Albin 27 Mast Project
I wondered, could I add a sail rig to my Albin 27, and if so what would be the outcome?
The Crazy Mast Idea....Taking a page from the "The Troller Yacht Book" by George Buehler, Chpt 4, I intend to make my Albin 27 FC not a motorsailer, but an auxiliary sailer. George Buehler defines an auxiliary sailer as a motor yacht that carries a mast and thereby sail, where the sail is used as an auxiliary. A motorsailer sails first, motors second. A auxiliary sailer, motors first, and sails second. It's not designed to go to weather, and in fact will perform poorly as such. But running with the wind, or reaching to within 90 degrees, a very small mainsail and a nice rollerfurling headsail can steady the boat and provide 1-2 extra knots of speed with ease.
The basic arguments for a sail auxiliary:
-provides an "backup" to the engine in certain situations
-adds speed when motoring in certain situations
-the mast & boom allow for hoisting a dingy, etc, on deck
-steadying sail in certain situations
I have two sail plans I am exploring: 1) Mast on the hardtop, closer aft to the center of balance; and 2) Mast behind the fwd hatch, similar to the A25. An alternative would be the mast far, just before the aft cabin, on the aft cabin, which really doesn't seem practical since I intend to extend the hardtop to cover the center cockpit and part of the aft cabin.
Now this is not for everyone, and remember it's not designed to make the Albin 27 FC a sailboat. The modifications I am proposing, in the manner in which I intend to do the install would not and should not be used if you intend to use the Albin 27 as a traditional sailboat and beat to weather. But if you want to motor, and roll a headsail and breeze along....give it some consideration.
Using the Albin 25 as a Model
The Albin 27 never came with a sailing rig, it was always a motor boat. But the boat that provided the inspriration to the designer, the Albin 25, did come offered as a "motorsailer." Much has been said about the sailing characteristics of the Albin 25, and whether adding a sailing rig was even worth the effort. As a starting point for design, I think its worth understanding how the Albin 25 sail rig works and performs, if only to use it as a possible model for the Albin 27.
Here's a first hand account from an owner of what it's like to sail an Albin 25:
"... I spent 12 hours over the weekend cruising/motoring/sailing in a rigged A 25 (see attachment). After plenty of "testing" in various winds and speeds and waves, I have come to the following conclusions:
"... I spent 12 hours over the weekend cruising/motoring/sailing in a rigged A 25 (see attachment). After plenty of "testing" in various winds and speeds and waves, I have come to the following conclusions:
- If you want a sailboat get a sailboat. This is a motorsailer combining the words motor and sails not really a cruiser and not really a sailboat.
- The mast and sails make a significant difference in the ride compared to a stripped cruiser. With even just the mast up (not sail) the amount of roll is significantly decreased. Taking a wake wave broadside results in a considerable decrease in how much and how dramatically the boat rolls. She seems to take the first lean and then just nicely return to vertical without a lot of that back and forth rolling that I experience in my non-mast boat. With the main up, that roll is slower and even more gentle.
- With the main sail and the motor on about 1100 rpm in a mild breeze we cruise along at about 6 mph using almost zero fuel. If and when we needed to come about or otherwise maneuver the boat, the prop pushing on the rudder moved the boat to exactly where we wanted to be. We found that we could overpower the wind and basically invalidate any wind assist by jacking the speed but if we kept the RPM'S down and not try to push the speed up, wind assist was definitely a factor. By adding the Jib we got just a tad more speed and we could again drop the rpm a bit and still maintain our approximate 6 mph. By controlling the jib and main we found that we could usually get some wind assist regardless of wind direction and maintain the heading that we wanted to be on.
- Conclusion: The added mast and sails provide two things to the boat: a)wind assist when you are not in any big hurry (keep the motor on low RPM to help with steering; b) stabilization - without main sail you get some just from the mast but with the main sail even just hanging you get added stability on rolls. (There is a whole section on the technical aspects of this also in the Owner's Manual that is in the files); c) the Albin 25 is what it is = motor sailor . Now there appears to be a new category: you can go sailing or you can go cruising or you can go motorsailing..... each one is different with different applications."
Posted below is what the Albin 25 manual says about sailing. There's some detailed information about how the sail rig is attached to the deck and and some specific info about righting moment, stability etc. Then there's a whole dissertation on the theory behind rigging the A25 and what you can expect when trying to sail it. Sounds like a page out of the Troller Yacht book. I also find it interesting that theres no mention of the compression post.
