Quest for an A25 is over

[DesertAlbin736]

How many other vessels did you encounter on that canal trip? The public docks at Waterloo don't look heavily used and when I was in Lockport last fall it didn't look as though anyone had stayed in the public marina there for months--docks covered with goose shit.

Traffic on the canals, both the Cayuga-Seneca and the main Erie Canal, was very light. This was early in the season, May 30th to June 4th. Would seem like a short cruise on the canal for such a long road trip from Arizona, but the Canal was only part of our summer and we had some time constraints to factor in on our schedule. We couldn't leave home before May 22nd because one of our grandchildren was graduating from high school on May 21st and we were due to be in Rhode Island by June 6th where we had been invited to spend the week of the 6th to the 14th at our friend's beach house near Westerly, RI. Beyond that, in addition to stopping for a couple days in my old home town on the Jersey Shore and ending up in Delaware for a couple weeks going down the Nanticoke River and cruising the Chesapeake meant it would be way out of our way to come back to NY for more canal on the way home.

We probably passed no more than half a dozen boats going the opposite direction on the canals, and in only one of 22 lock transits did we share a lock with another boat, and that was one of those bareboat charter barges. I would say the largest number of boats we saw tied up at any one town dock was at Fairport, the Westernmost stop on the canal before turning around to head back to our launch point at Seneca Lake State Park.

As noted in an earlier post on this thread we did meet & greet with the owner of that one other Albin 25 "Flika" at the Mid Lakes Marina in Macedon, the only other Albin 25 we spotted anywhere during our East coast trip. That was a nice boat. He had a hard top over the back half of the cockpit, sliding side windows in the wheel house, and had done the same thing I just got finished doing on our boat, that is moving the batteries from alongside the engine box to the locker under the starboard bench seat and installing a larger holding tank under the helm station floorboard where the batteries had been.

[NickScheuer]

Congrats, kerrye! We got our Albin-25 just 4 years ago.

We cruised up to Desolation Sound 6 or 7 years ago in our 28' Shearwater Yawl (sailboat prior to the Albin), trailering the boat to Madiera, BC from Rockford, IL. The ramp at Maderia was suggested by an internet friend on Vancouver Is. It has much more to offer for an Albin-25 than the ramp we saw at Lund. Lund was a very nice stop on our way along "the Sunshine Coast", but the ramp certainly did not seem very substantial.

Maderia also offers a location convenient for circling Texada Is.

We want to return in the Albin, someday.

[kerrye]

There's a ramp in Lund and also one across the peninsula at a provincial campground. We watched someone pull out an F-24 at Lund and looked at the ramp at the provincial campground. The one at the campground had a pretty large parking lot for trailers just across the road. Not many services at the campground--a few small dock. But it's a more protected location from which to launch since it's on a narrow bay with good anchorages immediately available. Lots of sea kayakers launch from that campground I think. There's a sea kayak outfitter just up the road from it.

I seem to remember reading some years ago on a net about a trip you took with the Shearwater to the North Channel. Is that correct? We've been sailing there the last couple of years in our F-24.

[DesertAlbin736]

Nick & Kerry,

So interesting that many ex-sailboaters are drawn to Albin 25's as we were. We still like sailboats, but mast raising on boats like our last sailboat, which was a Catalina 25, was just getting to be too much. We don't like being confined to one single area either, and certainly didn't want a gas guzzling cabin cruiser that gets 1 or 2 MPG, nor could we afford a high five figure to low six figure pocket trawler like a Ranger 25 or Nordic Tug, nor a C-Dory 25 like one of our club friends has, so Albin 25 was a logical choice.

Speaking of Desolation Sound, that is our main destination for this summer's adventure. However we plan to put in at Bellingham, spend a week in the San Juans, then work our way up through the Gulf Islands with stops in Poet's Cove on S. Pender Island, Telegraph Harbour on Thetis, and finally Nanaimo on Vancouver Island before crossing the Strait of Georgia. We have lots of free time, and our boat gets as good or better fuel mileage on the water as our truck does towing over the road. And Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham offers free patrolled vehicle and trailer parking as long as you check in with the harbormaster first.

