Albin 25 AK

I was searching the internet for Albin photos when I found something very interesting. Per Brohäll obviously designed a successor for the Albin 25: the Albin 26! This model is not to be mixed up with Albin 26 TE (Tournament Express) or the Albin 26 Centere Console, both built by the US Albin Marin. The Brohäll-model is somehow strange looking: following the proven concept of the A25, but a little bit "bigger" and - at least in my opinion - somehow "ugly": showing more modern lines (according to those days), however less balanced in terms of design, a quite average look. It seems as if Per Brohäll had thrown over board his so unique style concept, trying to draw something more contemporary.

The Albin 26 was built from 1979 to 1982, still in Kristinehamn, Sweden.

Length 26' (7,95 m), Beam 9' 5" (2,88 m)

Engine Volvo Penta TMD40 (6 cyl. 139 hp Turbo Diesel)

So far I have not found any information about how many Albin 26 have been built, nor if there are still any running. At least one was listed for sale on the internet recently.

All the photos shown here are from the Marinmuseum, Karlskrona, Sweden.The museum is an incredible source of photos and various other material covering a huge share of Sweden's naval history.

(Photos by courtesy of Marinmuseum, Karlksrona, Sweden)

You all know about this: When your boat is out of the water you see what happened to your hull. And most likely you mention to yourself that it would be time to redo the antifouling. Probably you wonder whether some mending work will be enough or whether you should remove everything that has been put onto the hull over the years, scratch off everything until you can see the original gel coat again and make it all new.

You may then decide to mend it once again and do the major refit of the bottom next year, because we all know what kind of job this is.

Anyway, the time will come when no excuse will allow another "next year".

For Dido's bottom the end of the last season was the point where to make a fundamental decision: everything on the bottom had to be removed and something new had to be applied. Thus, this raised two questions. First: How to remove the old stuff both entirely and conveniently (if one might hope that there could be any kind of "convenience" in that sort of work). Second: What antifouling to put on Dido's hull then?

Studying the web statistics of our Albin25 site I noticed a referrer called "Boat Projects - Blog". When I visited this blog I was deeply impressed. Not only that this blog refers to our watermaker article (thank you), you will also find fantastic major or minor ideas how to improve and modify any aspect of your boat: may it be a controller for the alternator or mounting ideas for solar panels or an external oil filter and many more.

It is worthwhile to have a look. I think all the articles of Paul's blog might make a book like "444 Skipper Tips & Tricks". A fine site! You find it on our link list.