A25 deluxe in Hartford craigslist (2024)

Went and looked at the A25 that is listed in Hartford Craigslist. It was complete but quite rough. The boat has a 1986 sticker from Washington so it has basically not been used in 30+years. The boat is complete but very rough. It need needs the rudder done over completely . The old hole through the hull has been glassed over. I forgot to ask about the lower support tube but the rubber stock was there. The boat had hydraulic steering and a very primitive autopilot. The interior might be partly reusable but a lot needs replacing. He have been running the engine and based on it being only 11 years when it “retired” it might or might be good for quite some time more. It had freshwater cooling.

It had a regular head and sink. A lot of the thinner plywood was water damaged but it looked like the structural wood might be ok. Would it make sense to restore? It’s possible but there is a lot of hours needed to get it in shape. The owner were very kind and friendly.

Oh, what a sad sight! $3,500? Going by your photos, I'd say the seller should offer to pay a prospective new owner $3,500 and throw in a free trailer to take it off his hands. At the very least your photo of the rudder shows how they were made. Looks like the keel, rudder skeg & rudder took a very hard grounding at some point (Washington is known to have lots of rock hazards) or fell off a trailer. That's a major structural repair. You could offer $50 for the prop. Any prospective new owner would face years of blood, sweat & tears, probably 5 or more, in stripping it down to bare hull, go through every system & spend thousands of $$. That's if they did all the work themselves. Would it make sense to restore it? Sure, if one was dead set on owning an Albin 25, could not find another one for sale within 3,000 miles, didn't expect to have it be sea worthy for another five years & untold hours of labor & dollars of expense, and was a total masoch*st.

"The owner were very kind and friendly."

Yeah, I'll bet they were! He/she/they were probably ready to wine, dine, & 69 anyone interested enough to take a look. Of note, this one is one of the few I've seen that has lifelines like ours with same types of stancions so I guess maybe that was a factory option.

It would be like being totally dedicated to finding a 1949 Studebaker and thought it was a good idea to pay $3,500 to take on a restoration project like this car and saying, "Hey, but it has original taillights and the chrome bumper is in good shape!".

Yeah, that baby is going to take a bit of work. There is one floating in the water on Hood Canal, Pleasant Harbor, not far from here. The owner was considering selling it a while back, not sure now. They are cheap until somebody expresses interest. If I had it to do all over again, I'd be smart instead of so good looking and buy the one that somebody has sunk their life savings into. BTW, they all require maintenance.

Re: the rudder damage...I think the correct phrase is "She touched bottom."

Curtain rod holders look good and be sure to hold out for the Brownell stands. Those aren't cheap.

I could see saving that boat, if I just couldn’t find one in better shape and if it was almost free.

Very interesting on the hydraulic steering, mine has a very similar mount (hydraulic ram bolted to it) to that boat and a newer teleflex cable steering setup. I wonder if some of these had hydraulic steering from factory??

I think the price has one too many zeros in it. The keel and rudder damage alone makes it a deal-breaker. No offense to the owner.

I'm still trying to figure out how the keel got so damaged but the prop looks unscathed.

I'd be interested in buying some stuff if the owner wanted to part it out but as a complete package? Sorry, no.

That Studebaker looks promising though! I dig the shiny bumper!

Re: Lifelines... I've seen a boat with them (Joe DeMers', in CT) and my boat once HAD them. The holes for the lines are in the bow pulpit and it has the mounting holes for the stantions in the deck flange.

From what I've heard, many owner simply just take them off due to the trip hazard. Me and my size 12's would probably have a problem with them too. I don't think I'll miss them.

Re: Lifelines... I've seen a boat with them (Joe DeMers', in CT) and my boat once HAD them. The holes for the lines are in the bow pulpit and it has the mounting holes for the stantions in the deck flange.

From what I've heard, many owner simply just take them off due to the trip hazard. Me and my size 12's would probably have a problem with them too. I don't think I'll miss them.

I like ours. They have pelican hooks between the stern rail & first stancion which can be released for boarding. We have the original style canvas enclosure with single bow frame which means we have to board the boat over the aft cabin top & in through the back end. Never thought of them as a trip hazard. Also handy for hanging fenders from them. We visited Joe DeMer's shop once in 2015 on our East Coast trip although he was out at the time & we didn't get to meet him in person, just his shop employee. We looked up close at those two boats he had, but just from ground level & didn't climb up to look inside.