I know crossing the Strait of Georgia can be daunting, but if we get an early start on a calm day we can hopefully beat the Northwesterly sea breezes and steep chop that kick up in the afternoons. From Nanaimo we go to Secret Cove, then an anchorage on or near Hardy Island, then Lund, then Desolation.

Nick, your name sounds familiar. By chance have you ever followed postings on the Trailersailor forum back in the early 2000s?

[kerrye]

Yes, lots of us trailer sailors fall into the category of 'cheap bastards' We've never owned a motorboat before and have been attracted to the Ontario canals for years. My in-laws used to live in Peterborough where the Trent-Severn has the lift locks and then they lived near the Rideau with its delightful terminus in Ottawa.
We are still sailing, just branching out a little. We are pretty active canoeists and kayakers also.

[Chris G]

Hello Kerrye,
Congratulations on your boat. Hope your restoration projects are going well.
I have a couple of questions, if I may. You said that you moved the raw water filter and fuel filter. Where to? I am in the process of doing the same (plus 100 other things!). My problem is, that according to the instructions, my raw water filter has to be 15cms above the waterline. I did want to place it on the wooden cross beam under the floor but that would be too low.
All the best
Chris

[DesertAlbin736]

Hej Chris G,

When we first bought our 1971 A25 three years ago we had trouble getting the raw water pump to prime when launching after the boat had been out of the water. The problem was this old bronze strainer with polycarbonate sight glass that came with the boat, which apparently had gotten cracked, probably from freezing.

Sea Strainer 001.jpg

I replaced it with a plastic Vetus strainer like this, which as you can see in this photo is mounted as high as possible on the aft bulkhead of the rear-most bilge section above the prop shaft packing gland. The main difference being that the water enters and leaves the strainer through the bottom, not from the sides at the top like the old one. We have had no trouble with it ever since. We trailer in and out of the water each time we go boating and keep our boat in dry storage on the trailer in between, so we always make sure to close the though hull inlet valve right before we haul out to keep the line full of water. Naturally you'd have to drain the system for winterizing, but we live in a warm climate that rarely drops below freezing. The bonus is that it's easy to clean out the strainer, just unscrew the top cap, unlike having to disassemble the old bronze strainer. The black hose is the inlet and the red hose is the outlet. Also visible in this picture is the electric diaphragm bilge pump at upper right, and the manual backup bilge pump at lower left.

DSCN1991.JPG

[kerrye]

I don't have a picture of where I moved the raw water filter but it is on the other side from where DesertAlbin's is mounted on that back bulkead under the rear floorboard in the cockpit. It's not above the waterline as far as I can tell, probably right at the waterline. I moved my fuel filter into that same compartment to make it more easily accessible. It was under the engine cover beside the motor when I bought it and difficult to access.

[kerrye]

I also added a T in the intake line to the raw water filter between the thru hull and the filter with a valve in it. I did it so I can suck in coolant thru the raw water filter for winterizing but also it can be used to pump out the bilge with the motor should the normal bilge pump be lacking.

[Chris G]

Hello Kerrye and DesertAlbin,

Thanks mates for the excellent descriptions and photographs.

The idea of putting a T in the intake line to use as a back-up bilge pump is a great idea.

I too have bought a Vetus (FTR 330). There's a coincidence! I was wondering about where I could place it, that was both high enough and accessible enough. Although the instructions state that it should be installed above the waterline, I don't think that it makes much difference when there is a valve below it, other than the filter can be cleaned without closing the valve. I was considering putting it inside the mahogany-front locker beside where the fridge is (above the fuel tank) as a last resort.

By the way, I'm sorry if I've hijacked your thread Kerrye!

Thanks again

[WillieC]

"mounted on that back bulkead under the rear floorboard in the cockpit."

Now that I am preparing to commence to get ready for installing my refreshed MD17C, I am starting to pay attention to all these little improvements that can make a big difference. I will examine my real estate under the floorboards and see if I can incorporate your re-location of the strainer and filter, precisely because of the pain to access them as is. My Vetus strainer is wedged halfway between the fuel tank and shaft seal compartment, a Major Pain Diaz (thank you Click and Clack.)

Thanks for sharing all your work with us, Kerry. Now unwrap that thing and get it in the water! Oh, wait. It is still winter there.