First Look At an Alberg 30

[Captain Smollett]

Hi Bill,

That sure is a beautiful boat...of course, I might be biased.   ;)

While puttering down the ICW Saturday, a fellow passed by heading North who smiled when he saw the boat...and told us he used to liveaboard an A-30.  It was kinda cool to be 'recognized' like that...and for the boat to bring a smile to his face.

[Captain Smollett]

Okay, I did not take many pictures on the delivery run, but here are a couple that I did get.

I was busy stowing stuff below while Craig and Kurt were hard at work on the dock:



We got to the Figure Eight Island Bridge at 5 after the hour.  We were pretty bummed to have missed the opening.  CapnK was grumbling something about losing that 5 minues we were aground at the can marking New Topsail Inlet (a tight squeeze, we were probably less than 80 feet from the can and bumped hard).  But,  a call to the bridge tender revealed he opens on the half-hour!  Yoo Hoo!! 

Anyway, during our 20 minutes of doing circles, we noticed this sculpture on the shore.  At first I thought it was Ursula from "The LIttle Mermaid" but it was actually more interesting than that.  This is a blow up from a pretty long shot without a telephoto lens.



CapnK was gracious enough to take the tiller once in a while ( ;D ) - actually, he seemed to really enjoy sailing the boat.  Here's a shot of him having fun during the offshore leg.  I'm not sure what has his attention so completely.  I don't recall seeing any ladies in small bikinis out there.   ;D



And finally, tied alongside at Georgetown Landing Marina for the night after 38 hours underway.

[AdriftAtSea]

Very nice.. :D 

[CapnK]

That is NOT me in those pics. At that point in time, I believe I was using my only toothbrush to scrub the bilge. Or was it the anchor chain? One of the two, for sure...

BTW, "SoftScrub" works nearly as well as Crest, although it tastes quite a bit different.

Here's another A30, looks like a great deal for somebody who wants to build out their own boat:

A30, hull stripped inside and out, eBay, in Ohio, delivery east coast @ $1.25/mile. Bidding starts at $100, no bids yet.

PS - John - when are you going to send my GPS back to me? I mean, I know you liked it and all, but tossing your sextant overboard, well... Anyway, your radar arrived today, along with your genset, new fridge, 8 speaker stereo system, DVD/TV, and electric windlass.

[Captain Smollett]

PS - John - when are you going to send my GPS back to me? I mean, I know you liked it and all, but tossing your sextant overboard, well... Anyway, your radar arrived today, along with your genset, new fridge, 8 speaker stereo system, DVD/TV, and electric windlass.

LOL.

Just be glad I returned your fishing rod.  I felt sorry for you, ya know, what with only getting to eat if you caught your dinner....

BTW, I figured out a way around this GPS dilema.  BECKY is going to get one and let me use it occasionally.

;D ;D

[AdriftAtSea]

Capn Smollett-

Do you have an official name for the Smollett 30 yet??

[Captain Smollett]

Dan,

No, not yet.  I have two possibles: Aistear (Irish Gaelic for "journey") and Galaxy (which when I first thought of it, came to me as Gaelic Sea).

Still waiting on some input from the Admiral.  I believe the name of this boat should be something the whole family chooses, so I am not wanting to rush into it.  My son, almost 2, wants to name her "Apple Cake."   ;D

It may be a while before we choose a name.  Til then, she'll continue to answer to her current name, which is Deneb.

[AdriftAtSea]

I like Gaelic Sea... particularly if you're of Hibernian descent.. :D  Keep us posted, and taking the admiral's advice is a sound idea, and a good way to prevent mayhem... ;)

[BobW]

John -

Congratulations on the boat, and the successful delivery home.

I look forward to hearing about her outfitting and your adventures with her.

For what it's worth, I, too, like the name Gaelic Sea.  :-)

Craig and Kurt -

Thanks for filling in the details of the delivery.  Very entertaining!

