Gravy Boat, Custom Albin 25

[Yobarnacle]

Thanks, Pogo!

 

[Yobarnacle]

I mentioned in an earlier post, I salvaged and cutout FRP pieces from hulks doomed to the landfill.
Perhaps I should have documented that with more photographs.

Perusing the photos in my archive, I find only a few showing the harvesting and the assembly of different pieces into more useful shapes.
And only two that won't require a lot of explaining, and a lot of imagination on the readers part, to understand.
Mea culpa!

Here are the two examples I can explain:
All the original plywood in 'GRAVY' was severely deteriorated and much appeared only as piles of autumn leaves on the cabin sole. The plywood was completely delaminated into small crumbled thin veneer pieces.
Even the relatively intact were fragile and missing corners and had eroded edges.

'INTREPIDOS' interior was only slightly better condition. 'INTREPIDOS' was built in '71 and 'GRAVY' in '69.

On the other-hand, the fiberglass in these boats was/is excellent!

My conclusion, replace ALL wood with time tested fiberglass.
Fortunately, I had access to a friend's dozen hulks being stripped of parts and lead ballast, where the fiberglass was a disposal expense. Any fiberglass I wanted was less weight at the landfill scales, and I had the owner's blessing.

First picture, is the forward bulkhead.
In background you can see a large chunk of the side of a large cruiser missing the cutout.
Then the original plywood from 'INTREPIDOS', and in front, the fiberglass new bulkhead (with a couple modifications) for 'GRAVY'.

The modifications include a different sized access aperture in the bulkhead, and some horns on top.
Those horns accommodate the underside of an anchor locker on the foredeck.
If you noticed what looks like a hawsepipe on the port bow just above the "NOSE", in the earlier post, that is the drain for the anchor locker, which isn't really an anchor locker, but...More about THAT later.

 

[Yobarnacle]

All endeavors and all problems need analytical thinking before action.

What do I want in the interior accommodations?
Several comfortable places to sit. More than just that, but that's not a bad start.
so, define comfortable?
Architectural students in the best of those schools try to design a 'comfortable' chair, as one of their design projects.
Do you have a favorite chair? Is it the most popular chair? Or do other family members have their OWN favorites?
Beginning to see the problem, huh? Not exactly a simple problem, nope.

 

[Yobarnacle]

Self preservation. Don't try to solve all the worlds problems. It's TOO much for me, so guests will have to make do with whatever seating I provide.
Self preservation axiom one!
A happy wife is a happy life.
Model a chair after HER favorite chair, situated where she wil most likely choose to sit.
All the dimensions and angles are unimportant to the readers. Ya'll ain't married to my wife.
Suffice to say, I cut out some appropriate parts, like a weird 3D jigsaw puzzle and began glassing them together.
This is a picture of the project during process.
The chair is finished and installed, and you'll see it when I show the accommodations.
This post and the previous two, are about salvaging fiberglass from wrecks.

Stay tuned!

 

[Yobarnacle]

I might as well go a bit deeper into planning accommodations, my plans anyway.
The original accommodations for the Albin 25, as I perceive it, must of been intended to attract wives, so they'd allow their husbands to buy the boat.

A GREAT waste of space resulted.
There was a standup galley and a standup shower/head in the best part of the main cabin, where the headroom is 6'1".
That is fine on the showroom floor.
Dangerous at sea.
The greatest hazard on any size vessel, is slips, trips, and falls.
Especially aboard a 25 ft boat, people need to be sitting down or lying down, never standing around.
A standup shower with a soap slippery deck, and eyes squeezed shut to keep out the suds, is foolishness on such a tiny craft! And in the best space in the cabin?

The safest place to shower aboard a small craft, like the Albin 25, would be seated in a bath tub and :idea: bath tubs , many, are designed to recline in while you soak!

Discussed my wife's favorite chair. She likes to sit at a large table, which she uses as a desk and vanity. Also it keeps her coffee cup and the coffee pot near to hand.
My favorite is a recliner!
Always, it gets reclined the instant I sit down. It might as well have been rigidly constructed in the reclined position.

