Looking for "Leighway"

[11kolive]

My wife and I owned a1970 A25 named Leighway a few years ago. We sold her to someone on Lopez Island in the San Juan's. We were wondering if anyone has seen this boat anywhere recently. it had a stainless radar arch and a hatch over the galley area.

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Thanks,
Keith and Katie Olive

[WillieC]

I will keep my eyes peeled for sure. We will be out again in a couple weeks, only South Sound this time.

Hatch over the galley! I like that!

[11kolive]

WillieC,

Thanks. The hatch was awesome to help alleviate the alcohol,stove fumes and for me to stand up in the galley, 6'2". We switched to methyl hydrate for fuel as per a Canadian recommendation, cheaper, more available and less heavy fumes. Burns a little cooler but not much. Available in hardware store, home despot etc.

We are headed to South Sound tomorrow for a week in our GB. Island Breeze.

[DesertAlbin736]

I love your top photo of Leighway with the kayak on top, and downloaded off Google some time ago & saved in my collection of Albin 25 photos. We also have that same type Advanced Elements tandem kayak. I need to figure some sort of stowage rack like that to carry ours on the roof. The Admiral complains about not being able to take it along. Interesting way to mount a radar.

Of course I recognize the bottom picture too, the dock at Chatterbox Falls, Princess Louisa Inlet, where we were at with our boat a year ago last month. We hope to be back up in the San Juans & Gulf Islands again next year, so we'll watch for it.

I suppose you're wondering where it is now because you miss it and want it back, right?

In any case good to hear from you.

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Hey, wait a minute, I remember, this was you with the almost identical photo in front of the falls?

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[11kolive]

La Dolce Vita,

The radar arch was planned so we could put a kayak or inflatable up there and still have our radar work well. It worked out great! Bending the arches was not too difficult with a tubing blender and then I used stock stainless rail parts to assemble everything. We are seriously looking at A25's to downsize to from our GB 36. Wanted to see a f Leighway was still in the San Juan's to chat with her current owner. This was our favorite cruising boat of all the boats we've owned, a Grand Banks, a Willard 30 and the A 25.

[DesertAlbin736]

This is your Grand Banks "Island Breeze", right?

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Looks like a very nice boat. I'm sorry to read on the Trawler Forum about your reasons for putting the GB up for sale and wanting to go back to a trailerable.

Maybe we should make a deal? We want to come back up to Washington next summer to make our way up to Desolation Sound. We've cruised up in the San Juans & Gulf Islands twice, actually three times if you count a shared San Juan Sailing charter of a Jeanneau 40 sailboat out of Bellingham in 2011, and twice with our own 1971 Albin 25 in 2014 and 2016, last time going as far up as Nanaimo, Pender Harbour & Chatterbox Falls on the Sunshine Coast. Just love it up there! But we weren't able make it to Desolation Sound like we wanted. We'd gladly crew on your GB for a share of expenses if you still had that boat by then and wanted to do something like Desolation Sound. I've been sailing trailerable sailboats in the 25 foot size range since 1998, switching to the Albin in 2014. We've taken our Albin all over the country by trailer, including Erie Canal, Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, the San Juans & Gulf Islands, and our most recent outing last month from Huntington Beach near Los Angeles out to circumnavigate Catalina Island.

We've thought about trying to find an aft cabin trawler in that 34-36 foot size range, like a single screw Albin 36 or CHB 34 or something like that to keep up there as live aboard summer home and cruiser (to escape the torrid Arizona summer heat), but even the costs to wet slip and maintain a boat like that would be a big strain on our budget, let alone initial purchase of anything above the $35K to $40K price range. I wish we could work out some sort of swap deal, but I'm afraid even trading our boat + cash on a boat like yours would be much more than we could afford.

Or, perhaps, and this may sound a bit crazy, if you did sell the Grand Banks, we might be looking for a place to keep our boat up in Washington year round to use during the summer & could work out some sort of boat sharing arrangement if there were a way and place for winter storage.

It would be me and the Admiral

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Here's what our boat looks like:

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[11kolive]

Steve your boat is just awesome! You've done s lot of nice work on her. Looking forward to meeting you one of these days!

[11kolive]

Here are a couple of photos of a folding galley seat I had in Leighway that I built out of Cherry and Quilted Western Maple

[kerrye]

Thanks for that picture of your boat with a kayak on top. It inspired me to do likewise and we've been carrying our 14' Kaboat up there this summer.

[11kolive]

Kerrye, you are welcome. It worked well for us and also carried a 8'6" inflatable when we did not bring the kayak.