It was the boat on the left that had the lifelines. Ironically our anchor setup is like that one too, a Bruce on a bowsprit roller. But the hull had a lot of little dings that had been patched up. Some times I wonder how many Albin 25's actually exist in the U.S. & Canada. More than 100 or less? 200? 50? A few dozen?

Coming from years of having sailboats we're very used to life lines. Sailboats have much narrower foredecks & side decks, so lifelines are good to have. Our Catalina used to have a sort of 'macrame' netting on the front half. Maybe one of these days I'll do something similar with our Albin.

saltypaws wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 5:16 amWow, there does not look like there is any value there. This is beyond a project boat. There is a salvage yard in Portland M.E. who scraps boats and sells parts he comes and picks them up. That may be the sellers only option. The damage looks to me likely it slid off a trailer or the trailer came unhitched with no tongue weight.

You mean Captain Jim’s Marine Salvage. Cool guy and definitely has a pirate look to him. His prices are high on most things, but you never know what you will find there. Mostly sailboat stuff, I tried to have him pick up a old cuddy cabin I bought just to get the trailer, however he told me after seeing pictures that it had too little value. Lol
This boat had burned and the owner ran over the windshield to escape!!

This boat had burned and the owner ran over the windshield to escape!!

Another point in favor of diesel over gasoline engines.

You mean Captain Jim’s Marine Salvage.

Be funny if there was a "Captain Ron's Salvage". His tagline would be, "If anything's gonna happen it'll happen out there!"

DesertAlbin736 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 3:49 pm

This boat had burned and the owner ran over the windshield to escape!!

Another point in favor of diesel over gasoline engines.

You mean Captain Jim’s Marine Salvage.

Be funny if there was a "Captain Ron's Salvage". His tagline would be, "If anything's gonna happen it'll happen out there!"

Now that’s funny!

Absolutely agree about diesel, way safer, more reliable, and way more efficient!!

Whoa! That looks like the "Wreck of the Hesperus"! I've been tantalized by that C-List ad too, this thread just saved me a 5 hr drive -- thanks tribologist!

I've restored a lot of boats and cars and I've learned through bitter experience that, even if you're handy and willing to work hard, some things are just too far gone to be worthwhile.

Sometimes, if they're cheap enough..... but even moving the decimal place one or two to the left wouldn't do it for that one

Tom

I've restored a lot of boats and cars and I've learned through bitter experience that, even if you're handy and willing to work hard, some things are just too far gone to be worthwhile.

Sometimes, if they're cheap enough..... but even moving the decimal place one or two to the left wouldn't do it for that one.

I tend to agree with that sentiment. The wracked up keel & rudder would tend to be the deal breaker. But for that issue the right person with the time, tools, place to work on it and a stash of mad money certainly could do a restoration. Judging from the photos (what little can be gleaned from them) a lot of the hull structure looks basically sound, including window glass, a good prop, etc. I'd bet there's stories of much worse examples of basket case boats being resurrected featured in "Good Old Boat" magazine, which of course that magazine deals almost exclusively with sailboats. In this case "cheap enough" would have to be "free" or "pay me to take it off your hands". Even so, cost of restoration could very well exceed market market value and take years of work, even if one could work on it full time. Would certainly have to be a labor of love.

Speaking of restoring cars, while living in Upstate NY back in 1976-77 I restored this 1950 Pontiac Sedan Delivery wagon & drove it across the country to Arizona when I moved here. It had been a typical east coast rust bucket, had a seized 6 cylinder 60 HP flathead engine. Besides a lot of body work, I took a Chevy 283 cu in V8 out of a junk '67 Caprice, rebuilt it and adapted it to this car, using a 4 speed stick transmission from a Camaro. But I ran out of money to complete the interior, & finally sold it in 1980 for $1,000.

And besides that, if our plans for next summer pan out, we may do the "Triangle Loop", trailering our boat out to Oneida Lake & loop around Oswego Canal, Lake Ontario, up the Rideau Canal to Ottowa, back down to the St. Lawrence to Sorel, QC, Richelieu River to Lake Champlain & canal, Hudson River & back on the Erie to our launch point on Oneida Lake. But we'll see. Might end up being just a pipe dream.

I was attracted to that one because of the busted rudder. I’d like to build a kitchen rudder just for fun, and that would be a good excuse to try it.

If you do run down the St Lawrence next year, we’ve got a dock for you to overnight on in the Kring Point area :<)

Tom