Difficult to defend the use of space for a large reclining chair in such limited quarters, but if it was multifunctional, and wifey would want to use it too?
OK! MY chair could be a fiberglass bath tub !
AND :idea: I know exactly where to put it!
I'm not going to be reclining below when underway, and my wife won't need much convincing not to bathe when underway.
It can go in the MOST uncomfortable part of the boat when underway!
Where the vee berths normally go.
'GRAVY' has an aft sleeping cabin.
Don't need and wouldn't use the vee berths. Why have them?
I think I can justify my recliner! tralala lala!

And I'll leave ya'll imagining me greeting guests, sitting fully clothed in the main cabin, in a bath tub.
"Come on in! Sit down! Sorry there's only one bath tub recliner."
Ya'll must be rolling about on the floor holding your sides, trying to get your breath. ROFLMAO!

I'm cool with that.
If I have to endure some ribbing and laughter at my expense, in order to have my recliner? Cheap at the price!
Stay tuned!

 

[Yobarnacle]

Viking called it skunk works. well, if you compare the current silhouette of 'GRAVY" to when I first got her, she does look more streamlined!

Don't she?

 

[Yobarnacle]

I didn't like that lower windshield on the bow. Considered it dangerous, and a solar heater in the summer.
So, I extended the cabin with a piece of foredeck (included an anchor locker) from a wreck.
The sides of the extension were cut from cockpit coamings on the same wreck.
All glassed together after I cut out the appropriate hole in MY foredeck.
I moved the original foredeck hatch to my cabin top.
Added an eyebrow over, to shade the pilot house windshield. That too, was a 3D jigsaw puzzle of different pieces of wrecks.
And with the ram nose, she looks like she's ready to FLY!

That anchor locker in the bow, ain't.

Away from a dock, the water hose and shore power cable are stored in that bow deck locker.
When on shore power, an air conditioner sits in that locker with the lid canted up over it.
That big drain low on port bow, drains the locker, whether from spray/rain leaking in, or condensation from the A/C unit.
It AIN'T an anchor locker anymore!

 

[Yobarnacle]

The actual waterline will split that ram-nose in the middle along it's side.
The bottom paint originally came up the hull to a painted line that high, as you can see in post 1.
I decided to paint the bottom color all the way up to the chine. No taping required.
Improved the streamlining appearance, at least on stands.
Might not look so good when she's afloat. I'll wait and see.

Anyway, that ain't bottom paint on the bottom.
It's 27$ a gallon 1 part polyurethane Floor paint from the __________Depot.
Just as good as the 50$ a quart marine polyurethane paint, IMO.
Well, I don't need antifouling paint. Just wax.
My boat is a trailersailor! Both of em!
I can haul her out and scrub the bottom as often as I like, for a couple dollars to use the boat launch ramp.
Antifouling is expensive, and you have to sand the bottom before re-applying!
NO THANKYOU!
Sanded 'GRAVY's bottom once, and that's enough for MY lifetime! If she needs re-sanding, Ill drive her over a sandbar!
I'll just give her a quick brush and garden hose rinse and water spray auto wax job, from time to time.
Or maybe drag her to the DIY carwash for a soapy pressure wash and wax.

Got lots more to show you.
Stay tuned.

 

[Justaguy]

OK, neat project. Some very basic questions:

1. Mixed system: Why mix diesel and electric, vs. just using one or the other to move your boat? Multiple systems always bring multiple complications (not a critique), so I’m wondering what benefit/s you get that outweigh those complications.

2. Never batteries (if not answered above): You said that the electric motors never run off the batteries. Why did you choose that method?

3. Labeled photo: You labeled the vertical tube port drive with a red arrow. So far, so good. Turns out it was the silver thing just below it and the yellow thing below and to the right that I couldn’t identify.

