[Public-list] Possible day-sailer project

[J Bergquist]

Aaron,

I personally would not advise converting an Alberg 30 to a day sailor.
The boat was not designed to be ONLY a day sailor. For much less
temporal and monetary investment, you can find many classic boats
available second hand which were designed with day sailing in mind and
which will provide you many of the same benefits of an Alberg 30 that we
all love while being much more optimized for people who want to go
sailing during the day. The maintenance of these boats will be easier,
their sailing equipment will likely be as good or better, their
construction will likely be just as stout, and many of them have class
associations much like ours (though maybe not QUITE so wonderful...;-)

In production boat circles, you might consider a Shields (S&S design
circa 1960), an Atlantic (W Starling Burgess design, circa 1920), an
Etchells (Etchells design, I'm not sure when), or a Soling (former
Olympic class racer). There are active fleets of these boats all around
the country. They are all of similar size to the A30 (roughly 25-30 feet
in length, somewhat less beam and deck area, greater draft). There will
be quality secondhand boats available, and all have class associations.
I have not priced them, but I suspect that decent secondhand boats are
competitively priced with good secondhand Albergs. None of these boats
will have installed mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and so forth.
Therefore, they are much simpler to use, sail, and maintain. Poke around
in your area and see what kinds of classes are active, and I'd bet you
might find some good day sailors. 

There are many custom or short-run small and classic daysailors out
there available to consider. If you are looking for hidden beauty to
bring back, there are plenty of neglected old boats with high pedigree
available. You should keep in mind that this kind of project requires a
tremendous amount of time, energy, and money. 

Personally, my favorite day sailor design is the Buzzard's Bay 25,
designed by Nathanael Herreshoff. You might also consider some of the
Fisher's Island sloops or Deer Isle one design boats. These boats are
beautiful, classic, about the right size, and wonderful sailing
machines. Many of them have been around the better part of a century and
are still raced regularly. 

If you decide that you want a cabin and the capability to go for
overnight trips or on the ocean, I think the Alberg 30 would be a great
boat for you. However, if you just want a day sailor, maybe you should
think about looking for boats that were designed with the day sailor in
mind, rather than cutting the cabin off a boat designed with other
purposes in mind. 

Kind regards,

J Bergquist
Calliope #287

-----Original Message-----
From: public-list-bounces at alberg30.org
[mailto:public-list-bounces at alberg30.org] On Behalf Of Melissa Currier
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 1:39 PM
To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all
Subject: Re: [Public-list] Possible day-sailer project

Interesting thought.  We have certainly "day sailed" our Alberg 30 as
is,
but if you have the bug, I feel I should raise a few possible
considerations for you.

1) The mast is stepped on the upper deck, not the lower forward step of
the cabin, so you will need to somehow retain that portion of the deck
and
beam.  May keep the v-berth, head and locker as an intact cuddy cabin?

2)  If you have ever sailed an Alberg with people sitting on the cabin
top
or lounging anywhere midships you will know that you can't see where you
are going from anywhere you can reach the tiller.

3) In designing your new deck and "tanks", you would have to provide
adequate, reachable access ports for everything that you can currently
reach amid cabinetry in the cabin... chain plates, bolts for the jib
tracks and toe rails, etc.

That's what came to mind for what it's worth...

As for available "project boats", there are several in the mid-400s that
have issues with soft decks (one of ours included)... They would be the
most obvious candidates for a major deck hack job.

Enjoy,
Melissa Currier
Infinity #57
Daybreak #458


> Dear Readers,
> I am writing to explore the possibility of converting one of the more
> common
> Albergs (30, 35, 37) in to an open day-sailer for summer sailing in
inland
> waters. Alberg designs seem to be an obvious choice because of their
> classic
> grace, good sailing qualities, easy motion, sound construction, and,
> admittedly, their relatively low prices. I hope the idea is not too
> offensive
> for some.
>      I imagine, for example, an alberg 30 with the raised portion of
the
> cabin
> top removed two inches above its turn into the deck, and in its place
> installed
> a large 3-4 ft. deep cockpit with room for approximately eight.
Naturally,
> the
> cockpit coamings would be (gracefully)extended to the remaining cabin
top,
> the
> interior furnishings would be removed, the bulkheads left in place,
and
> the
> floor raised. The weight of these passengers would be low and close to
the
> longitudinal center, they could stand below the swing of the boom, in
the
> bosom
> of the boat, as it were, and in general, find space to safely move
about,
> frolic and make themselves comfortable.
>      The lower forward cabin top would remain intact, as would the
side
> and
> forward decks, the bulkhead and door. Granted, many (all) details have
yet
> to
> be worked out particularly with respect to the possibility of
swamping,
> well
> deck drainage, hull strength etc. Nonetheless, I would be very
interested
> to
> hear any Alberg-ophile comments on this idea, or indeed leads on
'project'
> Albergs. Regards, Aaron Nagler Vancouver B.C. Canada. July 14 04 ps. I
can
> be
> reached at either of: naglera at eciad.ca or rainarch at hotmail.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Public-list mailing list
> Public-list at alberg30.org
> http://alberg30.org/mailman/listinfo/public-list
>



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