"The commercial fishermen have been using a steadying sail in all weather for years. To this end a suitable rig for the Albin 25 has been requested by many owners. The reasons being to give the boat easier movements in a seaway, to be able to sail with the engine shut off when the wind is fair and to have a certain degree of safety if the engine should fail (plastic bags, lines, nets in propeller). The rig that has been designed and tested for the Albin 25 does not make the boat into a real motorsailor (that is a boat which is as good a sailboat as a motorboat). The boat remains a otorboat with sails. This is because the keel area is too small to stop drift when sailing or beating to windward. Because of this a fairly small sail area has been chosen, but much more than steading sails and large enough to give fair sailing and increased safety. The stability of the boat would allow a lot more sail - see the stability curve. The rig has been dimensioned to take hard weather but the rudder area is too small to allow a lot of sail in fresh winds and give safe manoeuvring'at the same time. The sailing performance is good enough for you to beat against the wind in normal comditions. You can sail around 70 degrees from the wind. But to turn through the eye of the wind is almost impossible. Instead it is necessary to turn with the wind -a controlled gybe. With the wind from the side or from astern the boat performs fairly well. In a ten knot wind the speed is around 4 knots and in a fresher wind she sails still faster. On long cruises, especially in open water, the sails certainly add safety because they give the possibility if need be to maintain a course and avoid drifting down onto a lee shore."
Here it talks about installing mast on an A25. No mention of a compression post. Not sure what a sompression knee would be.
"Fitting the rigging details: Sheet tracks and fittings for shrouds, stays and main sheet need holes according tothe drawing (fig. 37). Fittings through foredeck and aft cabin top must be made watertight with elastic putty. When nuts have been tightened (do not forget washers) lock them through deforming the threads with a chisel or something similar. At the mast step the deck has to be strengthened to be able to stand up to the pressure. Bore 6 holes according to the drawing (diametre 3/4''- l'') through the outer
layer of the deck. Remove the Divinycell (core material) in and around the holes and, fill with a two-part polyester putty to get a pressure-proof filling. Between the top wooden chock and the deck an elastic filler should be used. The strengthening knee below the deck is fastened with two bolts through the glassfibre "bulkhead" with a mahogany "washer" on the outside.... "
Here it talks about installing mast on an A25. No mention of a compression post. Not sure what a sompression knee would be.
"Fitting the rigging details: Sheet tracks and fittings for shrouds, stays and main sheet need holes according tothe drawing (fig. 37). Fittings through foredeck and aft cabin top must be made watertight with elastic putty. When nuts have been tightened (do not forget washers) lock them through deforming the threads with a chisel or something similar. At the mast step the deck has to be strengthened to be able to stand up to the pressure. Bore 6 holes according to the drawing (diametre 3/4''- l'') through the outer
layer of the deck. Remove the Divinycell (core material) in and around the holes and, fill with a two-part polyester putty to get a pressure-proof filling. Between the top wooden chock and the deck an elastic filler should be used. The strengthening knee below the deck is fastened with two bolts through the glassfibre "bulkhead" with a mahogany "washer" on the outside.... "
This is what the proposed Albin 27 mast setup would look like. The rig I'm thinking if using is a Catalina 22 mast and boom. The primary reason I chose this mast is because I got a complete mast, boom with all the rigging for practically nothing. The mast will be cut down to approximately 20' feet. I will be running a CDI roller furling head sail and a very very small main. I've created a reinforced deck-stepped mast step. I want to use two upper stays and two lowers mounted to the cabin top using the original C-22 rigging & eye bolt arrangement. The fore stay at will go to the bow deck. I'm considering no back stay.
Mast Installed Aft
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Here's another example of an Albin 27 where someone installed a mast. The mast is stepped to the cocpit deck aft of the helm station and can support a small steadying sail. Its a good location, but presumes no hardtop. I plan to install a hardtop, so my mast will go forward behind the forward cabin hatch, right in front of the piltohouse.
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Here's an Albin 27 Sport (no aft cabin) with a radar tower/mast for fishing. Again, this rig is mounted aft, so no idea what my foredeck mast step will actually accomplish.
Building the Mast Step
The question of having a compression post was solved by the A27 Head Remodeling, which created a tabbed in bulkhead right below the deck where the mast step would be installed. On deck I fiberglassed in a 3/4" thick piece of coosa board that I had reinforced with fiberglass cloth. On the mast step pad, I planned to secure a C-22 stainless slotted tabernacle which would secure the base of the mast. The chainplates would be the original C-22 eye bolts, secured to the bacin top with metal backing plates.
I'm using two shoruds per side of the boat. Each shroud is attached to a chainplate boat at the deck, reinforced with with a G-10 backing plate.