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Seems like yesterday I stumbled across Tim's Triton restoration and drooled over the great work he had done. It opened my eyes to what a classic glass boat could be and thus began an inevitable crawl towards Classic Plastic ownership.
So now you can count me in as a Plastic Classic owner!
She is Andiamo, an Alberg 35, and she has lived her 44 year life in the Annapolis MD area.
If you ever raced the Wed night series in Annapolis in the 70's you may have seen her as committee boat. (If you by some chance remember her or have a picture I'd LOVE to talk to you about it!!)
She came with stacks of bills and receipts and seems to have gotten great care for all of her life. She does have a few details that need to be attended to but for the most part is ready to go.
The mainsail is interesting...never seen anything like it before. Seems to work well. No battens, but the "roach-less" look is way more tolerable on old boats.
Sail shape is decent all things considered. I am a racer at heart and I expected to hate it...but not too bad. Loose footed is interesting...like a big Laser.
Mainsail has a pair of zippers on each side with a "hood" that rides on them. if you look at the unfurled shots you can see the zippers. The cover is actually part of the mainsail and is two pieces of cloth along the luff about 2 feet back.
A pair of ropes pull the hood (visible in the shot at the bottom of the mast/boom) up the zippers allowing the main out of its cover. Then you pull the outhaul and you can use the winch if you need to .
To stow it you go head to wind, pull the lines to retreive the hood and the sail just gets stuffed vertically along the mast and self covers. The last couple of feet you finish by hand. We still use the old mainsail cover so the boom stays nicer longer.
Came with an autohelm ST4000 Tiller pilot that I interfaced to my Garmin 176C GPS. Has boat speed and depth, but no wind instruments. I have yarn...what else do you need?
With autohelm and the roller furling she is real close to a single hander. I put the sails away myself yesterday with no help. Roller furling...zip...put the engine idle ahead into the wind with autohelm on and went forward and stowed the main. Took 2 minutes total. Wife and 12 year old just watched. Wife...whose only big boat experience was on a racing 40 footer with 9+ crew said it felt like we were cheating...too easy.
No interior shots yet. Still OEM in every way...including wonderful faded formica. WE are going to go Hershoff on her. White ceilings and bulkheads, varnished trim.
Recover some cushions, etc...but first we have to deal with the Lectrasan/holding tank odor. Working on it, tolerable, but still not "right".
Lots of little projects...wouldn't have it any other way!
We are very pleased.
"You know, of course, that any boat named "Andiamo" is required to visit Block Island at least once in its life."
For as long as I or anyone else I know can remember, there has been a pastry shop on Block Island called Aldo's. For equally long, every morning of every summer the boys from Aldo's have worked the anchorages in a boston whaler with pastries, newspapers, coffee, etc., singing out Andiamo! Andiamoooooo!.
A lot of New England boaters' favorite memories begin by waking up to hear Andiamo! Andiamoooooo! drifting across the water.