Justaguy

 

[Yobarnacle]

Labeled photo. The silver thing (actually off-white) and the yellow thing, are the SAME thing. The step that runs the width of the stern.
I painted the entire transom and step with yellow polyurethane enamel.
Then I used a pretty scantily loaded stiff bristle brush to create wood graining, with 3 different colors of polyurethane varnish/stain.
Changing color frequently and blending as my eye suggested it needed blending.
Then, cleaned and dried the brush, and went over the transom again, lightly removing some of the varnish, which let the yellow gleam through.
Result resembles a varnished mahogany transom, more or less.
The step got the yellow paint, but not the varnishes.
I later cut down the tops of the corners with intent to add some D rubber dock fendering to the corners. Want it to be same level across.
That cut area is bare fiberglass that appears silver to you, but actually a dull white.

 

[Yobarnacle]

Battery technology is improving, but there is still more stored energy in a gallon of diesel than in 40 fully charged car batteries. http://mb-soft.com/public2/storing.html
We can't GET all that energy to use. A lot is wasted as heat.
Two independent electric driven propellers can run off the electricity produced from one diesel generator.
I want twin screws with the most efficient energy source.
Diesels are great as generators. They like running at constant speed at their most efficient RPM.
Diesel electric still champion, at least awhile longer.

My 10 hp diesel burns about 1/5 gal per hour, or 5 hours per gal, and wil run two 2hp electric motors driving props, plus charge house batteries and provide 110 for microwaves ect, at the same time.

How many batteries would be needed to run a pair of 2 hp motors spinning propellers for 5 hours?
Say one battery per hour per motor? Ten batteries. Actually 1 hp-745 watts, so each 2 hp motor would use about 1.5 kw per hour, total 3 kw, and the batteries each hold about 1 kw. And you can't drain all the battery energy in any useful way.
So 10 batteries couldn't supply the energy for 5 hours, probably only a third.
But we can pretend these are superb batteries. Ten of them.
Then, compare weight, cost, space requirements.
I plan to carry 30 gals diesel.
Multiply all those batterys, their space, weight, cost, by 30.
300 superb batteries or 900 average variety VS 30 gal diesel fuel. decisions, decisions, hmmmm!

 

[viking north]

Yo, you mentioned your Volvo Diesel a 10hp. unit with former a CPP combo. removed from an Albin Vega. I suspect it is a one cyl. motor. John(Scunthorp) & I removed the same set up from his Albin, however it was a 14 hp. 2 cyl. Volvo MD7A motor with the CPP combo. which I acquired for future use in a small powerboat. I mention this to point out the setup on the 2 cyl. unit where the output of the engines crank end mates with the input of CPP unit (also with the standard MS2 transmission). The CPP and the MS2 transmission have as part of their input a fitting that serves both as the drive connection and the output oil seal of the engines crank. I have not fully investigated this but i am led to understand that the engine can not be run unless it is equipped with a transmission or some replacement fitting to prevent losing the engine oil. I don't know if this is the case with the single cylinder unit you have, but thought i'd best give you a heads up. ---Geo.

 

[Yobarnacle]

My 10 hp Albin diesel wearing a Volvo label is 2 cylinder.
At least I was told it was built by Albin motors for volvo
I not only ran the engine, but hired marine diesel mechanics to run it and check it out.
Prognosis; nothing wrong with the engine. Runs perfect.
but thanks for the concern.

There was a two ft +/- long steel shaft and a sliding brass sleeve protruding from the aft side of engine.
I didn't try to disassemble the mechanism.
Just trimmed it to one foot, with a cutoff disk on 4.5 inch grinder, so it would fit in my motor box.
Might load it with Vbelt pulleys!
And a pillow block at the outer end.

 

[Yobarnacle]

MD6 is my engine.
here is somebody else thinks it's 10 hp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucGbfT9lDik

"Published on Mar 13, 2012

Volvo Penta MD6. This is a 10 HP marine engine made by Volvo. The engine is inside my 27 ft sailboat which is an Jaguar27.
Boat and engine are build somewhere around 1976. The color of the engine is dark-green which is not the original volvo-color"

this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i--e_qEwoYo

I think this is definitive.

 

[Yobarnacle]

http://www.yachtworld.com/robertchristopheryacht/robertchristopheryacht_11.html

"Around 1977 Albin sold their marine engine division to Volvo Penta who had been searching for a reliable marine engine. Thus, a lifetime relationship between Volvo and Albin began."