Hello all:
I am new to this site and have been following the comments of the last
month with some interest. The reason I'm chiming in on this particular
post is that I also have an Alberg 30 and have had Don's links posted in
the Alberg 30 group site and visited them. Don - I would like to see
more pictures of your journey to Hilo and more on the refitting of the A30.
The A30 I have is a part of a Sea Scout ship the Houston, Texas area.
It is currently berthed on Lake Conroe - a totally inappropriate venue
for such a boat and is used more like a lake house. It is without
engine, though it came with parts to two A4's. Over the last year we
have been toying with what sort of aux power to give it and as I have
been reading and thinking - thinking more than reading, I have come to
the basic conclusion that I want to power it with an electric motor.
Last summer I had the "opportunity" to stay aboard a Santana 30 with a
problematic and leaky diesel. I keep eading about all the filters,
precautions (ex dirty fuel), and other hoops one has to contend with
with diesels and gas powered have their own set of issues. I am closing
in on retirement and am not interested in becoming a diesel mechanic.
If we keep it on the lake a very basic motor should work - about 3-5 min
use to get out of the dock and into the lake and be in position to put
up sails. But we are looking at possibly moving it to the Galveston Bay
area. Where we would berth it will be dependent on which marina or
Yacht club gives us the "free" slip or the cheapest slip. These would
range from Houston YC which is right on the bay to South Shore Marina
which is a 45 min motor from the bay. To me, this would require a
different setup than what would be needed on the lake. A third
possibility would be to set it up to go to the Gulf and sail in the
"open" waters of the gulf. I would see this as giving us a 3rd setup
option as the trip to the gulf from the Kemah area generally requires
sailing/motoring against a current and into the prevailing wind.
Depending on the force of the wind, current, etc. this could be anywhere
from a 2-3 hour trip to a 6 hour trip.
Along with repowering the A30, it needs to go through a refitting
because of the age of some of her gear and the general maintenance that
has been neglected over the years. With that in mind, I have thrown out
the idea to the youth and adults of the ship that we look at re-fitting
the A30 for one of the three mentioned options and take the project a
step further by re-fitting it as a "green" boat. That would include
going to a composting head or something similar, led lighting, at least
solar and wind recharging options, and if we fit it for cruising, then
probably also a water generator also. One of my objectives there is to
eliminate as many thru hulls as possible, especially those below the
waterline. We would also be using as evironmentally friendly bottom
paint as is practical for the location she will be operated in.
To date I have not had a positive or negative response from the ship.
If the ship is not interested in the project, I may buy the boat from
the ship and do it myself. BTW, we also have a Torqeedo 803 in our
inventory of engines. We've used it once and it worked beautifully, but
the battery life seemed too short - we ran it for maybe 45 minutes
total. I wasn't on the boat when it was being used so I cannot speak
how the motor was run. The boat was a Victoria 18 - 18 ft, 1250# full
keel boat with four people aboard so it was probably at 1800-1900 pounds.
Bart Knapp
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