2001 Albin 36 Express Trawler

Dog Watches is hull number 17 of 32 Albin 36 Express Trawlers built between 1999 and 2004. She spent most of her life in Dana Point where she was a fixture at the Dana Point Yacht club as “Salty Dog.”  We moved her to the Coronado Cays in 2021 and I started a spa treatment to bring her into tip-top shape.

I’m a retired USN Captain, and my spouse is too. We undertook this boat as a teacher and a second home for us. For me, equipment has to work up to specifications and for my spouse, it has to be reliable (bulletproof).

This link will lead you to the manual I put together for the boat.

https://www.rolfyngve.com/_files/ugd/d11186_3f286ca7094546f3a51d3218c06bae61.pdf

It has an eight-page table listing almost the work I did and had done to pull her together for a plan we had to do the Great Loop. Albin did not provide a good boat manual for their builds, so I wrote the one you’ll see with all the operating instructions I needed to remind me and the basic maintenance instructions. I’ll transfer a complete set of online manuals for all the equipment.

I did a great deal of the cosmetic work, all minor repairs, and all the normal engine and generator maintenance. But I called PacWest for anything I couldn’t handle, such as the 1200-hour maintenance on the Yanmars, which included a complete overhaul of the cooling systems. We’ve run these engines for 150 hours, and they are up to speed.

I also had pros do refinishing work on aluminum exterior fixtures and all the canvas and isinglass work was done by people who know how to stitch it together. 

She’s a tremendous two-handed vessel. I pondered a bow thruster, but Sharon and I have had her in every port and nearly every marina between Ensenada and Santa Barbara. She’s a joy to put next to a dock. You can always get a slip for a 36-foot boat. She anchors well and seems made to catch a buoy in Catalina. In the last three years, we have spent at least two months of the year on the boat somewhere. It’s been a great second home for us.

The bottom is ok, but I would be hauling her to have it redone this winter. When you look at her, the swim platform is a bit deceiving. That’s an extension of her solid hull, which gives her a stable 32 waterline length. This calculates at 7.5 knots for hull speed. We typically push her to 12 knots, which eats a gallon of fuel a mile. She’ll demonstrate up to 17 knots. The boat might be called a “semi-planing” hull, but I don’t know what that really means. The trim tabs do a good job of keeping the nose down. I plan the boat at 370nm range, although she’ll do significantly better at least 500nm at hull speed. The manual I wrote has my calculations for the fuel curves in a table.

For an auxiliary, we used a rollup inflatable on a set of Weaver snap davits. The dinghy is included, including a slow leak. This is due for a refit.  We used a Torqueedo Travel S with two batteries, which will go with the boat.

I have work that comes with us when we are on the water, and the Starlink with the “RV” connectivity works great for connectivity to run the websites I oversee and provide all the entertainment we could want. The Star Link unit also comes with the boat.

Why are we selling her? She’s a perfect boat for the Southern California area, brilliantly set up for the trips we have taken, and would have been a perfect boat for the Great Loop. But we are looking for adventures farther away. We are warm water folk and surf; our ambitions are south as opposed to a Great Loop plan. I think it’s back to a sailboat for us, probably a catamaran.