improving and maintaining Albin 33

also had a small damage spot in my caprail….. so i fixed it

Standing on my swimming platform I broke off a corner. because I had installed a small dinghy cleat I was already planning to reinforce this corner so I did this right away.

screwed a 4mm stainless steel plate on the underside which also rested on the existing support.

Nice work

I also finally got a job done which has been the longest on my list. its on my list since the first day.
when I bought my boat, it had to be sailed to my harbor. after the first day of four, on the water I moored it at a marina. the previous owner had left a bottle of champagne in the fridge for us.
I have sailed the boat with my proud father (also a oldtime boater). because we had something to celebrate, we immediately emptied the bottle
happy from front to back we went to our cabins, closed the doors and went to bed.
the next morning I thought I had a hangover. I was sick, nauseous and dizzy all day which did not go away. it must be something else.
when we arrived at the second port on our trip I went to investigate and found a hole underneath the stairs in the back cabin. probably an old heater ventilation port. the heater was removed but the venthole was never sealed up so there was an open hole to the engineroom.
that was for sure the reason I had a headache.
that evening I MacGyvered a piece plastic and tape and slept with the door open.

finally at my own marine I found the culprit of the whole story. a rotten exhaust! next to the old heater vent hole.

replaced the rotten one for brand new one but sailed for four years with the piece of plasic still MacGyvered over the hole.

now the time has come to make it pretty. sealed the hole and placed a nice fake ventilation grate

How about adding a CO detector?

my new deck has arrived so I can finish another job.
first the deck had to rest to become flat and the underlaymend had to be the primed. then it can be glued.

Because the new deck had to be laid around the samson post, a seam was created which was later welded together.

I also bought a solar panel. I was not satisfied with the deck transit inside so I converted the panel.


its a 90Wp, 5A. activesol.

a friend of my is a sail maker and she has started making a bimini enclosure

refugio said:

How about adding a CO detector?

Click to expand...

I got one

swordfish said:

I got one

Click to expand...

Nice job, well done

Nice upgrades you're making.

despite the fact that I am happy with the deck transit of the solar panel. I am still afraid that I will stand on top of it and break it.

so I decided to make a stainless steel protective cover.


first I made a template and transferred it to the stainless steel. then cut it out using angle grinder en fold over the edges. welded up the corners en give her a little buff and shine.
glued it over the deck transit using sika.

With this I have picked up my welding skills a bit which I need for my next project

now that I have picked up my welding skills, it is time to make stainless steel dinghy davits.

the transom is a bit thin and flexes a bit under heavy load so I made up some custom brackets. also the davits are placed to the center of the schip due to the placement of the swim step, therefore I had to make a spreader bar and some more bits.
finally braced it whit backing plates and made two sets of pulleys for hoisting the walker bay.

when the dinghy is lowered and the spreader bar is removed the davits can pivot in nylon bushings to the side for easy access to the swim platform.

It's been a very long time since I've been active on this site. A lot has happened since the last post. in short it comes down to: the admiral has left me and i have started to enjoy my life on my boat from that point on. m/v swordfish has floated without any problems for the past few years and has given me a lot of fun on the water. And now it's time for major maintenance again. I will keep you informed and soon there will be new photos and stories.

Hope you anjoy, see you soon

How do you plan to keep your dinghy from swinging fore and aft and port and starboard? Braided lines won't work. They will stretch allowing movement which causes more stretching and more movement to the pount where, in a rolling and pitching sea, your dinghy will end up swinging profoundly. Consider ratcheting tie downs instead of lines. I know this from experience, bad experience.

when my dinghy is hoisted up. I ratchet it against the transom. its completely motionless

on 07-27-2019 I did leave you hanging with the davids system. to finish it off I turned nylon bushings to fill the slack. now the davids sits nice and snug, but can turn out of the way when not in use.

At the end of July 2021, just before my holiday I found out that there was some fuel in the bilge. After a cleanup and a couple of days is was there again.

I got myself a leaky tank

I removed the paneling of the engine room and after a visual inspection my best guess was a pinhole in a weld at the botom of the tank. I pumped out the fuel tanks in an IBC container so i can cut an inspection hole in the tank.

with a boresnake i could inspect the inside after a big cleanout. I noticed that after 44 years my tank was still quite clean. I thought I found the small leak and fixed it with a temporary solution. filled up the tanks and after that I threw the ropes and went sailing.

I kept a close eye on the leak during my holiday sail. the leakage was easy to check and almost watertight. just a few drops an hour.

when I got back to my home port I once again pumped out the tanks and started taking them out.
i had to cut and grind because they were built in the ship and now no longer fit through the hatch.

I also discovered that there was once a fire on board. a truss is quite damaged and never properly repaired

now i will replace the damaged truss, and going to make 2x3 separate tanks. this is how they fit through the hatch to the engine room. when they are in place i will connect them to eachother .

Wow, what an incredible journey you have shared with us. A real joy in seeing the progress you have made both in your skill and the end result with your boat. Thank you for sharing!

tack welded 1 off 6 new fuel tanks for a dry fit.
im using 316 stainless.
the intire top will be a man hole and will be bolted down. fittings has yet to be installed

in the meantime I started a repair on the flybridge deck. I noticed a soft spot had formed and the easiest way to fix it was through the bottom, i.e. through the salon roof.

first I had removed a piece from the starboard aft ceiling to get to the soft spot.
cut away a piece of polyester to get to the soft wood and restored with a piece of teak I had lying around.
laminated the piece of polyester back in place and screwed the ceiling back to gether.
I pulled new speaker wiring and screwed a false ceiling over it to cover the sawmarks

also made a new faux teak deck for the aft cabin

to all. again my apologies. it seems I've gotten pretty good at building a boat but I can't seem to get it right to post a picture well oriented.

I also made a new ladder and railing to get to the aft deck. here at the wharf they they are joking and say I'm making my boat wheelchair friendly.
bending the stainless steel for the first time did not go well, I needed a little more practice.
but in the end i got it right.
I have welded the ends of the bold on steps closed and covered with foux teak.

time for a test fit and some measurements

in the end I got even more faux teak. i replaced various decorative edges on the front cabin and aft cabin and flybridge

And of course I'm busy with painting and varnishing

and some more fueltanks in the making at the workshop