Uncoventional Ideas on How to Improve a Legend

• Thru-bolt all portholes. The Albin 27 is equipped with six Beckson opening ports in the forward cabin and four opening ports in the aft cabin. But the ports were factory installed with self taping machine screws. That’s right, they were screwed directly into the balsa cored cabin sides on the interior and exterior of the boat, and they weren’t sealed in anyway. Over time, water would leak into the cabin top and de-laminate and then rot the wood coring. To solve this problem, I planned to repair all the damaged coring around the portholes by sealing all the porthole exposed edges, and replace the damaged coring with Coosa board and fiberglass. Then I would thru-bolt all the portholes from the outside in, and seal with a marine sealant.
• Install stanchions/lifelines and improve backing plates. Albin 27’s came with robust bow and stern pulpits that are 30″ high off the deck. And my Albin 27 also came with six additional stanchions and lifelines. They just weren’t installed properly. Factory deck fitting’s had tiny undersized aluminum backing plates and hardware embedded in the underside of the fiberglass deck. They’re not large enough to distribute any loads, they can’t be repaired or inspected, and they leak over time. By removing all the deck fittings, and applying 1/2″ composite backing plates, I will no longer have to question the strength of my lifelines.
• Improve non-skid on all deck surfaces. From the factory, Albin 27’s came with non-skid molded in the gelcoat of the boat. But over the years, its worn down, and really isn’t much help in keeping your feet under you. I plan to install SoftSand non-skid inside and outside the boat. I want the non-skid to be aggressive, but not painful to walk on, and I want to use to contrasting color of the non-skid to improve the overall appearance of the boat.
• Improve the ground tackle and bowsprit. Life is too short to struggle with an anchor or drag through a harbor in the middle of the night.
• Thru-bolt the pilothouse to the cockpit. Its true, the big giant pilothouse of the Albin 27 is attached to the cockpit deck using six #8 sheet metal screws and if your lucky a little marine sealant. That’s a lot of surface area and weight, not really attached to the hull. I planned to thru-bolt the pilothouse to the deck and waterproof the joint with 3m 5200.
• Ensure properly routed bilge pumps. The bilge in the Albin 27 extends from under the forward cabin in the vicinity of the v-berth, all the way aft under the stern-most area of the aft cabin where the stuffing box is located. This whole area is supposed to be open, connected under the pan-liner of the boat, and drain aft. The aft most section of the bilge near the stuffing box is generally considered the lowest point in the boat. But you need an additional pump forward under the engine where water often accumulates if the boat is exactly balanced. I plan to add two electric bilge pumps (one at the engine and another at the stuffing box), and then a additional manual bilge pump also routed to the aft most area.
• Add a mast and boom. The boat was not a motorsailer. It had not come with a mast and was never designed or rigged to be a sailboat of any sort. Yet the hull had a sort of downeast, semi-displacement hull shape which clearly was more displacement than anything else. I wondered if I installed a mast on the foredeck could I run a headsail and create an auxilary sailer?
• Add a hard top. The pilothouse for the Albin 27 was not fully enclosed, and it didn’t extend over the entire cockpit. If I could extend the pilothouse hardtop over the entire cockpit and most of the aft cabin, it would essentially create another living area. Under a covered cockpit, I could have a versatile living space that might serve multi-seasons as a catch all indoor/outdoor dining area.
• Add a stand alone shower. From the factory, my Albin 27 did not have a stand alone shower. In fact. it had such a small bathroom (head) that I could barely fit through the doorway, let alone take a seat on the throne. At the same time, I found wasted space on the other side of the bathroom wall where a tiny bench seat and dining table had been jammed in less than 22″ wide. If I got rid of the dining room table and pushed the bulkhead forward by just 12″, I would gain huge space inside the bathroom, relocating the toilet, and creating a shower stall. This would be major heart surgery. Some folks might question the sanity of rebuilding your boat around a shower, but for my plan to improve living aboard it was necessary.
• Add Tankage. The Albin 27 came factory equipped with a 72 gallon diesel fuel tank, providing an approximate range of 400-500 nautical miles. But to live aboard you need tankage for water and waste, and a decent 12volt electrical bank to power everything. On top of that you need a way to replenish everything in order to remain self-sufficient. Somewhere I need to find the space to install tanks for approximately 50 gallons of freshwater, 40 gallons of waste, and approximately 300 amp hours of 12volt electricity. Yeah right, good luck.
• Engine Re-power. My Albin 27 came with a Nissan Ld28 six cylinder diesel engine that I hoped to refurbish and continue using. But I quickly realized the reality of the engine’s condition was such that it would never be worth my time or the effort if I decided to just rebuild it. Therefore, my new plan is to re-power the boat with a Beta Marine 38. A smaller more modern engine should not only be more efficient but also lighter and more reliable.