[Captain Smollett]

Here's another A30, looks like a great deal for somebody who wants to build out their own boat:

The winning bid was $760.  They guy who bought it just posted on the A30 mailing list.  It seems that she's gonna live in Idaho.  He works for a boat yard, so I'd bet money this boat will be a true beauty when he's done.

Here's his blog on the A30 project

[Christopher]

http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/11078

Not sure if it's even worth a look, but $850! 

What is a Whitby Alberg?  Anybody know anything about these?

[David_Old_Jersey]

I don't know the North American boats, but to me she just "looks right". So did some Googles.......

http://www.alberg30.org/

http://www.alberg.ca/hist_1.htm

USD850.........



A "finished" version........



I can see that price tempting someone Rightly or wrongly  :P

[Christopher]

I wasn't familiar with what Whitby was, but according to your URL it's Whitby Boat Works, Ltd.

If I wasn't in school full time, full time job, and a baby on the way I might consider taking on a project boat, but something tells me the wife wouldn't care for it much.  She wants me to get something we can sail in from the get go, which makes sense.

There's an old Triton for sale in Northern Wisconsin (much closer than Maryland to Milwaukee).

From the looks of this boat it's a money pit.   

[AdriftAtSea]

Whitby was a Canadian boat maker IIRC.  They were based up Ontario way or so... and made Alberg 30s.

[dnice]

ready to sail?

How about this one!

complete with a cape horn windvane and everything. I've been drooling over this for about a month now, somebody is gonna snatch it up soon!

[Christopher]

How about this one!

Beauty of a boat!  I've got to stop even looking.  It puts me in a bad mood :)  It's winter here, everyone's pulled their boats in.  The guy with whom I was going to split slip fees with next season for use of his Catalina 30 got fired from where I work and is moving back to Chicago, and I can't get a boat until 2010 unless it's DIRT cheap.

[TJim]

It has iron ballast instead of lead, other than that it's an Alberg.... I haven't heard of anyone having trouble with the iron ballast other than it takes up more space.  The Rawson is another good boat that has iron ballast.  The Rawson has really good seakeeping specs.... TJ

[David_Old_Jersey]

ready to sail?

How about this one!

That looks far more tempting........

[AdriftAtSea]

MKe-

What part of the country are you in???  I'm sure that you can find someone to sail with whereever you are.

TJim-

One problem with Iron Ballast is that it makes the boat slower or more tender, or both.  It isn't as dense as lead, so to have the same righting moment, the keel has to be larger—and that makes the boat slower—more underwater surface, more drag.  If the keel is the same size, then the boat is going to be more tender, since there's less ballast.  Most of the time, at least on externally mounted keels, I'd imagine it is a compromise, and the keel is slightly larger, and slightly lighter than the lead version—so you get a boat that is marginally slower and more tender. 

Since the keel on the Alberg is encapsulated, the real problem is that if any water gets in...the iron will rust and expand about 10% as it does so.  That means that if the encapsulated keel has any water leaking into it, the ballast will rip apart the fiberglass.  That wouldn't happen with a lead ballast keel IIRC.

Finally, iron is much less malleable than lead, and in a hard impact, will tend to transfer more of the energy of the impact up to the rest of the boat.  This is less of an issue on the Alberg 30, since the keels are encapsulated...but on a newer, bulb keel design, it may be the difference between the keel bolts failing or not. 

[Captain Smollett]

Iron ballast on A-30's doesn't seem to be too much of a problem in the real world.

At least two A-30's have been solo circumnavigated; at least one of these was around Cape Horn.

Numerous A-30's have beaten other, theoretically faster boats in races...not on corrected time, but actually across the line.

Bandying about theoretical pros and cons about how a boat sails is fine for rainy days at the dock, but there's no mistake that in real world "tests" in the Big Tank, the A-30 is a well made, seaworthy boat, no matter what material is in the keel.