2011, I found a good site about a guy doing the same thing to his Bristol 27 but a total restoration.

He had started his restoration before I bought my Bristol 27.

I did the basics to get mine in the water and was sailing it within 3 weeks.

I think the guy I mentioned about is either still restoring or has given up.

Here is his site. He had tons of detail and info on his site.

https://www.bristol27.com/category/projects

But I don't think he is sailing the boat yet. If he is, I missed where he launched it.

Lastly, the expert I have depended on for boat buying and getting my boat decent is James Baldwin of Atomvoyages.com.

He has restored quite a few boats, and you can see them on youtube.

A good piece of his advice is:

A final word of advice to the novice sailor – resist the temptation to undertake a major refit and extensive modifications on your new old boat right at the start. It’s best to make only the obvious repairs needed and go out and sail locally and on some limited coastal passages to learn exactly what is and what is not needed for you. Otherwise you may end up spending years and many thousands of dollars more than expected modifying your boat and then find out on your first ocean crossing that the boat is not right for you or those great ideas you had during the refurbishment did not work out that well at sea.


The above from this article. He does list the Albin Vega 27 as a good boat, but you need a decent one to start.

https://atomvoyages.com/classic-smal...ers-list-html/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnQU1c2qx4c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6h-P_IZZn0

[thomm225]

Lastly, a sailing buddy of mine recently bought a beautiful Alberg 30 for under $3,000 basically ready to sail and in much better shape than my boat.

He was one lucky guy and had owned 2 Alberg 30's in the past. (He rebuilt one of his Albergs also then sold it.

He then sold his old Seafarer 34 for $2,500 which was sailable and in the water at the same marina. The diesel on it still working.

I was in the yard at the time redoing the bottom on my boat and topside paint.

He is a member here on CF as well.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Yep. You're correct total brain fart on my part.

I stand by the rest of my post. You're the right guy for beach cars.

I have no beach cars.

Btw, I sold my last beach cats a Nacra 6.0 and Nacra 17 in 2006. So, it's been a while since I sailed one. And that was when I still lived in Florida.

I was still pretty young back then. Today, I don't know how long I could stay out on the trapeze since I'm nearing 70 years old.

Besides, beach cats wouldn't work to well on the lower Chesapeake Bay on many days as it is just too rough down here.

The new racing beach cats mostly all have lifting boards these days, and that is a whole new ball game.

They can hit speeds above 40 knots as compared to the 26 knots or so we used to hit on ours back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MYCvLdejAo

[thomm225]

Last point, a quick check on Craigslist revealed this 1968 Columbia 34 with running diesel for $3,500.

https://norfolk.craigslist.org/boa/d...765261539.html

Just an example of what you might be able to find.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by thomm225

It never stops does it?

Folks commenting on what they have no knowledge of.
When buying an old boat, there is no substitute for experience.

Thomm.. Plenty of experience buying old boats..
I have owned 12 Mono's and 2 cats since 1985 all of which I have sailed a lot further than 50 miles from base.
From 21ft to 39ft... from $500 to $60000.
You have the Chesapeake, I had the English Channel and the Atlantic, Med and Caribe.

[thomm225]

Nice.

I’m still working so can’t sail away too far just yet.

Thankfully though I do have the 200 miles of Chesapeake Bay with its 11,700 miles of shoreline plus the Atlantic Ocean to choose my weekend and vacation destinations from.

Sailed about an 80 mile trip last weekend up to Mobjack Bay and the Severn River.

Just paid off the old house recently and put a new roof on it so won’t be long now until retirement.

I probably won’t stay too long when sailing South though since I already spent 12 Summers in the Florida heat racing and sailing.

Some say you can cruise the Chesapeake Bay for a lifetime and never see it all.

Good thing I have my boat though since my ex lives at the house also!!

[rognvald]

Some thoughts TGK,
1.) Before committing, I would want to drill a couple holes and inspect the problem areas in the keel with a borescope. This will give you very important info.
2.) If it doesn't have functional sails, you'll be spending +/- $1500. for used sails and $4-5K for new.
3.) What the status of the standing rigging and terminal connections? This could also be a major expense in the thousands even if you do your own swaging.
4.) If the diesel is junk, what's your option for power? How much?
5.) This is a pure project boat. How long do you want to wait before sailing?
For me, it's worth zero and if the owner is paying monthly storage for a junk boat, a bottle of booze and a handshake should seal the deal. How much will you have to pay for storage? What will you have in the boat when finished? How much will the boat be worth then? I'd opt to pay a few thousand for a boat in better shape. You'll be way ahead of the game. Good luck!
Rognvald

[Island Time O25]

Unless you're unemployed with no prospects of a job it would be cheaper and time saving to get a $5-10k 27' boat which you can sail from day one. I went through what you are proposing to do with my first boat - a 27footer for $400.00. It needed a lot of work and equipment. Which made it much more expensive in the long run. The only positive was tons of experience accumulated in 4-5 years that I owned her. From fiberglass work to outboard repairs and everything in between. But today I would spend $5-10k on a turn key boat of that size and not waste months (in fact a full year in my case) getting her in decent enough shape to splash.

[thomm225]

If I had it to do over again, I'd probably go for something like this Tartan 30 for first monohull.

It does have the Atomic 4 Gas Engine, but they are very simple 4 cylinder engines and easy to work on.

They were in 1000's of boats back in the day, and Moyers Marine still supports and rebuilds them.

Tartan 30; asking $5,000.


https://easternshore.craigslist.org/...774284523.html